BEIJING: A Chinese court sentenced a university student to death yesterday for killing a waitress to cover up a hit-and-run accident, in a case that sparked uproar over the perceived indifference of the rich to the less well-off.
China has been struggling to address anger at a yawning rich-poor gap,
and there have been several widely publicised cases of affluent young people thumbing their noses at authority after traffic accidents with pedestrians, cyclists or farmers.
In this case, Yao Jiaxin, 21, a student at the Xian Conservatory of Music, said he killed the victim in the capital of the north-western province of Shaanxi last October to prevent her from reporting the hit-and-run to police.
He also knocked down two pedestrians when he fled the scene of the crime.
The Xian Intermediate People's Court yesterday also ordered him to pay about 45,500 yuan (S$8,600) in compensation to the family of Ms Zhang Miao, a university cafeteria worker.
There was an outpouring of online sympathy for the 26-year-old victim, the mother of a two-year-old boy, though Yao's classmates had packed the courtroom and demanded leniency.
Accompanied by his parents, Yao surrendered to police two days after the murder. Xinhua news agency quoted the student as saying he killed his victim because he feared 'the peasant woman would be hard to deal with' and demand a lot in compensation.
Police said she suffered a leg fracture and minor injuries from the accident.
The case aroused widespread public fury and suspicion over whether Yao's parents might use their influence to secure a lighter sentence.
It attracted even more attention after the state media was perceived to be defending Yao.
Chinese media had interviewed a psychologist who said Yao was forced to learn the piano by his parents and used to smash piano keys to vent his anger.
The psychologist went on to say his behaviour of stabbing the victim eight times may have been a 'mechanical repetition' of him smashing piano keys.
During the trial, Yao's lawyer argued that his client committed the killing 'in the heat of passion' and pleaded for leniency, saying he had turned himself in.
But the mitigation plea was dismissed by the judges who said in their verdict that the motive for the killing was 'extremely despicable'.
REUTERS, XINHUA
