Postgrad sentenced to death for poisoning roommate

Lin Senhao stands trial at Shanghai No 2 Intermediate People's Court in this photo released by the court's Sina Weibo account on Feb 18, 2014. [Photo source: Chinanews.com]

A medical student at a prestigious university in Shanghai was sentenced to death on Tuesday after he was convicted of murdering his roommate with lab poison in April of last year.

Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court convicted Lin Senhao, a postgraduate at Fudan University, of intentional homicide in the first trial verdict.

Lin used N-Nitrosodimethylamine, a deadly chemical compound he took from the university lab, to contaminate a water dispenser in their dormitory on March 31 of last year. His roommate, Huang Yang, drank from the dispenser on April 1 and died of organ failure days later despite doctors' efforts to save him.