Photo taken on Nov. 27, 2013 shows the scene of the trial of Lin Senhao, whose alleged murder of Huang Yang in April prompted national outcry, at the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court in Shanghai, east China. Lin, a medical student at Fudan University, confessed to the murder of his roommate Huang with lab poison and described it as an "April Fool's trick" at Wednesday's trial. (Xinhua)

 

Graduate student Lin Senhao confessed Wednesday that he poisoned his roommate at Shanghai's Fudan University with a toxic chemical but claimed he had no intention to kill him and denied that he did it over "trivial daily matters."

Lin, 27, a graduate student in the medical school at Fudan University, put N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), a toxic chemical, in the water dispenser in his dorm on March 31. His roommate, Huang Yang, 27, also a graduate student, drank the water on April 1 and died of liver, kidney and lung failure on April 16, according to the Shanghai Municipal People's Procuratorate.

At Shanghai No.2 Intermediate People's Court, prosecutors charged Lin with intentional homicide and said Lin killed Huang because he held a grudge against Huang over "trivial daily matters." Huang often commented on Lin, such as describing him as "stingy," and once criticized their other roommate by comparing bad behavior by him to Lin's, which made Lin angry, prosecutors said.

Lin admitted that he put the toxic chemical in the water dispenser and caused Huang's death, but said he only intended to cause Huang discomfort after Huang announced his own plans to trick someone on April Fool's Day. He thought Huang was self-righteous.

However, prosecutors produced evidences that Lin knew that the amount of NDMA he put in the water dispenser would kill Huang.

Lin has published several articles containing descriptions of experiments with NDMA in national academic journals, including measuring lethal volumes in mice. Lin put at least 30 grams of the chemical in the water dispenser around 5:50 pm on March 31, which is more than 10 times the fatal dose for an adult man of Huang's size. Lin took the chemical from an experiment at the hospital where he worked as an intern on the same day, prosecutors said.

Police's investigation of Lin's laptop showed that Lin had searched online from April 1 to April 4  for murder cases involving fatal doses. Prosecutors also blamed Lin for doing nothing to save Huang's life.

Huang was hospitalized on the afternoon of April 2 and was transferred to the intensive care center the next day with fever, liver failure and plunging blood platelets.

Lin conducted an ultrasonic examination on Huang on the morning of April 2 and said nothing was wrong with his liver. Lin even visited Huang while he was in hospital.

Huang's condition remained undiagnosed until April 8 when Lin's other roommate, Ge Junqi, not resident in the dorm at the time, remembered that Lin had written articles about the chemical.

Police found the chemical in the water dispenser and arrested Lin, who confessed.

One of Lin's lawyers claimed that his client did not mean to kill Huang, claiming that "trivial daily matters" were not serious enough to prompt Lin to commit the murder, adding that Lin would have chosen another chemical if he mean to kill because the chemical has a strong odor. The court will issue a ruling in the near future.

Photo taken on Nov. 27, 2013 shows the scene of the trial of Lin Senhao, whose alleged murder of Huang Yang in April prompted national outcry, at the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court in Shanghai, east China. Lin, a medical student at Fudan University, confessed to the murder of his roommate Huang with lab poison and described it as an "April Fool's trick" at Wednesday's trial. (Xinhua)