Chinese court upholds death sentence for baby killer

A court in northeast China's Jilin province on Wednesday rejected an appeal and upheld a lower court's verdict in the case of a man who has been sentenced to death for killing a two-month-old baby.

The Jilin Provincial Higher People's Court upheld the verdict the Changchun Intermediate People's Court made in the case of Zhou Xijun, 49, who was sentenced to death for the baby's murder and ordered to serve five years in jail and pay a fine of 50,000 yuan (8,104 US. dollars) for stealing the car the baby was in on May 27.

Zhou appealed to the court for a more lenient judgment on the grounds that he surrendered to police and confessed his crimes.

The court rejected his appeal for his extremely cruel means of committing the crimes and the serious consequences that resulted.

On March 4, Zhou stole an SUV parked by the side of a road in Changchun, capital of Jilin Province, and drove it onto a highway.

After finding a baby in the backseat of the vehicle, Zhou strangled the infant and buried him in the snow.

He turned himself in to police one day after massive searches for both the baby and the thief were launched by police and the public.