Man Sentenced to Death for Poisoning His 2 Kids During Divorce Cooling-off Period

A court in southwest China's Guizhou Province on Friday sentenced a 32-year-old man to death for murdering his two young children by poisoning during a mandatory divorce cooling-off period in May.

The Zunyi Intermediate People's Court found that Liu Zhongjie, unable to cope with marital disputes, deceived his 10-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter into drinking the highly toxic pesticide dichlorvos, leading to their deaths.

In its ruling, the court stated that Liu had "exploited the natural trust and dependence of his vulnerable children" and took no action to save them after they ingested the poison, resulting in what it called a "particularly cruel" crime that violated "the bottom lines of human ethics, morality, and law."

The court described the social impact as "exceptionally severe" and the consequences "extremely serious," warranting capital punishment under Chinese law.

The verdict was announced in the presence of relatives of both the defendant and the victims, along with local lawmakers, political advisors, and members of the public.

According to an earlier report by media outlet Jimu News, Liu and his wife Huang married in 2014 and had two children. The couple signed a divorce agreement on May 20 this year, triggering a 30-day statutory cooling-off period. The tragedy unfolded days later.

Huang told police that on May 21, Liu threatened her with pesticide, bound her, and said, "If we divorce, we die." She later managed to calm him, escape, and alert authorities.

In the early hours of May 22, Huang's brother received a suicide note from Liu and immediately notified her and the police.

Officers who arrived at the scene found that Liu had tricked both children into drinking the pesticide. Despite emergency medical intervention, the children could not be saved. Liu also ingested the poison in an attempted suicide but survived after treatment.