A man was sentenced to death Tuesday after being convicted of shooting to death four persons, including two traffic policemen, last month in south China's Guangdong Province.

Hu Yihua, 29, went on trial in the intermediate people's court in Jieyang City of Guangdong on Monday and the court announced the verdict Tuesday.

Hu, an unemployed resident in Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, was also deprived of political rights and fined 50,000 yuan (US$7,378) by the court.

He was also ordered to pay 531,317 yuan to the families of the dead as compensation.

Hu robbed two persons of 2,800 yuan in cash and two mobile phones at a cinema parking lot in Yiwu City, Zhejiang, on the night of July 2. He forced the pair to disclose the passwords of their bank cards, and then shot them dead, fearing that the robbery would be discovered, the court said.

Hu withdrew 13,000 yuan from the victims' bank accounts and fled to Guangdong in their Lexus sedan. He covered the car's license plate initially, but later discarded it altogether, the judgement said.

While sleeping in the sedan at a highway service zone on July 5, Hu was cornered by two traffic policemen on patrol duty in Jieyang, as the car was without a license plate.

He shot and killed them and fled to Guangdong's neighboring province of Fujian, where he was apprehended on July 8 after more than one thousand police were mobilized to search for him.

The sedan that Hu had stolen, a loaded pistol and identity cards of the slain police officers were found in Hu's possession, according to officials.

(Xinhua News Agency August 11, 2010)