His girlfriend, Qiao Lian, sat in the courtroom gallery with a look of bewilderment on her face.
He waved, apparently to his mother, who sat quietly in the last row of the courtroom gallery.
Eight members of his family sat in the courtroom gallery during the proceeding, with one daubing tears from her eyes after the sentence was handed down.
Every five minutes the boy's grandmother, his guardian, punctuated the final proceedings with a loud, pitiful scream from her seat in the courtroom gallery.
During the proceedings on Monday, Colonel Chessani sat quietly in the courtroom gallery, taking notes.
His distraught wife sat in the courtroom gallery, at times crying during the proceeding.
In the first four rows of the courtroom gallery, 20 family members and friends sobbed and gasped for breath.
On either side of the courtroom gallery this evening, there seemed to be stunned silence.
The girls and their mother, along with other family members and friends, filled the courtroom gallery's first two rows.
The play, which began previews on Monday, has 63 seats arranged as the courtroom gallery in five rows upstage.