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SHIJIAZHUANG, China (AP) ― A Chinese court handed down the death penalty Thursday to a man convicted of endangering public safety in the first sentencing connected with the contaminated milk scandal that has shocked the country.

The Intermediate People's Court in Shijiazhuang sentenced 40-year-old Zhang Yujun to death for running a workshop that was allegedly China's largest source of melamine, which was blamed in the deaths of at least six babies and the illnesses of nearly 300,000 others.

Court spokesman Wang Wei said a second man, Zhang Yanzhang, 24, was sentenced to life imprisonment for endangering public safety. He was accused of working with Zhang to buy and resell powder to others.

The court is expected to hand down a sentence later Thursday for Tian Wenhua, the 66-year-old general manager and chairwoman for Sanlu Group Co., the dairy at the heart of the scandal. She is the highest profile official charged in the food safety crisis widely seen as a national disgrace that highlighted corporate and official shortcomings and corruption.

Tian has pleaded guilty to charges of producing and selling fake or substandard products after infant formula made by her company was tainted with the melamine.

State media earlier reported that Tian could face the death penalty but her lawyer Liu Xinwei was quoted earlier this week in the Beijing News as saying otherwise.

"According to the criminal law, there is no capital punishment for the crime of manufacturing and selling fake or substandard products. Therefore, the most severe penalty for her would be life imprisonment," Liu said.

The families of babies sickened in the scandal had anxiously gathered outside the courthouse in northern China to await the sentencing of the 21 defendants on trial for the production and sale of melamine-tainted milk products.

In a reflection of the trial's prominence and sensitivity, dozens of policers officers guarded the courthouse and cordoned off the surrounding area with plastic barriers. Officers told the victims' families to keep about 100 meters (yards) away.

Zheng Shuzhen, from Henan province, said her 1-year-old granddaughter died in June after drinking Sanlu milk.

"I've run out of tears ... that's why I came today. Even if she dies a hundred times over, it won't lessen our hate," Zheng said.

Sanlu, along with the other 21 dairy companies involved in the scandal, have proposed a 1.1 billion yuan ($160 million) compensation plan. More than 200 families have filed suit demanding higher compensation and long-term treatment for their babies.

Zhao Lianhai, who has set up a Web site to help organize parents whose children were sickened, said about a dozen parents from across the country had hoped to attend the sentencing but only seven showed up.

Authorities detained at least two sets of parents of melamine victims as they attempted to travel to the courthouse, said Li Fangping, a Beijing lawyer who has worked with the parents since news of the poisonings emerged.

Dong Shiliang, from southern Yunnan province, was stopped from boarding a plane in Kunming on Wednesday while Liu Donglin was being held at a Beijing police station, he said.

During her Dec. 31 trial, Tian admitted she had known of problems with her company's products for months before informing authorities. The scandal was exposed in September.

Investigations showed that middlemen who sold milk to dairy companies were watering down raw milk, then mixing in nitrogen-rich melamine to fool quality tests for protein content.

Normally used to make plastics and fertilizer, melamine can cause kidney stones and kidney failure when ingested in large amounts. The discovery of melamine in dairy exports such as chocolate and yogurt triggered a slew of product recalls overseas.

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