WASHINGTON (AP) - A former United States security guard has been sentenced to nine years in prison for trying to sell photos and other secret information to China's Ministry of State Security, about half what prosecutors had requested.

U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle sentenced Bryan Underwood on Tuesday in a case she called "half-baked treason" by a person who was not mentally stable.

Last year, Underwood pleaded guilty to attempting to communicate national defense information to a foreign government.

The Justice Department says Underwood took photographs of restricted areas at the new U.S. consulate in Guangzhou and planned to use them to help China eavesdrop on U.S. officials. Underwood wrote a letter expressing his desire to work for the China ministry, but was turned away when he attempted to deliver it.