Ohio woman gets life in prison for killing baby daughter in microwave oven

[Carmasa]

In this Sept. 3, 2008 file photo, China Arnold enters the Montgomery County Common Pleas Courtroom for her trial sentencing phase in Dayton, Ohio. Arnold, 28, was sentenced Monday, Sept. 8, 2008 to life in prison without the chance for parole for burning her baby daughter to death in a microwave after fighting with her boyfriend. (AP Photo/Dayton Daily News, Jim Witmer)
09-08-2008 2:49 PM
By JAMES HANNAH, Associated Press Writer

DAYTON, Ohio (Associated Press) -- A woman was sentenced Monday to life in prison without the chance for parole for burning her baby daughter to death in a microwave after fighting with her boyfriend. Common Pleas Judge Mary Wiseman lashed out at 28-year-old China Arnold, who opted to watch her sentencing from a side room on a monitor.

"No adjectives exist to adequately describe this heinous atrocity," Wiseman said. "This act is shocking and utterly abhorrent for a civilized society."

The judge rejected a plea by Arnold's attorneys for a minimum sentence of life in prison with the chance of parole after 25 years. A jury last week spared Arnold the death penalty when it couldn't reach a consensus.

"I am innocent of these charges," Arnold said in a statement read by her attorney, Jon Paul Rion.

Arnold was convicted Aug. 29 of aggravated murder in the death of month-old Paris Talley in 2005. Prosecutors said she intentionally put her baby in the microwave after a fight with her boyfriend. The couple had argued over whether the boyfriend was the biological father.

It was Arnold's second trial. Her first ended in a mistrial when new witnesses surfaced.

Rion has asked for a third trial, saying a former cellmate who said Arnold confessed has now changed her story. Rion said he's also found additional witnesses who point to someone else being responsible for killing the baby.

Rion said Arnold loved her baby "with all of her heart and more" and regrets drinking the night of her baby's death to the point of not remembering what happened.

"We have a mother who has lost her own daughter," Rion said. "That will plague her and follow her like a shadow for the rest of her life and into the next."

Prosecutor David Franceschelli told Wiseman that Arnold has shown no genuine remorse.

"The only remorse here is she got caught," Franceschelli said.


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...How can someone... It's beyond my comprehension, for once...

[Spirit]

She got off light if you ask me. I would have voted Death penalty. How can you put an innocent child only around 1 month old in a microwave and turn it on long enough to kill it. I cannot image what that poor child suffered or how long she suffered before death finally took her.

[Manzcar]

Death penalty would have been too nice.

[Blaaaaaaaah]

Death penalty would have been too nice.

.

She should be living with that guilt for the rest of life. Death would've been an easy way out for her to escape everything.

[Hessah]

At least she didnt get off for "mental illness"

[secbro20]

That's....horrible. How can someone do that?

[Hyper]

...How can someone... It's beyond my comprehension, for once...

You took the words out of my mouth.

Deathsentenceplz.