Mother receives life sentence in microwave death of baby

The Dayton woman received the maximum sentence, which also carries with it no chance for parole.

DAYTON (AP) — A mother convicted of burning her baby daughter to death in a microwave oven was sentenced Monday to life in prison without the chance for parole.

China Arnold, 28, who opted to watch her sentencing from a side room on a monitor, was chastised by Montgomery County Common Pleas Court Judge Mary Wiseman.

“No adjectives exist to adequately describe this heinous atrocity,” Wiseman said before imposing the sentence. “This act is shocking and utterly abhorrent for a civilized society.”

The judge rejected a plea by Arnold’s defense 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.

Rather than appear in court Monday wearing jail clothing, Arnold chose to maintain her dignity by staying in another room at the courthouse, defense attorney Jon Paul Rion said.

“I am innocent of these charges,” Arnold said in a statement read by Rion.

Arnold was convicted Aug. 29 of aggravated murder in the death of month-old Paris Talley in 2005.

Prosecutors said Arnold intentionally put her baby in the microwave oven after a fight with her boyfriend. The couple had argued over whether the boyfriend was the biological father.

It was Arnold’s second trial. The 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’s being responsible for killing the baby.

The judge hasn’t ruled on the motion for a new trial.

“Maybe it’s wishful thinking on their part or sour grapes,” Assistant Montgomery County Prosecutor David Franceschelli told reporters of the defense request. “The jury heard all admissible evidence.”

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.”

Franceschelli told Wiseman that Arnold has shown no genuine remorse.

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