Ohio mother guilty in infant’s death

May 14, 2011|Associated Press

China Arnold, shown in 2008, was convicted in her third trial in the murder… (Associated Press/File )

DAYTON, Ohio — Jurors in an Ohio woman’s third trial found her guilty yesterday of burning her baby daughter to death in a microwave oven.

China Arnold, 31, was convicted of aggravated murder in the death of 28-day-old Paris Talley in August 2005. Arnold could receive the death penalty. The sentencing phase will begin Monday.

Arnold’s first trial ended in a mistrial. She was found guilty in the second trial, but that conviction was reversed last fall. An appeals court found there was misconduct by prosecutors and that the trial court made an error by not allowing a material witness to testify in Arnold’s defense.

Prosecutors have said Arnold intentionally put the baby in the microwave after a fight with her boyfriend. The defense had argued that someone else was responsible.

Medical witnesses testified that the baby died after her temperature reached 107 to 108 degrees and that she probably was in the microwave for more than two minutes, dying quickly afterward.

Messages seeking comment from the prosecutor and defense attorney were left at their offices, but a gag order in the case prevents anyone connected with it from commenting outside court.

Assistant prosecutor Dan Brandt told jurors that Arnold’s actions were “even more purposeful’’ than a slaying with a gun or knife, the Dayton Daily News reported.

Defense attorney Jon Paul Rion argued that the evidence pointed as much to Terrell Talley, the baby’s father, as it did Arnold. He said the prosecutor used the evidence selectively.