A Dayton, Ohio woman will spend the rest of her life in prison for cooking her 28-day-old baby in a microwave oven after fighting with her boyfriend.
Judge Mary Wiseman sentenced China Arnold, 28, to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“No adjectives exist to adequately describe this heinous atrocity,” Judge Wiseman said. “This act is shocking and utterly abhorrent for a civilized society.”
Arnold told prosecutors she intentionally placed Paris Talley in the microwave and burned her alive after arguing with her live-in boyfriend. The argument was over the paternity of the baby.
Arnold’s first hearing in 2005 ended in a mistrial after a young witness came forward to say he saw an 8-year-old boy take the baby into a nearby apartment and heard the microwave go on.
The witness said he later saw the burned baby in the microwave oven.
Arnold was convicted of aggravated murder in her second trial last month after the boy’s mother testified they were not in Arnold’s home on the day the baby was killed.
Arnold, who has four other children, waived her right to be present in court during her sentencing hearing on Monday. Instead, she watched the proceedings on a monitor in a side room.
Judge Wiseman rejected a plea from Arnold’s lawyers to allow for parole after 25 years. Arnold’s lawyers said their client’s former cellmate changed her previous testimony.
The cellmate originally testified that Arnold told her she microwaved the baby because she feared her boyfriend would leave her if he found out he was not the biological father.
A jury last week spared Arnold the death penalty when it couldn’t reach an agreement on the sentence.
