China P. Arnold
China Arnold (born March 29, 1980, in Dayton, Ohio)[1] is an American convicted murderer.
Case
Arnold, who had been convicted of abduction in 2000 and forgery in 2002,[2] was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on September 8, 2008, for killing her 28-day-old daughter, Paris. The infant was placed in a microwave oven for what analysts suspect was longer than two minutes and died shortly after removal due to her internal temperature becoming critical.[3][4]
At the time, Arnold lived with her other children and her boyfriend, Terrell Talley, in a housing complex. Prosecutors said she placed Paris into the microwave after an argument with Talley over the baby's paternity; she told investigators that she was intoxicated. Arnold took Paris to the hospital the next day, where she died of her injuries.[5] Arnold was initially arrested, then released due to a lack of evidence. She was re-arrested in November 2006.[6]
Shortly after Arnold's first trial began, Talley said his son had told him that he pulled the infant's lifeless body out of the microwave after a neighbor's boy had put her inside;[7] the claim resulted in a mistrial.[8] However, during the second trial, the mother of the boy in question established that he was not at the housing complex when Paris died, and Arnold was convicted of aggravated murder.[9]
On November 5, 2010, the Second District Court of Appeals reversed Arnold's conviction, citing misconduct by prosecutors and that the court erred by not allowing material witnesses to testify in Arnold's defense.[10]
On May 13, 2011, a jury found Arnold guilty of aggravated murder. Her attorney had argued that the evidence pointed as much to Talley as it did Arnold, to no avail.[11]
Aftermath
Arnold has been incarcerated at the Dayton Correctional Institution since September 11, 2008.[12]
On May 20, 2011, Arnold was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Her attorney says they will appeal the decision.[13]
References
- ↑ "Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Offender Page 3 March 2010
- ↑ "Mother arraigned in baby's microwave death" The Associated Press via MSNBC.com 3 March 2010
- ↑ "Mother Jailed Over Microwave Baby" news.sky.com
- ↑ "Cops Suspect Microwave Was Murder Weapon".
- ↑ "Drunken mom microwaved one-month-old baby" New York Daily News 3 March 2010 Archived February 6, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ "Cops Suspect Microwave Was Murder Weapon" cbsnews.com Nov. 28, 2006
- ↑ "DDN: New Witness Tells Father Who Put Child In Microwave" WHIOTV.com 3 March 2010 Archived January 5, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ "China Arnold Stands Trial Again in Microwave Baby Death Case" Dayton Daily News 3 March 2010 Archived February 3, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ Life for microwave baby killer BBC, September 9, 2008
- ↑ "Appeals Court Grants New Trial for China Arnold" WDTN 14 May 2011 Archived July 24, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ "Jury Convicts Ohio Mom in Baby's Microwave Death" The Associated Press via Yahoo! 14 May 2011 Archived May 17, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ "Offender Search".
- ↑ "Jury Recommends Life Without Parole for China Arnold" Dayton Daily News 20 May 2011