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A mother has been handed a life sentence after the horrific murder of her four-week-old daughter.
In 2005, China Arnold, then 25, was living with her boyfriend, Terrell Talley, and her children in Dayton, Ohio. In early August, Arnold took her newborn daughter Paris to the hospital while heavily under the influence, according to investigators.
The baby showed no signs of life, leading to Arnold's swift arrest, although she was later released due to insufficient evidence at that time.
However, her freedom was short-lived. Prosecutors claimed that Arnold had put the infant inside a microwave oven at her home - where fragments of the child's DNA were discovered - and switched it on following a dispute with her boyfriend about the baby's paternity.
Medical experts who examined the case concluded Paris had died from injuries sustained from severe overheating after being subjected to high temperatures inside the appliance for over two minutes, reports the Mirror.
Arnold's former prison cellmate later disclosed that Arnold had confessed to her that she killed her daughter out of fear that her boyfriend would discover her infidelity, as he was not the baby's biological father. The baby's body bore several heat-related injuries consistent with an internal temperature of 42C.
By 2006, Arnold was back in prison and set for a trial in 2008. During the case, multiple testimonies were taken into account.
Defence lawyers claimed to have discovered evidence that another individual could have been responsible for Paris' death, and an eight year old boy stated he had seen another boy enter the kitchen of a nearby flat that could have been Arnold's.
However, the child's mother refuted this claim by demonstrating the distance between their house and the flat where the baby died. Then, due to unresolved issues with the evidence, the judge declared a mistrial, only returning to the case several months later.
The second trial began with Arnold asserting her boyfriend was not present when Paris died, making her the only possible suspect.
The jury in the case found Arnold guilty of aggravated murder, resulting in a life sentence without the possibility of parole. A subsequent appeal - in which her defence argued her boyfriend had as much evidence against him as Arnold - left the sentence unchanged.
Psychologists testified that Arnold was of average intelligence and showed no signs of severe mental illnesses apart from mild depression and substance abuse. Arnold is now serving her life sentence at the Dayton Correctional Institution, after numerous attempts to appeal and after being considered for and removed from capital punishment.
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