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Life for microwave baby killer

A mother who murdered her one-month-old daughter by burning her to death in a microwave oven has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.

China Arnold, 28, was spared the death penalty when the jury in Dayton, Ohio failed to reach a consensus.

Prosecutors said Arnold, who maintains she is innocent, killed her daughter in 2005 after a fight with her boyfriend.

Judge Mary Wiseman said the crime was "shocking and utterly abhorrent for a civilised society".

"No adjectives exist to adequately describe this heinous atrocity," Judge Wiseman said, rejecting a plea by Arnold's lawyers for a sentence that allowed the possibility of parole after 25 years in prison.

Arnold was not in court to hear her sentence, but followed proceedings by video-link from a side room.

Cell confession

The court had heard that China Arnold had argued with her boyfriend Terrell Talley about whether he was the biological father of baby Paris.

Officials investigating the case said Paris Talley had suffered high-heat internal burns but had no external marks.

Prosecutors said that the baby's DNA had been found inside the microwave in Arnold's apartment.

Arnold's cellmate told the court that she had confessed to putting her daughter in the microwave and switching it on, because she was afraid that her boyfriend would leave her if he discovered that he was not the baby's father.

The defence team said that there was evidence that somebody else was responsible for Paris Talley's death, and that the cellmate had now changed her story.

Arnold's lawyers now want a third trial. The first hearing was declared a mistrial when new witnesses came forward.

Arnold "has faith in the system, she is strong and will continue to fight until her innocence is proven", said her lawyer Jon Paul Rion.

***courtesy of kamsol said***