Camilla Jessen
Ohio mother jailed for life after killing newborn in microwave.
A Ohio murder case continues to haunt the public years after a woman was found guilty of killing her newborn by placing her in a microwave.
Court records, expert testimony and multiple trials laid out in disturbing detail how the 28-day-old baby died.
The final verdict followed years of legal reversals, mistrials and appeals.
Fatal injuries
According to reporting from Express US and the Mirror, 31-year-old China Arnold murdered her infant daughter, Paris, after an argument with her boyfriend about the child’s paternity.
Prosecutors said Arnold put the baby in a microwave for two minutes, causing catastrophic internal heat injuries.
Medical examiner Dr. Marcella Fierro told investigators that the baby “died because she was overheated,” adding bluntly, “She was cooked.”
Paris’s body temperature is believed to have risen to between 107 and 109 degrees Fahrenheit.
Although there were no external burns, hyperthermia was identified as the cause of death. Arnold brought the baby to a hospital the following day, where she was pronounced dead.
She was arrested in November 2006.
Criminal history and early cases
According to Montgomery County court records, Arnold had previous convictions for abduction (2000) and forgery (2002), each resulting in five years of probation.
Psychiatrists later found she had normal intelligence and did not show signs of mental illness.
Her first murder trial in 2008 ended in a mistrial after a new witness surfaced.
A second trial later that year resulted in a guilty verdict and a life sentence, but that conviction was overturned on appeal.
Final verdict
In May 2011, Arnold faced a third trial, again on aggravated murder charges that carried the possibility of a death sentence under Ohio law.
The jury ultimately chose a life sentence without parole rather than capital punishment.
The court ruled that Arnold killed her baby “with prior calculation and design,” according to coverage from Express US.
Arnold, who has three sons, has been held at the Ohio Reformatory for Women since 2008.
Sources: Express US, Mirror
