Jurors Questioned In Microwave Baby Case

China Arnold Pleaded Not Guilty To Aggravated Murder; Baby Died Of Internal Burns In 2005

(CBS/AP)  Prosecutors and defense attorneys quizzed potential jurors Monday in the trial of a woman accused of killing her month-old daughter by burning her in a microwave oven, asking them if they had heard about the case and how they felt about the death penalty.

Defendant China Arnold, 27, sat impassively at the defense table as jurors were questioned one by one in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court. She wore gray slacks and a white turtleneck sweater and her hair was neatly braided.

Each of the half dozen potential jurors questioned before noon said they had heard something about the case, either through news accounts or in talking with friends. But they said they could be impartial.

"The charge was somewhat shocking, but I haven't formed any opinion," one potential juror said.

Arnold has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder. If convicted, she could face the death penalty.

Most of the jurors questioned said they could recommend the death penalty under certain circumstances.

Visiting Judge John Kessler excused about 10 potential jurors, who said personal reasons would prevent them from being part of a trial that could take up to three weeks. Jury selection is expected to take at least two days.

Investigators believe Arnold killed her daughter, Paris Talley, by putting her in a microwave at her Dayton home in August 2005.

Coroner's officials say the baby suffered high-heat internal injuries and had no external burns. They have ruled out scalding water, open flame or other possible causes of death that could have damaged the skin.

Defense attorney Jon Paul Rion has said Arnold had nothing to do with her daughter's death and was stunned when investigators told her that a microwave might have been involved. Arnold took the baby to the hospital after finding her unconscious and does not know how she died, Rion said.

During a pretrial hearing in July, Dayton police Detective Michael Galbraith said Arnold told him she arrived home in the early morning hours after drinking, fell asleep and was awakened at 2:30 a.m. by the baby's crying.

She said she warmed a bottle in the microwave oven, tried to give it to the baby, changed the child's diaper and fell asleep on the couch with the baby on her chest.

Arnold said she and her children were the only ones in the apartment until her boyfriend arrived several hours later and noticed something was wrong with the baby.

Galbraith said Arnold told him: "If I hadn't gotten so drunk, I guess my baby wouldn't have died."

But when cross-examined by Rion, Galbraith acknowledged that Arnold told him she didn't know how the baby suffered the burns and that she had nothing to do with it that she could recall.

Earlier this month, defense witness Robert Belloto, a staff pharmacist at Good Samaritan Hospital, testified that he doesn't believe it would have been possible for Arnold to place the baby in the microwave because the woman was so intoxicated.

Belloto said Arnold told him she had consumed about 40 percent of a pint of high-proof rum in 90 minutes. But he acknowledged that he had no other corroboration for her claim.

Another possible defense witness told the judge during a pre-trail hearing that he does not think studies that show the child was in a microwave for two minutes are very accurate, especially since that study was done using chickens and calf brains to simulate the fatal injuries, reports CBS News affiliate WHIO-TV in Dayton.

The judge ruled the witness is only allowed to testify on microwave ovens' construction, workings and characteristics.

[fishinfool43]

That is Extremely doubtful, there would be thermal burns on lips, mouth, and tongue. Not to mention it couldnt maintain enough temperature to burn the heart or lungs by being in the stomach. I would think a child even that young would have an involuntary reaction, and would spit it up and out. Not sure but the inital shock of it might even cause the throat to close similar to anaphylactic shock. Im not a doctor or anything. but personally I think her story is one HUGE lie. I think she deserves the death penalty when she is found guilty.

[msnooy79]

Could it be that because she was so drunk she heated the bottle to long in the microwave, and the baby drank the whole bottle which burned her insides? Just a thought.

[jennmarie620]

Hmm ... I''m still waiting for the factual, scientific evidence that this woman did - indeed - murder her own baby. Until that evidence is lain out at trial and presented to the public - then she is innocent until PROVEN guilty. A news story at CBS or NBC or ABC or FOX or CNN is not proof of guilt.

Why is it that no one in this country anymore can understand "innocent until proven guilty?" So many people on this message board are calling for this woman to be executed - but no one knows for fact yet if she did, in fact, kill her baby.

"An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind."

[kevzgrl]

We will hear all kinds of cr-ap in this case about how awful the mom''s life has always been and how it wasn''t her fault and yada-yada-yada... I am so sick of people not taking responsibility for their OWN actions anymore, but leaping to blame it on their upbringing - she was drunk, THINKS she put the bottle in the microwave, but actually it was the BABY. Oh, wait, maybe it was the BABY''S fault, she probably cried too much and drove the mom to it.....

[shammy0202]

I would hardly think that at the age of 27 years old that this is a case of "babies having babies" If she is found guilty I firmly believe in the death penalty, also an eye for an eye, too bad they don''t make microwaves adult sized.

[lewiston14]

The jurors say they can be impartial now, but wait till they bring the baby in to show as evidence!

Posted by random_radar

Random that is the point of a trial. Both sides present their case and the jury decides. I have done a double murder trial and saw plenty of pictures but the pictures did not show who pulled the trigger or in this case who pushed the micro button. Now it would be up to them to prove to me who did pull or push the button. For the record i am not for or against the person on trial. That is the jurys problem.

[jennmarie620]

jsshackel --

I am a 26 year old single mother, getting ready to have my second child at (literally) any second. I have a college education, a good (professional) job, and I tutor in the evenings and on the weekends. I look at my generation and will, yes, agree that many of my peers make even people like me look bad - but it''s not limited to my generation. I know MANY people in my parents generation who can (and must) be labeled as "trash," "ignorant," and "a crux on society." But as it stands today, our education system has become so backwards and unproductive that we will only see an increase in the problem of ignorance and criminal behavior before we see a solution to it.

Also, for the record, I do drink when I am able to (meaning I have not had a drop of alcohol - not even cold medicine - since before I got pregnant last year) and I do it responsibly. One major requirement for me being able to go out with friends: not having my daughter (soon to be children) for the entire night. My parents babysit when I go out with friends - which is, at most, once every six or eight weeks.

It''s all a matter of responsibility.

[jsshackel]

Not to be taken the wrong way, and having absolutely nothing to do with race, this is proof-positive that the number-1 problem in the U.S. these days is ignorance, drug/alchohol abuse, and especially the combination of the two. I have no idea if this woman even used drugs, and make no presumption of that, but I''ve gotten very drunk many times when younger, and never recall having the urge to microwave a human. The scary thing is that I see what I perceive, rightly or wrongly, to be a very high percentage of young people out in the world, and even coming through the place where I work (especially temp service folks), of all colors and races, that seem to have their heads totally up their butts. I think we''re well into a generation of idiots apparently raised by idiots. This is not a middle-aged old fogey griping about them young whipper-snappers. When I was a young pup, my friends and I were wild and wooly, broke more than a few laws (of the non-violent, non-thieving variety), and had a total disdain for authority (because most authority sucked at the time), but I guarantee we had an overall seriously higher intelligence level and sense of how we fit into the world and would in the future. A lot of young people I encounter today have no sense of either. Perhaps it''s an invasion of aliens, ''cause they sure as heck don''t seem to be human beings.

[jennmarie620]

I live 45 minutes north of Dayton and have heard about this case since the baby''s death. Given the news reports by the local stations and newspapers, the police didn''t do a very thorough job of gathering all the evidence they would need for a trial from the beginning. There wasn''t a blood test done on Ms. Arnold to determine her blood alcohol level at the time the police were called - and a blood alcohol test could prove just how much Ms. Arnold had consumed and if she was too intoxicated to have done such an act. They were using chicken and cow parts to simulate cooking a baby in a microwave - when they should have been using pig parts (as pigs are the closest in physical make-up to humans).

[[Besides, has anyone ever cooked a hotdog in a microwave? I would presume that cooking a baby would have the same effect on the body as on a hotdog - and given that there are no physical burns or marks to indicate how the baby died, I would think a microwave wasn''t involved.]]

But all this being said, why is it so hard for people to withhold judgment on a person''s innocence or guilt until all facts and evidence have been presented at trial? Yes, this woman isn''t exactly what anyone would label a "model citizen" but to go ahead and claim she''s a murderer with such circumstantial evidence is irresponsible.

[michellem99-2009]

The were devil worshippers and I heard they both fried for it.. This pisses off my irish blood when they kill a child..God Allmighty He entrust her to raise the child she do this. I KNOW THEM CONS THEY WILL KILL A PERSON THE LIKES OF HER,

[Krazcarl]

Michelle99...I was in Me. when that happened I remember the case. The man respondsible was set a fire in jail by other inmates he lived but sustained burns.If memory serves he was convicted but the mother got off?

[michellem99-2009]

I am from Maine born and raised there. Ye can get out of jury duty if yer mentally ill..I have never served am legally blind. crzmeat yer prayer is fine as yer Mum taugt ye yer prayers at bed time at meals..am I right..I would not allow them mormons to teach me to pray as Dad did years ago. He is protestant. The microwave ovens are child proof.. I just bought a new oven. There is no way a little kid could put a baby in the over and set cooking time..No way. It had to be a grown up..
This is the reason just because she can breed there are femeles that should not.. I Had myself fixed years ago..I am whitw,

[ljl765]

This is one of the reasons Eugenics was so popular in the 1930''s, forced sterilization of the "insane" and "immoral".. They did take it too far. However, if ever there was a case study for bringing this back, this woman is it. I hope she "fries" for this. Imagine the DNA of this womans offstring? No wonder society is producing kids who blow up schools, shoot teachers and do drugs. People who have criminal minds can produce criminal kids by their own actions. God help society.

[michellem99-2009]

They have it.. It a creammated oven. Ye know where put the dead to ashes..Sure they can tie a womab''s tubes..the period they can''t sew her shut..
some body asked for AMEN. ye got amen..I used a microwave to cook my food as a blind lady.. In Maine a man/woman put their little girl in an oven and they put them in an over alive just they did their child.

[cmp271]

If there are other children, how do we know if one of them could have done this out of jealousy? How does a baby fit in a microwave anyway? If anyone else did it, wouldn''t they hear the baby cry? A mother would wake up from a deep sleep when her child cries, no matter how drunk you are.

Microwaves save electric, their bill is covered by welfare too!!

[crjstudent]

First of all, yes if she is guilty of murder, bake her like she did her child. But, they did not tell us some of the important details. Was there a babysitter with her other children along with the age of any possible sitter, what were the other childrens ages, how long this type of abuse had been going on, and most of all, if she did not have food or money for child care, WHERE DID SHE GET THE MONEY FOR RUM???? In this day and time of birth control to everyone from free clinics, why do we still have this problem of unwanted children that only has to grow-up in abuse to abuse their own children. If you can not afford children or you can not handle having them, get spayed or neutered like we do to our dogs and cats.

[cbs_oliver]

Why didn''t they ask the jurors about 911?

[Krazcarl]

random_radar...That is an excellent point when the jury sees photos of a nuked baby and looks at her, her doom is sealed. You''d think she would make some plea avoid the death penalty {the vote will unanomous if there was ever a case for it this is one}. I cannot imagine the h*ll that poor child went throw in the old days this would have been taken care of by now and cost the taxpayers nothing, I long for the good old days where things were taken care of.

[random_radar]

The jurors say they can be impartial now, but wait till they bring the baby in to show as evidence!

[jetlizhan]

usm cvn -

here it is. . . .AMEN!!!