Microwave baby case goes to jury

DAYTON, Ohio, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- A Dayton, Ohio, jury ended deliberations Thursday without reaching a verdict in the trial of a woman prosecutors said killed her daughter in a microwave.

A lawyer for China Arnold, in his closing argument, asked jurors to believe the testimony of an 8-year-old boy who said another child put the baby in the oven, the Dayton Daily News reported.

The jury began deliberations Thursday afternoon after receiving legal instructions from Montgomery County Pleas Judge Mary Wiseman.

Prosecutor Dan Brandt said that Arnold was the only adult in the house when Paris Talley died on Aug. 30, 2005.

"There is nothing accidental in this case," Brandt said. "Think about everything that had to be done by the defendant to cook Baby Paris to death. At any moment, she could have stopped what was happening."

He also said that no one else would have dressed the baby in a clean nightgown after her death.

Jon Paul Rion, Arnold's lawyer, said that some of her misleading statements to police were because she was so drunk at the time she did not know what happened.