DaytonDailyNews.com

DAYTON — China Arnold, the woman convicted of killing her baby in a microwave oven, was sentenced Monday, Sept. 8 to life without parole.

"No adjectives exist to describe this heinous atrocity," said Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Mary Wiseman, who added that the crime was "beyond all human and moral comprehension."

Arnold, who remains in the Montgomery County Jail, chose not to be present for the sentencing. Some of Arnold's supporters, who packed the courtroom, cried out when the sentence was announced.

Wiseman presided over Arnold's second trial, which started Aug. 11 and ended Sept. 3, after jurors deadlocked during the penalty phase.

Had the jurors been able to agree on a sentencing recommendation, Arnold could have faced the death penalty. In a death penalty case, the jury makes a sentencing recommendation, but the judge hands down the sentencing. Ohio law prevents Wiseman from imposing death without a death recommendation.

The jury had four options: death, life without the possibility of parole, life with the possibility of parole after 30 years and life with the possibility of parole after 25 years.

The same jury convicted Arnold on Aug. 29 of aggravated murder in the Aug. 30, 2005 death of 28-day-old Paris Talley.

Defense attorney Jon Paul Rion asked for the chance for parole after 25 years, citing Arnold's remorse, despite maintaining her innocence, she got so drunk she was not able to protect her baby.

"She regrets, obviously, that she had been drinking at all, Rion said. "China would have been there to understand what was happening."

Rion also read a statement from Arnold, that started, "My name is China Arnold and I am innocent of these charges."

The statement referred to the loss of Paris Talley, "whom I love with all of my heart and more."

But assistant county prosecutor David Franceschelli told Wiseman that the defense had not produced any mitigating factors.

"There is no genuine remorse here," Franceschelli said. "The only remorse here is that she got caught."