(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-02-01 11:47

"It was so heinous to think of that, that I couldn't convince myself it was a real possibility," Uptegrove said.

DNA recovered from the ceiling of the oven matched that of the baby, he said.

During a pretrial hearing in July, 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 am 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.

During the opening statement by Assistant Montgomery County Prosecutor Daniel Brandt, a photo of the burned baby was flashed on a screen for the 12-member jury to see. Arnold sat quietly, occasionally jotting notes on a yellow legal pad.

Brandt said Arnold killed the child after arguing with her boyfriend over whether they had been faithful to each other.

When the couple took the baby to the hospital, Brandt said, Arnold exclaimed: "'I killed my baby. I killed my baby."'

Brandt said Arnold later told police it never would have happened had she not gotten so drunk. He said Arnold, who has been in jail since she was charged in November 2006, told Williams she had killed the baby in the microwave and other inmates that she hadn't meant to do it.

Rion said Arnold, who has three sons, loved having a daughter and quit college and her job so she could stay home and take care of her. Rion said that Arnold's boyfriend was the father of the child, and that it couldn't have been anyone else.

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