Sacramento mom convicted in daughter’s microwave death

A jury has convicted a California woman of first-degree murder, after she put her baby in the microwave.

In March 2011, Ka Yang was alone with her daughter, Mirabelle Thao-Lo, for a period of 11 minutes, according to a news release from the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office.

Yang told family members, first responders and detectives that she was holding her child while working on a computer when she lost consciousness.

According to investigators, the girl was believed to have stayed in the microwave from 2 to 5 minutes, enough time to cover 60 percent of her little body with burns, including radiation burns on her internal organs.

Although she had a history of seizures, paramedics did not find her to be disoriented when they arrived, according to the affidavit. She said she awoke on the floor next to a space heater and that her daughter was hurt. However, the baby’s hair was not singed, the pajamas she wore unburnt.

Yang’s attorney, Linda Parisi tried to convince court that the woman suffered from seizures and did not deliberately killed the baby.

When they later discovered Mirabelle’s dummy inside the microwave, Yang acknowledged that she had lied – although she suggested that this could be the result of a split personality.

Yang is expected to be sentenced in December. “She had no prior criminal record”, the local daily reported Parisi as saying. She said Yang acted after suffering a seizure, in what is known as a postictal state. In that particular case, Elizabeth Otte was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after telling investigators that she suffered from epilepsy and could not remember putting her month-old son in the microwave, turning it on, then going to bed.