T-Rex said:
"In January 2000, Arnold, then 20, was placed on five years' probation for abducting a 72-year-old woman in the parking lot of a shopping mall and ordering her to drive her downtown. According to a Miami Twp. police report, Arnold told the woman she had a gun, which was actually a bottle of lotion in a glove, Arnold told police."While still on probation, Arnold was convicted in 2002 of forgery."
http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2006/11/30/ddn113006baby.html
This article supports my contention that China had faced poverty issues. It also has lots of information from a friend saying that China was a good, loving mother who never could have done what she is accused of doing and that China has been working hard to better her and her children's lives.
From this same article:
Accused mom showed baby love, friend says
Neighbor at Parkside Homes says no indication that China Arnold would harm her children.
By Cathy Mong
Staff Writer
Thursday, November 30, 2006
DAYTON Rhonda Lucas's Parkside Homes apartment faces the slope leading up to Interstate 75, so when it's hot and there's nowhere else to go, she and her friends would cool off with a cold beer in the back yard commons.
Among those who laughed and talked about their lives was China Arnold, the 26-year-old mother accused of microwaving her 3½-week-old daughter, Paris Talley.
Lucas said in the two years since moving to the housing complex off Keowee Street, she has seen nothing but a loving mother motivated to better her life for herself and four children, three of whom are sons ages 9, 7 and 4.
That's why Lucas said the aggravated-murder charge filed against Arnold is so difficult to accept.
"When she found out she was pregnant, she was so excited. When she knew it was a girl, she went out shopping for baby clothes," Lucas said.
Arnold would lean back on the couch with Paris resting on her chest, Lucas said. "I'd say, 'China, lay that child down,' and she'd say, 'no, she's my little girl.' "
"I just don't believe China could do it."
Arnold's defense attorney, Jon Paul Rion, said his client, who he said was attending Sinclair Community College on her way to becoming a counselor, will be vindicated.
"You have someone living on assisted income, working and going to college, with goals for herself and having a goal to help others in life. That's someone who is picking herself up by her bootstraps and it shows how she was raised and who she was."