Woman jailed for life for killing baby daughter by putting her in the microwave in US

Lawyers for Ka Yang insisted she was undergoing an epileptic seizure and was not in control

Ka Yang has been jailed for life (Sacramento Police Department)

A woman has been jailed for life for killing her baby daughter by putting her in the microwave.

Lawyers representing Ka Yang, from Sacramento in California, said she had an epileptic seizure and was not aware of her actions when she put one-year-old Mirabelle Thao-Lo in the oven for up to five minutes.

The child was fatally injured by the heating process in 2011 and medical experts told a previous court hearing that she would have been in severe pain as radiation burns penetrated her internal organs.

Yang, 34, was convicted of first-degree murder and assault after jurors dismissed her defence that she was not in control.

Sacramento County Superior Court heard that although she has a history of seizures, paramedics did not find the mother disorientated when they arrived and that her account changed several times.

She allegedly told investigators initially that she blacked out and awoke to find Mirabelle by a heater, but the child's dummy was found in the microwave.

Prosecutors alleged that Yang put her child inside deliberately because she was angry with the baby for distracting her from work for an archiectural firm.

Yang, who has three other children, was jailed for life on Friday and will serve a minimum sentence of 26 years.

Elizabeth Renee Otte was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and jailed for 10 years in California in a similar case.

She put her one-month-old son into her microwave in Lanexa, Virginia, switched it on and went to bed.

Jurors accepted her defence that she was in an epilepsy-induced blackout and was not aware of her actions.

Additional reporting by AP