A California woman has been found guilty of murdering her two-month-old daughter, who was killed after she was placed in a microwave for as long as five minutes. Ka Yang, 34, has been convicted of first-degree murder and assault on a child in the death of her daughter Mirabelle Thao-Lo in their Sacramento home on March 17, 2011. Jurors rejected Yang’s argument that she had been in the middle of an epileptic seizure when she placed her daughter in the microwave. But prosecutors argued that Yang had lied to investigators about Mirabelle’s death before they discovered a pacifier inside the microwave.

NEVADA – The Washoe County District Attorney, Chris Hicks, announced the sentencing of a Reno man to 13 years to life in prison for the kidnapping and repeated abuse of a 7 year old boy. Robert William Downs was sentenced to a term of 8 to 20 years each on three counts of Child Abuse and a term of 5 years to Life for one count of First Degree Kidnapping by District Court Judge Elliott Sattler. Downs was previously found guilty on June 5, 2015. Based on the sentence received today, Downs will not be eligible for parole until he has served a minimum of 13 years in prison.

VANCOUVER — A British Columbia man convicted of trafficking underage girls for sex has been handed a 23-year prison sentence in a case described by a judge as violent, extremely disturbing and “bordering on psychopathic.” Reza Moazami’s sentence, delivered by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Bruce on Tuesday, is nearly three years longer than the prison time sought by the Crown.

Six months ago, a pregnant Megan Hiatt posted this message on Facebook about the father of the twins she was about to have: “He’s my rock, my heart, my love, my ride or die, my handsome man, my one and only, my forever.” Her “forever” man was Gawain Rushane Wilson. Police say Wilson, 28, shot Megan, the 5-month-old twins, Hayden Rose and Kayden Reese, and their grandfather, Travis James Hiatt, 49, Friday in his Northside home. He then turned the gun on himself.

The pregnant wife of an Indianapolis pastor was shot and killed this week in what police are calling a home invasion. The victim was 12 weeks pregnant. The couple’s 1-year-old son was home when the shooting occurred Tuesday morning, but was unharmed. Amanda Blackburn, 28, was discovered by her husband, Resonate Church Pastor Davey Blackburn, after he returned from the gym that morning.

Pretoria – The man who murdered and raped his 4-year-old niece Jasmin Pretorius received two life sentences in court on Friday. Judge Mahomed Ismail said Sarel du Toit’s actions were evil and the rape was an act of brutality. Little Jasmin, 4, dearly loved and trusted her uncle who raped her before strangling her to death with his hands. This is according to Jasmin’s mother, Sasha Bam, who took the stand in the high court in Pretoria on Tuesday. She testified in aggravation of sentence after her child’s rapist and killer Sarel du Toit pleaded guilty to the charges. According to the doctor who did the post-mortem, the child’s injuries showed she had put up quite a struggle.

A Queensland mother didn’t seek help for her three-year-old daughter despite knowing she suffered horrific injuries from being repeatedly sexually abused by the woman’s ex-partner. The 28-year-old woman, who can’t be named, was sentenced to four years’ jail in the Brisbane District Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to one charge of cruelty to a child under 16. However, the mother’s sentence was suspended as she has spent 522 days in custody, but she must remain on good behavior for the rest of the sentencing period.

A pregnant woman who was beaten to death by her former fiancé was graded as a ‘medium risk’ domestic violence victim by police just months before she died, an inquest has heard. Eystna Blunnie, 20, was killed by Tony McLernon,24, in the middle of a road in Harlow, Essex. The pair’s unborn daughter, who was to be named Rose, was due to be born within days and did not survive the attack.

LAPEER COUNTY, MI – A private investigator is helping a local family in their attempt to prove a wrongful murder conviction. Kenneth Grondin was convicted of killing his girlfriend and will spend the rest of his life in prison, but his family says he’s innocent. “I will go to my grave proving this. I don’t care how much it costs,” said Carl Grondin, Kenneth Grondin’s grandfather. They’ve enlisted the help of private investigator Al Norris and his team of seasoned detectives. They started searching the Lapeer State Game Area on Tuesday, where Andrea Eilber’s car was found abandoned four years ago. Eilber was shot to death while house sitting for her aunt in Lapeer County’s Mayfield Township in 2011. While they’re searching, Kenneth is in the first weeks of a mandatory sentence.

CHICAGO – Nine-year-old Tyshawn Lee was targeted because of his father’s gang ties, lured into a South Side alley Monday afternoon and executed, Chicago police officials said Thursday. Speaking at the edge of the Gresham alley where Tyshawn was shot multiple times, Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy called the slaying “probably the most abhorrent, cowardly, unfathomable crime” he had seen in his 35 years in law enforcement. McCarthy said police believe Tyshawn was killed because of his father’s gang ties and a recent series of shootings between rival gangs.

The parents of an adopted girl who was allegedly sodomized by her biological father in 2009 when she was five months old are speaking out after a Missouri judge set him free because of a Sixth Amendment argument. Aaron Michael Fisher, 27, was arrested and charged with sodomy after signs of sexual abuse were found when his infant daughter spent more than a week at University Hospital in Columbia in 2009. After multiple delays in the case, a public defender filed a motion stating Fisher’s constitutional right to a timely trial had been violated and Cole County Judge Patricia Joyce granted his release last month. The adoptive parents of the six-year-old girl, who adopted her brother as well, began seeking an order of protection against Fisher after hearing about his release but have had difficulty getting one without disclosing the names of their children.

August Byron Kreis III, a one-time pre-eminent racist leader with ties to the Ku Klux Klan, Posse Comitatus and the Aryan Nations, will spend the rest of his life in prison for child molestation. The 61-year-old Kreis — who lost both legs to diabetes and is now wheel-chair bound — was sentenced Thursday to 50 years in prison after being found guilty by a jury in Lexington, S.C., of one count of criminal sexual conduct involving a child and two counts of committing lewd acts on a child.

Two Birmingham brothers, ages 53 and 60, are being held on a combined 19 felony charges after authorities say they repeatedly sexually assaulted a young girl. One of the brothers – 53-year-old Steven Lewis Cotton – was released from prison last year after serving nearly 20 years in prison for a different rape conviction of a 12-year-old girl. Larry Cotton, 60, also had a previous arrest on a first-degree sex abuse charge but pleaded that case down to a misdemeanor with no jail time.

PHOENIX, Arizona — A mother killed her 5-year-old son before shooting herself to death early on Saturday in an apparent murder-suicide inside the child’s hospital room in suburban Phoenix, police said. The bodies of the mother and son were found by hospital staff during a routine check at about 2 a.m.(GMT) at Cardon Children’s Medical Center, said Detective Steve Berry, a spokesman for the Mesa Police Department. He declined to disclose how the child had died.