Caesarian death mother 'assaulted daughter four years ago'

The woman charged with killing one of her twins by refusing a Caesarean section was convicted of child endangerment in Pittsburgh nearly four years ago, a newspaper has reported.

The 2000 conviction of Melissa Rowland stemmed from a supermarket incident in which she punched her daughter several times in the face after the toddler picked up a candy bar and began eating it, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review said. Witnesses said Rowland screamed: "You ate the candy bar and now I can’t buy my cigarettes."