An Alamogordo woman who had said she threw her infant daughter on the ground in 2011 because she thought it was possessed by the devil now faces 16 years in prison.
The Alamogordo Daily News reports that 28-year-old Samantha Noriega was sentenced Wednesday in District Court after she pleaded no contest in October to felony child abuse with great bodily harm.
The 7-month-old child suffered a brain hemorrhage which was considered life threatening but prosecutor Kirby Wills says the child has made what the prosecutor called a "miraculous recovery."
According to Wills, a doctor who testified at Noriega's sentencing hearing said Noriega suffered from paranoid schizophrenic behavior that might have been brought on by drug use.
Noriega will get credit for time served.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.