A woman was sentenced on Wednesday for an assault on her 18-month-old daughter at a family gathering in Warrenton last year.

Kayla M. Marlow, 22, pleaded guilty except for insanity in Clatsop County Circuit Court to assault in the first degree and was placed in the custody of the Oregon State Hospital. Marlow will remain there for up to 20 years, with credit for 633 days already served.

Marlow, while visiting family for a birthday party in March 2023, had gone into a bathroom to change her baby. Prosecutor Sarah Shepherd said that when Marlow’s mother and grandmother noticed she had been gone for a while and the baby was crying excessively, they rushed to the door.

“They eventually get the bathroom door open, see a lot of blood and find that Ms. Marlow has attempted to slit the wrists of the 18-month-old baby,” she told the court. “She had some superficial wounds on her wrists as well, but the primary injury was to the baby.”

Marlow told law enforcement that she had slit her baby’s wrists and begun to slit her own because she believed the world was going to end.

After her arrest, Marlow was evaluated by a doctor and found to be suffering from schizophrenia.

“I literally thought that there was going to be an earthquake if I didn’t do what I did,” she told the court during her sentencing. “So it wasn’t out of hate, it wasn’t out of, you know, anything negative. I love my daughter. I really — I tried to help her in my own way, in my head.”

Judge Kirk Wintermute said Oregon State Hospital would be the best place for Marlow to ensure everybody’s safety.

“I know schizophrenia, especially, can be a really terrifying thing for people, and it can make them do things that they would never do,” he said. “It can really change the way your brain works in really scary ways. And I know it’s scary for you, it’s obviously scary for the family as well, and I’m just glad that she’s OK, because it could have been much worse.

“I’m glad it wasn’t, but obviously this is something we need to keep a close eye on, and hopefully they can figure out some way to get you the right balance of medications and therapy. And you know, you can still be successful in life with a diagnosis like this, but it takes a lot of work.”

The Oregon Psychiatric Security Review Board will determine when Marlow can be released.