A woman has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for first-degree child abuse after a violent assault on a 7-year-old girl in Waldorf, Maryland, last year.

Renee Daytona Roberts, 45, pleaded guilty on March 13 to first-degree child abuse resulting in severe injury, Charles County State’s Attorney Tony Covington said in a news release Wednesday. 

The charges stem from a Jan. 8, 2024, incident at a Patient First medical facility in Waldorf. Just before 8 a.m., witnesses saw Roberts lift the child over her head and slam her onto the concrete in the facility’s parking lot, Covington’s office said. Officers with the Charles County Sheriff’s Office responded to reports of an assault and reported finding Roberts restrained on the asphalt by bystanders.

Witnesses told authorities they had intervened to separate Roberts from the child, placing the girl into a car before deputies arrived. As officers tried to arrest Roberts, she bit three of them, according to the sheriff’s office.

The young girl was found in a nearby vehicle and transported to a hospital, where doctors diagnosed her with two skull fractures and a brain bleed.

The attack was captured by surveillance cameras, and Roberts later admitted she assaulted the girl because she “could not remember a religious prayer in its entirety,” Covington’s office said.

During sentencing, an assistant state’s attorney told the judge, “Certainly, there needs to be a heavy punishment for this and there needs to be protection of this child,” describing the assault as “quite frankly unimaginable and quite shocking to see.” 

Charles County Circuit Court Judge H. James West echoed these sentiments, calling the video evidence “shocking” and describing the case as deeply tragic. Judge West handed down a sentence of 25 years in prison, with all but 15 years suspended, including five years of supervised probation upon her release.