A Carbon County woman who previously admitted assaulting her young son, causing serious injuries to him, was sentenced on Tuesday to a state prison term.

Ashlyn Erin McCartney, 26, who now lists her address as the county prison in Nesquehoning, was sentenced by President Judge Roger N. Nanovic II to serve one to three years in a state correctional institution on a charge of aggravated assault, a felony 2.

She entered a plea to the charge after the district attorney’s office agreed to drop a felony 1 aggravated assault count, felony 3 endangering the welfare of a child and misdemeanor 2 simple assault.

She was charged by state police at Lehighton on Nov. 21, 2018, after troopers received information of child abuse.

Troopers said the boy, 4 at the time, suffered serious injuries inflicted by his mother including a brain bleed, bruises, contusions, eye injury, head injury and facial injuries.

McCartney admitted striking the child with a paddle so hard she broke the paddle. That happened when she was attempting to give him a bath and he was crying, she said.

The child was taken to the Lehigh Valley Hospital, Cedar Crest, for treatment and admitted to intensive care. At the time of his admission, an attending physician said the injuries were “life threatening.” He has since recovered and is in the custody of his father.

Nanovic asked McCartney how could she inflict such injuries on her son and for what reason. McCartney, who appeared for the sentencing proceeding via video from the county prison where she had been held since her arrest, only bowed her head and offered no explanation.

McCartney admitted to a drug addiction problem she said she has been struggling with for the last 12 years.

Her court-appointed attorney, Joseph V. Sebelin Jr., said that his client has participated and successfully completed at least four programs offered at the prison to help with her addiction and mental health issues, including a parenting class.

He said he did not offer her drug addiction as an excuse for what occurred, he said there was no excuse for her actions, but to give the court some insight to her problems.

McCartney told the court, “I just want to get my life back.”

McCartney also previously pleaded to a driving under the influence charge and was sentenced to serve one month to five years in a state prison, pay a fine of $1,500 and license suspended for 18 months. The prison term runs concurrent with the assault charge.

She was also ordered to get both drug and alcohol and mental health evaluations, supply a DNA sample, have no unsupervised contact with her son, get her GED diploma, pay court costs of about $1,000 and make restitution of $8,384.18 to the state department of human services for medical bills.

She was given credit for 636 days already served in prison on the charges.

She will now be transferred to a state prison where the state department of collections will determine when she is paroled.