Marcia Mitchell, a mentally troubled mother who tried to smother her 7-month-old daughter in

a Buffalo hospital nearly two years ago, was ordered today to serve 3 years in prison.

Mitchell claimed that she was not acting rationally when she tried to smother her

"beautiful baby girl" Kelie at Women and Children's Hospital.

State Supreme Court Justice Penny M. Wolfgang cited her "duty" to protect children in

ordering the prison sentence.

After Mitchell insisted she misses both her daughters, the judge told the Batavia woman she

hopes she gets the mental treatment she needs in prison.

The judge also issued an order of protection, barring Mitchell from seeing Kelie until Nov.

30, 2019, unless mental health experts and the courts find her stable.

Defense attorney Barry S. Dolgoff told the judge that psychologist Charles Ewing has

diagnosed Mitchell as suffering from a syndrome in which a caretaker harms a child to draw

attention to themselves.

Mitchell pleaded guilty Feb. 4 to a violent felony charge of attempted first-degree

assault for attempting to smother her daughter with a pillow at Women and Children's Hospital

before nurses stopped her. Mitchell in January tried to commit suicide by swallowing a bottle

of aspirin.