EVERETT — An Everett man was sentenced to six months in jail Thursday for throwing his infant onto a bed, resulting in a brain bleed.

In August, Shane Cowherd, 37, pleaded guilty to third-degree assault of a child. The standard sentencing range for the crime is one to three months, but the defendant agreed to an “exceptional” sentence in his plea deal.

Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Edirin Okoloko followed the recommendation, leaving the defendant with some strong words.

“Your behavior towards this child was just utterly deplorable, I can’t describe it in any other way,” Okoloko said. “This young child will have her path altered at the hands of her own father. … I hope that you can learn from this, because life is going to throw you challenging circumstances, and how you respond to those circumstances will determine whether or not you’re in front of a court again.”

In July 2018, the defendant brought the injured infant, who was weeks old, to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett, claiming he fell on top of her. A nurse observed the child’s injuries, such as a deep purple mark on her chest and red lines on the side of her body, didn’t match Cowherd’s description of the events, according to charging papers.

Cowherd reportedly told officers the baby had started crying at his house. She had a wet diaper, but after he changed it, she kept crying, he reported. He claimed he noticed her mouth was bleeding when he tried to give her a bottle.

The father told officers he then picked her up and ran to the bathroom, when he tripped and fell on to her.

Detectives followed up with a doctor, who said the infant had a brain hemorrhage. The doctor reported this type of injury would be unusual in Cowherd’s version of the events.

Cowherd spoke with investigators a couple days later. A detective confronted the defendant.

Cowherd reportedly changed his story.

“I panicked, she wouldn’t stop crying so I tossed her on the bed,” Cowherd said, according to the charges.

He reportedly told detectives he was so frustrated and tried everything to get her to stop crying, according to the charges. When he threw her, she immediately stopped crying.

Cowherd flipped her over and noticed she wasn’t responsive. The infant’s eyes started rolling back.

Eventually, she started crying again, and Cowherd sought help from his roommates, prosecutors wrote.

He told police he didn’t tell the truth earlier because he was “scared of losing everything,” according to the charges.

In July 2020, an assessment from the child’s physical therapist said she presented with normal range of motion, strength, gait and coordination, according to court documents.

However, the detective followed up with the girl’s foster mother in August 2020. The foster mother said the girl had trouble sleeping and nursing, and wasn’t acting like a normal infant. She was “very sensitive to light, movement, and sound and at times would not make eye contact,” prosecutors wrote.

The doctor who initially examined the infant told prosecutors the injury could be life-threatening and the majority of infants who are injured in this way have “some degree of permanent brain injury,” according to court documents.

In October 2020, the child’s physical therapist noted a “history of delay but now meeting milestones on time,” according to court records.

Prosecutors charged Cowherd in 2020 with second-degree assault of a child, two years after the incident.

Cowherd’s defense attorney, Kimberly Sloan, said her client had no felony criminal history, lost all parental rights to the child and posed no threat to the community.

“Mr. Cowherd was under an enormous amount of stress and fatigue at the time of this incident,” Sloan wrote in court documents.

Cowherd was providing for his family while in extreme poverty, according to court documents. The mother suffered from mental health issues associated with losing a previous child, so Cowherd was responsible for the child’s care, his defense attorney wrote.

In court Thursday, deputy prosecutor Caleb Nagel said the child is still living with developmental delays. He said the girl’s adoptive family agreed with the resolution in the case.

Cowherd declined to speak in court.

Jonathan Tall: 425-339-3486; jonathan.tall@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @EDHJonTall.