A Freeland woman who punched a store clerk to steal a $6 bottle of Fireball whiskey last month is not guilty by reason of insanity, her attorney asserts.

Prosecutors charged 26-year-old Ceaira R. Ekberg in Island County Superior Court with robbery in the second degree and resisting arrest. If convicted of the charges against her, she could face up to 14 months in prison under the standard sentencing range.

On Feb. 27, attorney Andrew Scott filed a notice of an insanity defense and a motion for a mental health evaluation. He wrote that Ekberg is experiencing a severe separation from reality and cannot adequately discuss the case with him. She has complex delusional beliefs that she is in a virtual reality simulation, that people she interacts with are actually dead, that an imposter stole her life and that she has deformed and electronic body parts that are malfunctioning, he wrote.

On March 5, a judge signed an order for a competency evaluation.

According to a report by a deputy with the Island County Sheriff’s Office, an employee at the Short Stop in Freeland confronted Ekberg when she left without paying for the bottle of alcohol. Ekberg hit the woman in the face and then attempted to drink the entire bottle, the report states.

The deputy found Ekberg walking on the side of Highway 525, told her she was under arrest and grabbed her arm. She pulled away and the deputy took her to the ground. While he was struggling with her, she tried to remove his gun from its holster, but he was able to regain control of her hands, the report states.

Two firefighters and an observer helped to handcuff Ekberg. The deputy sat on her on the side of the road for 15 minutes while he waited for backup, he wrote in his report.

Ekberg was transported to the hospital for an evaluation and then to the jail.