SAN ANTONIO — It took jurors just two hours to hand Crystal Williams the maximum sentence of 99 years Tuesday for not providing medical care to her 5-year-old stepson, who was battered and starved to death in 2012.

Josiah Williams was found lifeless Dec. 27, 2012, with two black eyes and other injuries. Crystal Williams, 31, was the first of three adults, including the boy's father, all charged with injury to a child, to face trial.

When state District Judge Ron Rangel read the jury's decision, Josiah's other relatives reacted with sobs and sighs of relief.

Crystal Williams expressed no emotion when Rangel formally sentenced her and when Barbara Perez, speaking for her cousin Carlotta Balleza, Josiah's mother, provided a tearful but angry victim impact statement.

"Your malicious intent is your claim to fame. A child died in your care," Perez said. "Dogs in the street are better mothers."

Perez added that she hoped everytime Williams closed her eyes in prison, she sees Josiah's face and hears his cries.

"Our faith tells us Josiah is in heaven," Perez said. "He'll never see you again because souls like you don't go there."

At least 11 Bexar County sheriff's deputies were in the courtroom following the verdict. Williams was told by a bailiff to be quiet when she said something to Josiah's relatives as she was led out of the courtroom.

Williams pleaded guilty last week, admitting she denied medical attention to her stepson. Another element of the charge was failure to provide him nourishment, but it was left out of an open plea of guilty to the jury

Trial testimony showed he weighed 38 pounds at the time of his death.

A Bexar County medical examiner's office autopsy listed dehydration to a battered, emaciated body as the cause of death, according to testimony, though a defense witness disagreed with the dehydration finding.

With a photograph of the tiny, bruised body of Josiah Williams before the jury, prosecutor Stephanie Boyd said to think of him when they decide Williams' fate.

"When Josiah died, he probably thought, 'I'm dying unloved, and I'm dying alone,' " Boyd told jurors in her closing arguments, urging a life sentence. "He died in a place with people who were supposed to love him, with no hope."

Defense attorney Ray Martinez reminded the jury that Williams admitted guilty and said they should punish her for what she did, not what she didn't do.

"They want you to find her guilty of starving him because of his appearance," he said. "With her plea, she's saying, 'I accept my role in this, just give me a fair shake.'"

Martinez argued that the medical examiner never determined a cause of death, but Boyd pointed to signed documents from that office that showed Josiah died because he was battered, undernourished and did not get medical treatment.

Boyd said the reason Williams never took Josiah to school or to the doctor was because teachers and medical personnel would have had to report his condition.

Williams must serve at least 30 years before she is eligible for parole. She was also fined $10,000.

Josiah's other relatives declined further comment until the other defendants — Josiah's father, Charleston Williams, 28, and step-grandmother, Gloria Proo, 51 — are tried.

ezavala@express-news.net

Twitter: @elizabeth2863