South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • 17

PN Saturday, March 8, 2008 SOUTH FLORIDA 11B In Witt-: -jtne-is- aiaJi'--- '-W' 1 -s DOHAL GOLh RESORT SPA- 1 arch mm (Si 'MY FAULT': Annie Williams is escorted out of the courtroom after-her sentencing hearing Friday. Staff photoMichael Laughlin Grandmother gets 15 years in scalding She didn't get medical care for 3-year-old who later died -4i -wa- L-fu, mmM Anniversary Sale 1 1 it it if 1 frrff! I i 1 i Tm very sorry for what I did and what I didn't do. I have to deal with the fact that Jacquez is not here." Annie Williams Grandmother of Jacquez Mason Larry S. Davis said. "She blames herself." Williams provided around-the-clock care for five of her daughter's needy, sickly, disabled children, Davis said, shuttling them to endless doctor visits and therapy appointments.

"Her life has been one of helping," he said. Gesturing to photos of Jac-quez's raw, oozing flesh, scalded from ribs to toes, prosecutor Shari Tate said, "You don't need medical training to look at this and to know it calls for more than Ointment." Williams averted her eyes and bowed her head. Fearful that the other children would be taken away by the state, Williams said she turnedto home remedies rather than medical care, applying ointment, powdering the bed so Jacquez's legs would not stick to the sheets, and trying to quench his endless thirst. "He wasn't crying or screaming," she said. Mercy already had been extended to Williams, Weinstein said, when the state reduced its charges from first-degree murder punishable by life im-prisonment to aggravated manslaughter.

BY TONYA ALANEZ STAFF WRITER A Broward judge on Friday sentenced a grandmother to 15 years in prison for letting her severely burned 3-year-old grandson languish at her Deerf ield Beach home for a week without medical care before his death on New Year's Day 2006. Reticent and seemingly re-' signed to her mistakes, Annie Williams clutched a wadded tissue and told Circuit Judge Peter Weinstein she could not explain her failure to get medical care for her grandson, Jac-quez Mason. "I'm very sorry for what I did and what I didn't do," Williams said. "I have to deal with the fact that Jacquez is not here, and it's my fault." Williams had custody of Jacquez and four of his siblings. Against a court order, she had allowed the children a Christmas Day visit with her daughter, and the children's mother, Valerie Kennedy.

Kennedy dunked Jacquez into scalding bath water as punishment for dirtying his diaper on Christmas Day 2005. Williams took the boy to her home and doctored him with powder, ointments and children's Tylenol until he stopped breathing a week later. Kennedy, 32, is serving a 60-year prison sentence. Williams, 54, pleaded no contest in January to aggravated manslaughter and aggravated child abuse. In a negotiated plea deal, prosecutors agreed to a sentence of no more than 15 years in prison.

Defense attorneys on Friday asked Weinstein to consider less time and fashion a sentence that would mete out justice but also show mercy, saying Williams was a good person with no criminal priors and a lifelong history of caring for others. "There's no way to explain it away, Judge," defense attorney ,1: i i 4." i i nil tf 'f 1 5 I Rnrhnrn Mnrn is fc Professional Desianer IT'- INDUSTRY PARTNER Tonya Alanez can be reached or 954-356-4542. i V. iiJiii-N 1MB Norwalk talented design consultants will help you choose from thousands of fabrics and leathers and hundreds of styles, Creating rooms that translate your personality with custom upholstery in just 35 days. Two killed as tornado hits northern Florida MADE IN U.S.A.

Harden Lam Lee Masland Carpet Piatt Sherrili Star international Sunbrelia Fabrics Wesley Alien Custom Shoppe Brownstone DirectionaS Ello Hickory White Hooker Hunter Douglas CTNORWAUC 6599 N. Federal Hwy. Boca Raton (561)997-2102 10-7 10-6 Sun. 12-6 2515 State Road 7 Wellington (561)422-9901 10-7 10-6 Sun. 12-6 I I FURNITURE DESIGN Dian Chase, who lost her home in 1992 when Hurricane Andrew hit Homestead, was happy to survive the weather outside Tallahassee.

She was knocked to the floor in her bedroom when high winds blew the home off its foundation, ripped away the roof and damaged the brick fireplace. "It wasjust awful," said Chase. "This is my second round." Nearby, high winds blew Vivian Norton's sport utility vehicle off the road, and an 8-inch thick tree limb impaled the vehicle just after she and her daughter had gotten out. "It was real scary," Norton said. "I just thank God we got out of it." In Baker County in northwest of Jacksonville, Sheriff Joey Dobson reported that a brick home was destroyed, but there were no reports of THE ASSOCIATED PRESS lake city Officials say two people have died after a tornado ripped through Lake City in northern Florida.

Columbia County Emergency Management spokesman Harvey Campbell says a woman was killed Friday when a tree fell on her mobile home and a man was electrocuted when he was trying to connect a generator. Their names have not been released. That tornado was one of at least two that hit northern Flor-j ida on Friday, causing injuries, I destroying homes and knock-! ing down power lines. State emergency officials said tornadoes also touched down in the tiny coastal town i of Keaton Beach on the Gulf of I Mexico and Capitola, a neigh- borhood on the outskirts of Tal-f lahassee. In Capitola, a handful of homes were destroyed.

www.norwalkfurniture.com.