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Lacey Spears sentenced, Lacey Spears, the mother who was found guilty of poisoning her 5-year-old son with salt, was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison on Wednesday morning.

The mother, 27, documented her son Garnett's battle with a mysterious illness at length on social media. Prosecutors said she enjoyed the "attention and sympathy" she received from having a sick child.

After the 5-year-old died on Jan. 23, 2014, Spears was charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter.

A doctor testified in February that the mom "just had a smile on her face" when he told her that the boy's bloodwork showed elevated levels of sodium.

Another friend said Spears seemed "withdrawn" during her son's final days.

"When I walked into the room, Garnett was on the bed with hospital staff around him," Danielle Grossenbacher told the court. "His body was flailing all over the bed and he was unresponsive."

She added: "I did not see her cry."

Police who searched the mother's house after her son's death said they found two feeding bags that tested positive for sodium, as well as an open container of sea salt. A neighbor testified that Spears asked her to hide the bags in question.

Spears's online history allegedly showed that she had been researching the dangers of sodium. And before his death in January 2014, Garnett had previously been treated for salt poisoning as an infant.

But Spears maintained her innocence throughout the trial, saying her son may have been responsible for his own death. According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE, she told authorities "the victim would once in a while play with his feeding tube and could have put something into it."

Prosecutors asked for the maximum sentence, 25 years to life, at Wednesday's hearing, CBS New York reports. 

Lacey Spears sentenced:Mom Gets 20 Years To Life For Poisoning Son To Death With Salt, Lacey Spears, 27, was sentenced to 20 years to life in the salt poisoning death of her 5-year-old son Garnett on Wednesday. Prosecutors said Spears fed her son large amounts of salt through a gastrointestinal feeding tube, causing brain swelling, seizures and death. Spears chronicled her son's illnesses on a motherhood blog.

A suburban New York mother who blogged about motherhood was sentenced by a judge to 20 years to life in prison on Wednesday for murdering her young son with a salt overdose so she could bask in social media attention about his mysterious illness.

The sentence imposed on Lacey Spears, 27, who chronicled her 5-year-old son's illnesses on a personal blog called "Garnett's Journey" and other social media, was less than the maximum penalty of 25 years to life requested by the prosecution.

"By not imposing the maximum, I'm exhibiting something you didn't show your son - namely mercy," said Judge Robert Neary in the Westchester County Courthouse in Valhalla.

A jury convicted Spears of second-degree murder in Garnett's 2014 death at Westchester Medical Center.

Assistant District Attorney Doreen Lloyd described Garnett as a normal, healthy child whose illnesses were induced by his mother, who eventually killed him by putting a lethal amount of salt into the hospitalized boy's feeding tube, all the while blogging and posting pictures to Facebook.

"She continued to portray him as a sick child for her own bizarre need for attention. She used that feeding tube as a weapon to kill him," Lloyd said.

"Garnett Spears should be in school today but he's not because his mother murdered him," she said.Defense lawyers, who asked for the minimum sentence of 15 years to life and filed a notice of appeal on Wednesday, said Spears was innocent and blamed the hospital for negligence.

Spears, who lived in Chestnut Ridge, about 32 miles (51 km) north of New York City, declined the judge's request to make a final statement, standing with her wrists cuffed behind her.

The judge described her as mentally ill and identified her condition as "Munchausen by proxy syndrome," in which a caregiver fabricates a medical problem for someone in their care.

"Your crime is unfathomable in its cruelty. How could a mother ever treat her child in such a callous, inhumane manner?" the judge said.

Spears told investigators that her son, whose father was killed in a car accident, suffered from a slew of medical problems from Crohn's disease and Celiac diseases to ear abnormalities, according to court papers.

The child had been hospitalized with gastrointestinal symptoms that prosecutors say his mother induced.

Spears had moved with Garnett from Decatur, Alabama, to Clearwater, Florida, to Chestnut Ridge.