The suspect in the murder of a University of Maryland student in January of 2011 was sentenced to 49 years in prison on Wednesday, the Washington Post reports.

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Deandre Williams, 22, received the sentence in a Prince George's County courtroom in front of the family of Justin DeSha-Overcash, the Maryland student who was shot to death inside his Adelphi home during an alleged drug-related robbery.

Karen DeSha, Justin's outspoken mother, told the judge during the sentencing that she remains deeply depressed over the loss of her son.

"There will be nothing happening today that will help us," DeSha said in court Wednesday. Karen repeatedly and forcefully denied that her son was ever involved in dealing drugs, despite police saying that a scale, drug paraphernalia and packaging materials were found in Justin's 38th Street home.

"They're trying to say he's something he's not," she told ABC7's Ben Eisler the day after her son was murdered.

The shooting of DeSha-Overcash was just one in a string of murders during an incredibly violent month in Prince George's County. More than a dozen people were killed throughout the county in January of 2011.

READ MORE at WashingtonPost.com.