SAN ANTONIO – The arrest of 48-year-old Gloria Rosas Proo, the step-grandmother of 5-year-old Josiah Williams, has led to the release of some disturbing details of the boy's alleged abuse.
Proo, who was arrested Thursday night, is the third person to be charged with injury to a child in this case.
Josiah's father and step-mother, Charleston and Crystal Williams, were arrested last Friday. Proo is the mother of Crystal Williams.
Police were called to the family's home in the 3900 block of Gayle Avenue Dec. 27 and found Josiah not breathing.
The Bexar County Medical Examiner's office performed an autopsy on the child the following day and reported that he was malnourished –just 38 pounds—and showed signs of physical abuse.
New details about that alleged abuse have come out in Proo's arrest warrant affidavit.
The document states that a witness came forward, pointing the finger at Proo as the person who was in charge of disciplining Josiah.
That witness and another person both told investigators they saw Josiah being denied food while other children in the home were fed, and being forced to stand in a corner for hours at a time, the affidavit stated.
One person also mentioned seeing Proo bang the boy's head against a wall several times, the affidavit stated.
Another witness told police he saw a closet wall with a hole about the same size around as Josiah's head that had dried blood in it, the affidavit stated.
In the affidavit, police said they also interviewed another child in the home and he told them he once saw Proo cruelly taunt Josiah by first convincing him it was OK for him to drink a soda, then laughing in his face when he found the soda bottle empty.
After Josiah's death, Child Protective Services took custody of the other two children in the home, police said.
Proo is being held in the Bexar County jail with bond set at $75,000.
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