The federal government has agreed to pay $2 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the mother of 5-year-old Talia Williams.

Lawyers for the government and Talia’s mother announced the settlement in U.S. District Court on Tuesday. A federal judge could approve the settlement at a hearing in July.

Talia died July 16, 2005, after nearly seven months of almost daily beatings at the hands of her father, former Schofield Barracks soldier Naeem Williams, and her stepmother, Delilah Williams.

Talia’s mother, Tarshia Williams, filed a negligence and wrongful death lawsuit against the government over the inaction of U.S. Army and Schofield Barracks officials to prevent her daughter’s death. The lawsuit claims that federal employees failed to respond appropriately to the abuse her daughter was suffering and failed to report the abuse to the state Child Welfare Services branch, as called for in an agreement between the military services in Hawaii and the state.

"I will never have complete closure because my daughter is gone," Tarshia Williams told The Associated Press by phone after the hearing. "And all the abuse she went through, I will never get over that. My healing will never be complete."

In what was the first death penalty case to go to trial in the history of Hawaii’s statehood, a federal jury found Naeem Williams, 35, guilty last year of two counts of capital murder for causing the death of his daughter through child abuse and for killing Talia as part of a pattern or practice of abuse and torture. The jurors, however, could not agree to impose the death penalty, giving Williams a life prison sentence.

Delilah Williams, 31, pleaded guilty to murder for killing her stepdaughter through abuse and torture in a deal with federal prosecutors in exchange for a 20-year prison term. She has already completed nearly half of her sentence.

The settlement brings some relief because it ends years of litigation and prevents Tarshia Williams from having to return to Hawaii for a nonjury trial that was scheduled for June, she told the Associated Press.

"I just been through it last year," she said of testifying at the murder trial and sitting through graphic accounts of how Talia suffered. "I don’t have to go through all the things that happened to her all over again. It will always be in my mind. It will never go away."

At Naeem Williams’ trial, she testified that the last time she saw Talia was when the child left South Carolina to live with her father in Hawaii. She said the last time she spoke to Talia was by telephone on July 2, 2005.

Tarshia Williams’ lawyer Mark Davis said, "There were so many people who knew about the abuse, so many opportunities to remove the child from such a toxic environment."

Two workers at the child care facility on Schofield Barracks testified in trial last year that they took Talia to the base’s medical clinic 4 1⁄2 months before the girl’s death after finding bruises and what appeared to be scabs on Talia’s body. One said she spotted the injuries only after lifting up Talia’s shirt to apply sunblock.

The doctor who examined Talia at the medical clinic concluded there was no evidence of child abuse. He said flaking scabs on Talia’s skin were caused by a skin ailment and that other marks could have been caused by bug and spider bites.

Two military police officers and a military police investigator testified that just over two weeks before Talia’s death, they went to the Williams family quarters on Wheeler Army Airfield after a neighbor reported constant yelling and screaming coming from the home. They said they saw scratches on Talia’s face and a healed cut over the girl’s left eye. They said they left the home after Naeem Williams told them that another child had scratched Talia and that the cut was from a fall.

On more than one occasion, Williams’ military commander confined him to the barracks because of the numerous reports of the couple’s fighting. Delilah Williams testified that on one of those occasions she went to the barracks to confront her husband.

Davis said following the confrontation, Schofield Barracks officials charged Delilah Williams with endangering the welfare of a minor because she took Talia with her to the barracks. He said military officials later inexplicably dropped the charge.

Delilah Williams’ cousin, Chasidy Taijeron, said she called state Child Welfare Services from Texas to report the beatings eight days before Talia’s death. She testified she heard the couple beat and berate Talia during two long telephone conversations with her cousin.

Tarshia Williams had also sued the state over her daughter’s death but later dropped the lawsuit after discovering the Army failed to report the abuse to state officials.

State law requires medical professionals, school employees, law enforcement officers, child care providers and employees of agencies that provide sports or recreational activities to immediately report any suspected, actual or potential child abuse to the state Department of Human Services or police.

Davis says child abuse reports go up the chain of command in the military and for Schofield, it is the base’s provost marshal who passes those reports on to state authorities. He said he will propose federal legislation to match Hawaii’s reporting requirements.

"We hope that what may come out of this case are some fundamental, systemic changes," Davis said.

The settlement has been approved by the Justice Department, Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Helper said in court. He declined to comment after the hearing.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.