TUSCUMBIA ‑ A Colbert County Circuit Court jury deliberated for more than three hours today before finding former Sheffield teacher Amanda Watkins guilty of rape and sodomy charges involving a 15-year-old student.

Watkins, 39, faces a prison sentence of 2-20 years on each charge. She will be sentenced at a later time.

Watkins, a former English teacher at Sheffield Junior High School, was arrested in December 2009 and charged with second-degree rape and second-degree sodomy after Muscle Shoals police caught her having sex with a 15-year-old boy in the backseat of her car.

She was fired from her job in January 2010 and did not appeal the action.

In her trial, which got under way Monday, defense attorney Ralph Holt contended Watkins was mentally ill at the time she was arrested and did not appreciate the wrongfulness of having sex with an underage male.

Colbert County District Attorney Bryce Graham Jr. and Assistant District Attorney Angela Hulsey said Watkins was thinking clearly and knew it was wrong to have sex with a 15-year-old student.