HOLLIDAYSBURG — When Tarence Mosey gets released from prison — a decision now in the hands of the state parole board — he has plans.

Mosey and Samantha Paule –who grieves for the loss of her pregnant partner whom Mosey struck and killed in 2015 while driving under the influence — spoke Thursday in Blair County Court about joining efforts to address community youth on avoiding the use of alcohol and drugs.

“Together, I think we can make a bigger change,” Paule told Mosey, who said he wants to be a youth pastor.

Their conversation developed shortly after Mosey, 26, rendered guilty pleas to homicide by vehicle while DUI and related charges, the same offenses he pleaded to three years ago in exchange for a three- to six-year sentence.

“I’m very moved,” defense attorney Thomas M. Dickey said while observing his client and Paule. “This is truly a beautiful closure for what was a very tragic accident.”

In 2016, Logan Township police charged Mosey in the death of Brandyn Boyd, 29, who was standing near her disabled car on the North Eighth Street Bridge. The unborn child that Boyd and Paule had plans to raise also died of injuries from the crash.

“I made a bad decision, a bad choice, and I live with that every day of my life,” Mosey said.

Judge Timothy M. Sullivan, who accepted Mosey’s guilty pleas and imposed the new three- to six-year sentence, acknowledged that because of a Superior Court ruling in an appeal Mosey filed, Mosey was permitted to withdraw the guilty pleas rendered in October 2017.

The case was tentatively scheduled for a jury trial in August, but Dickey told Sullivan that Mosey insisted on rendering guilty pleas for the same sentence.

District Attorney Pete Weeks stressed to Mosey that while he has been jailed for about three years and will be credited for that time, his release will rest with the state parole board.

“So you could be incarcerated up to six years on this sentence,” Weeks said.

Mosey acknowledged that possibility and affirmed his acknowledgment to Sullivan, who told him that only the state parole board will decide when he is released. Mosey is incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Houtzdale.

Dickey told Sullivan that during Mosey’s three years in jail, Mosey has become stronger in faith and developed a desire to become a youth pastor. Mosey said he wants to help youth avoid drugs and alcohol, which lead to death or prison, or in his case, both.

“It was my faith that got me through this,” Mosey said.

Paule also acknowledged Mosey’s profession of faith as influential.

“Knowing you’ve found God makes my heart a little brighter,” she said to Mosey while speaking with him after court.

In court, Paule told Sullivan to reject the proposed plea because it offers no justice for the child she and Boyd planned to raise. Boyd was 39 weeks pregnant at the time of the crash.

Weeks acknowledged Paule’s position but said the state’s Motor Vehicle Code contains no language to address the death of a soon-to-be-born child.

“There were two lives lost here, but only justice for one,” Weeks acknowledged.

The remedy for that, Weeks proposed, would be a change in legislation. Paule said she is already pursuing that through a petition for Lauralynn’s Law, named

in memory of the nearly-born child and posted at www.change.org.

Weeks also said that if Mosey had opted for a jury trial, his office was prepared to prosecute the case that was scheduled for trial three years ago. Weeks said that former First Assistant District Attorney Jackie Bernard, who previously handled the case before she became a judge, left no stone unturned.

Weeks also praised Logan Township officer Chris Blough for a through investigation, which included an accident reconstruction report.

“Their efforts had us in a position to be ready to go to trial,” Weeks said.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 946-7456.