VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A family can now have closure after the man police said was responsible for its mother's death pleaded guilty.
Anthony Spence pleaded guilty to Aggravated Involuntary Manslaughter for a drunk hit-and-run in June 2018.
According to family, Maria Fox was a mother, grandmother and great grandmother and lived her life with forgiveness before she was hit and killed by a drunk driver on N. Great Neck Road at River Road.
Police said Spence left the crash before they arrived, but was eventually arrested and taken to the hospital for injuries.
Fox, 73, lived in Virginia Beach for 48 years where she would pray for others under the 'Blessing Tree' in her yard.
She was at her daughter's house on the night she was hit and killed. The family asked her to spend the night, but she refused.
"They asked her to stay to spend the night and she was like no, no, no. I want to go home and she was very stubborn about that," Sherry Mclachlan, Fox's daughter, said. "She was so healthy, she had no health issues. It's just not fair."
Spence isn't scheduled to be sentenced until January 29, 2020.
"I will forgive him, but he can't get away with doing this," Maclachlan said.
Now, he won't.