POTTSVILLE -- The family of a woman killed in a 2014 DUI crash left a courtroom in Pottsville, with tears in their eyes.
The family is still reeling from losing their matriarch, 61-year-old Mary Lou Leiby. Leiby's family faced her killer, 37-year-old Amy Boppel during a courtroom video conference.
In court, Boppel cried uncontrollably while pleading guilty to killing the grandmother from Ringtown.
The crash happened in June of 2014 in Butler Township. Boppel was driving under the influence and in the wrong direction when she hit the 61 year old head on. The grandmother's teenage grandson and a friend survived in the backseat. She was killed instantly.
"They lost their everything. She kept everyone together, their closeness. She was their idol. She was their god! Their everything," said Dorothy Stiener.
Steiner went to church with the deeply religious Mary Lou Leiby, and is still a close family friend. She know's first hand how the family is struggling, especially to forgive.
In court, Leiby's daughter-in-law told Boppel, "I do not wish anything good for you. I do not forgive you."
Leiby's grandson told the judge in a statement, "Since the day Amy Boppel took my grandmother's life, I struggle to get out of bed and have been unable to go to church since."
"They haven't and the daughter either. They just have felt like God has let them down, but it was actually the drinking and the drugs that let them down," added Steiner.
Michaeline Matz lost a loved one to a DUI crash and was injured in one herself. As a victims' advocate, she was in court to help console the Leiby family. This family's story though is one she see's all too often.
"There is only so much we can do, and the laws would have to change in order to give harsher penalties," said Matz.
Boppel has not been sentenced yet, but she faces 3 to 30 years in prison.