Father gets life with parole for killing baby

A Heath man who beat and shook his 3-month-old daughter to death was sentenced to life in prison Monday with no chance of parole for 15 years after admitting his guilt.

Ryan A. Mosholder, 26, pleaded guilty to murder in the March 6 death of daughter Bri’Anna.

Licking County Common Pleas Judge Thomas Marcelain handed down the sentence for one count of murder and one count of child endangering, merging the two offenses to reach Mosholder’s life sentence.

Bri’Anna’s body was found on a closet shelf in an apartment; she had suffered severe head trauma, fractured ribs, a lacerated liver and bruises all over, said Licking County assistant prosecutor Paula Sawyers.

Mosholder’s brother called 911 after he received text messages from Mosholder saying that “he had done something unforgivable and was going away for a long time if the police were called,” according to court documents.

Mosholder declined to speak during his sentencing; he teared up briefly when his verdict was read.

Defense attorney Andrew Sanderson said Mosholder found himself in this situation in part because of his addiction to methamphetamines, something that put his decision-making skills Ryan A. Mosholder, 26, of Heath, sits in his sentencing hearing in Licking County Common Pleas Court on Monday. He was given life in prison without chance of parole for 15 years for murdering his 3-month-old daughter by beating and shaking her. “completely out the window.”

“There’s nothing I can say that at all changes what happened. Mr. Mosholder knows that. He knows that his actions led to the death of an individual,” Sanderson said.

Bri’Anna’s maternal grandparents, Calista Puryear and Lawrence Steele, both expressed forgiveness to Mosholder during the hearing but did not hold back their feelings about his crimes.

“I forgive you, but I am not your friend,” Steele said to Mosholder, who did not face Steele while he spoke.

Steele also wished Mosholder’s family peace.

“We all lost something, not just us,” he said. “We all lost something, even him.”

While Puryear spoke, she held an airbrushed T-shirt of Bri’Anna that she said she has worn only once, to a candlelight vigil for her granddaughter. She keeps the shirt hanging in her bedroom so she can remember the girl she described as a doll baby with an angel face and gray eyes.

After the hearing, Puryear said there’s no real way of getting over Bri’Anna’s death; memories of her still pop up all the time. However, knowing her granddaughter is at peace helps ease the pain, she said.

“Her name means ‘sent from heaven,’ and I’m sure she went back,” Puryear said. “She didn’t have to struggle to get there.”