Photos: Stacey Graham change of plea hearing

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Chaplain Deb Casello, left, consoles grieving mothers Shanna McPheters, center, and Dayna Durr after Stacey Allen Graham pled guilty to two counts of second-degree murder during a change of plea hearing in an Anchorage Superior courtroom on Monday, Oct. 6, 2014. Police said Graham was drunk behind the wheel of a pickup when he jumped the curb along Abbott Road in August 2013 colliding with Brooke McPheters and Jordyn Durr, both 15, who were walking along the sidewalk on their way back from shopping for back-to-school supplies. The teenaged girls were pronounced dead at the scene.

Stacey Allen Graham pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder during a change of plea hearing in an Anchorage Superior courtroom on Monday, Oct. 6, 2014. Police said Graham was drunk behind the wheel of a pickup when he jumped the curb along Abbott Road in August 2013 colliding with Brooke McPheters and Jordan Durr, both 15, who were walking along the sidewalk on their way back from shopping for back-to-school supplies. The teenaged girls were pronounced dead at the scene.

Clint Campion, deputy district attorney, said the prosecution upped the minimum number of years Graham could spend in jail under the deal, while also providing a cap "so he understands what the very worst outcome could be."

While handcuffed to another inmate, Graham reached for tissues and wiped his eyes during the hearing. The mothers of McPheters and Durr huddled with their arms stretched around one another in the front row. They sat between their husbands and two uniformed chaplains with the police department.

Graham's attorney, James Christie, wrote in an email that his client hoped his guilty plea brought "some level of closure to those whose lives were forever altered by his decision to drink and drive."

"Mr. Graham is a good person who made a terrible decision, and hopes that his case serves as a caution to anyone tempted to drink and drive," Christie wrote.

Read more: Anchorage man pleads guilty in DUI deaths of 2 teen pedestrians