On Friday, Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard Toohey sentenced Kirby to nine years in prison for vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, causing gross bodily injury and having a previous drunk driving conviction.
He was given credit for 800 days served in custody and will have to serve 85% of his sentence, meaning he still has more than five years behind bars.
Lewis' death rocked the mixed martial arts sporting world. He was better known as "Mask," his alter ego that people identified with his TapouT clothing brand.
Kirby was drunk — prosecutors said he had at least eight drinks before driving — when his Porsche hit Lewis' Ferrari on northbound Jamboree Road about 1 a.m. March 11, 2009.
The collision sent Lewis' car careening into a light pole, splitting the Ferrari in half, killing Lewis and permanently injuring his girlfriend, Lacy White, who was riding with him.
No amount of prison time would bring back Lewis, 45, a father of two, his friends said.
"My brother paid the ultimate price for street racing with a drunk," Charles Lewis III told the judge before Kirby's sentencing Friday. "He took away my twin."
Nearly 10 people wanted to tell Toohey how this crash affected them so he could consider it before sentencing Kirby, but it was eventually reduced to only Lewis' closest friends and family.
"There's nowhere I can look where I have peace anymore," said Kaya Lewis, Charles' older sister.
She said everything, from sunsets to salt shakers, reminds her of her brother.
"He'll never get to walk his daughter down the aisle," she said. "When my granddaughter was born, he wasn't there. At some point and time, we all have to take responsibility for ourselves."
