A 24-year-old man was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday in connection with a suspected illegal street race in Hawthorne last year that killed a popular elementary school music teacher.

More than a dozen friends and family of the victim, Benny Golbin, 36, attended the emotional court hearing, including some who detailed how their lives have spiraled since the fatal crash.

Golbin’s wife, Anchesa Bunyasai, said that each time her husband would leave home, she would tell him to drive safely, even though in decades of driving he had never had a traffic ticket. She said she wonders if those words meant “anything at all” to the defendants in the case.

“To lose a good soul like that to a senseless car accident is demoralizing,” Bunyasai said.

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