The Amber Guyger murder trial fell on the week of Botham Jean's 28th birthday.
His family has turned their grief into a mission to help others like he did in life.
A few hundred people dressed up and headed to the Renaissance Hotel on Sunday in Dallas for the Red Tie Gala to celebrate his life and benefit the Botham Jean Foundation.
Described as a bittersweet celebration of a life well-lived and a light dimmed forever.
"I just wish he were here," said Allisa Findley, Jean's sister. "I could see him all over the room. He would've been taking over everything. You would've known his name and know everything about him by the end of the night if he was here."
By now, many know his name.
Botham Jean would've turned 28 on Sunday.
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"When I woke up this morning it was very emotional because I miss the first call I would've made this morning would be to Botham to wish him a happy birthday," said his mother Allison Jean.
The Jean family is determined to continue his legacy with the Botham Jean Foundation.
The foundation, Findley says, has already held a health fair, soccer clinics, helped an orphanage in their native St. Lucia and built a water well in Ghana.
Even those the young accountant worked with at PricewaterhouseCoopers have been inspired to: 'Be Like Bo.'
"What that means to me is Bo was someone who always saw the best in everybody at every situation," said Scott Moore, greater Texas market managing partner at PWC. "He was always happy. He was always bringing his friends to go do things for other people."
The celebration in Dallas taking place just as a verdict looms closer.
The trial of Amber Guyger, the former police officer who shot and killed Jean in his own apartment allegedly mistaking it for hers, and him for an intruder, is nearing an end.
The trial, Jean's mother says, has been difficult at times but necessary.
"It's very difficult during the time when they're playing the body cam footage and scene photographs but I want to see and hear everything that's happening in the courtroom because I'm standing for him. We are standing for him," she said.
The Botham Jean Foundation has also provided scholarships to four students at Jean's alma mater Harding University.
