SELDEN (WABC) -- They say if you had Chris White as a friend you would never be alone, you would never be sad and you would always have a helping hand.
"Loved life, fun, someone who would get you to smile if you're sad. Now he's gone," said his friend Dennis Madsen.
His friends and family demanding his death not go in vain today were at the sentencing of the man who hit and killed him while driving high on heroin -- Paul Porrini of Selden.
Another friend Frank Bania said "I don't think he knows what he did. I still don't think he knows what he did right now. He's just a man with no life who took a man with a life."
It was last September when White was participating in a motorcade for a WWII veteran who was flying out of MacArthur airport to Washington. Porrini blew through a red light and hit White - killing him instantly.
Through sobbing tears -- His wife Dottie addressed Porrini in court today
"Half of my heart went to heaven on September 28th. My heart breaks for my three sons."
Porrini - a father of four sons himself - addressed the weeping coutroom saying he's sorry and that:
"I would give up my whole life for him to be back here."
But Chris White is not coming back.
And for that the judge says he's going to make sure Porrini serves every last second allowed in prison.
Despite the sentence of 3-9 years, Bania feels no closure.
"They say sentencing gives you closure it's just reopened the wounds to be honest. I don't have to look at his face anymore in court, other than that I don't know."