The Amber Guyger murder trial is taking a one-day in honor of Botham Jean's 28th birthday. By now, you've probably heard of Botham Jean. He's the young man who was murdered inside of his own home by a Dallas police officer, Amber Guyger. Guyger's defense is that she thought she was in her own apartment and mistakingly feared for her life, thus shooting and killing Jean.
His family has turned their grief into a mission to help others like he did in life.
A few hundred people dressed up and gathered together for the Red Tie Gala to celebrate his life and benefit the Botham Jean Foundation.
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"I just wish he were here," said Allisa Findley, Jean's sister to NBCDFW.com. "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."
"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.
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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.
Jean was a young accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Others at the company have adopted a saying: '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 trial, that is slowing coming to an end, 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.
