An Orange County, Calif. man involved in a 2009 car crash that killed TapouT co-founder Charles "Mask" Lewis today was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Jeffrey David Kirby, 53, was in December found guilty of one felony count of vehicular manslaughter by unlawful act with gross negligence while intoxicated. He faced sentencing enhancements for causing great bodily injury.
According to a report from "OC Weekly," Superior Court Judge Richard F. Toohey heard victim-impact statements from Lewis' siblings, as well as TapouT co-founder Dan "Punkass" Caldwell and Lewis' girlfriend, Lacy Lynn White, before handing down the sentence
White was riding with Lewis in his 2004 Ferrari at the time of the accident and suffered serious injuries when she was ejected from the car. Lewis died instantly.
Kirby faced a maximum of 13 years in prison. It was his second drunk-driving conviction.
Kirby was speeding his 1977 Porsche alongside Lewis' in the early-morning hours of March 11, 2009, when he lost control of his car and hit Lewis. Lewis' car crashed into a cement light pole and was torn in half. Kirby fled shortly thereafter.
A Newport Beach Police officer witnessed the crash and called officers to the scene, where Lewis was pronounced dead.
Another Newport Beach Police officer apprehended Kirby and a female companion, Lynn Marie Nabozny, after they were caught fleeing the Porsche in a nearby parking lot. The officer said Kirby appeared to be under the influence of alcohol.
Kirby had a blood-alcohol level of .13 percent two hours after the crash, according to a release issued by the Orange Country District Attorney's office following his conviction. Nabozny was arrested for public intoxication and later released.
News of Lewis' prompted an immediate outpouring of shock and grief from the MMA community.
Lewis founded TapouT Clothing Inc. in 1997 with a trunk full of T-shirts and a few thousand dollars of start-up money. Over the past decade, he and his partners turned the company into the biggest apparel success story in MMA.
Tapout, which grossed just $30,000 in sales in 1999, pushed that number to more than $100 million in 2008 alone. Authentic Brands Group purchased the company in September for an undisclosed sum.
A longtime comic-book fan, Lewis and his colleagues, "Punkass" and "Skyscrape," went the make-up-and-costume route soon after launching the company from a San Bernardino apartment. The costumes, grassroots-marketing efforts and an often-praised work ethic made the crew celebrities in their own right.
"I knew him for 20 years," TapouT co-founder Dan "Punkass" Caldwell said in an interview on the one-year anniversary of Lewis' death. "He was my best friend in the world. I feel like I learned so much in that period of time with him. I just want to use that experience and use that knowledge to go out there and affect people like he would have wanted.
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