Family and friends shared heart-wrenching statements in court Tuesday, describing the devastating loss they felt following the 2015 murder of Luka Gordic.

“To lose my child is an agony,” said Gordic’s father, Mitch, who was among 26 people to deliver victim impact statements at the sentencing hearing for Arvin Golic, one of four men convicted in the 19-year-old’s death.

“It’s like a sentence for us too—never-ending,” said Gordic’s mother, Clara, who asked the man at least partly to blame for her son’s death to look at her as she addressed the court.

“There are no words… We live with this every single minute of the day.”

Gordic was swarmed, beaten and stabbed to death in Whistler Village during the Victoria Day long weekend of 2015.

On Tuesday, family and friends described him as a vibrant young man with a bright future.

Golic, who was 18 at the time of the killing, was first charged with second-degree murder, but convicted on the lesser count of manslaughter in June.

He did not deliver the fatal blow, the court said, but did organize the beating after Gordic stood up for a young woman they both knew.

As many as 15 people were involved in the vicious attack, the beginning and end of which was captured by the surveillance camera of a nearby business. The fatal blow is believed to have been a stab wound directly to the heart.

The Crown is looking for a sentence of nine to 11 years for Golic. Tuesday was the first of three days in the sentencing hearing.

Family members say they’re happy justice is finally being served, but that the conviction does little to fill the void left by Gordic’s death.

“He was my best friend. I dream about him and…I miss him so much and, like I said, we’re going to fight for him every single day,” the victim’s brother, Milos, said in court Tuesday.

“There's no sentence that's going to make us feel good. We're devastated forever, but at the end of the day, we want this guy going to jail.”

Earlier this month, three other young men who can’t be named because they were minors at the time of the attack, were also found guilty in Gordic’s death.

One was convicted of second-degree murder, the others of manslaughter.

After the conviction, Crown lawyers said they will seek adult sentences for the three men.

Golic’s sentencing resumes on Wednesday.

With files from CTV Vancouver’s Maria Weisgarber