The family of Lukas Strasser-Hird, a young man who was savagely assaulted and left for dead outside a Calgary nightclub in 2013, spoke in court on Monday, telling the judge about how his loss has affected their lives.

A number of family members said he was a happy person who got along with most everyone he met, taught himself guitar and had just come back from living for a year in Bolivia when he was attacked.

"Lukas had every right to a wonderful life and you violently took it because you couldn't take it like a man, him standing up to you," said his father, Dale Hird. "Seeing your child, your soul, lying on a gurney... I died inside but still have to live."

The people who were with Strasser-Hird when he died in hospital told the court that they would never forget his last breath.

His mother was on her way to hospital to see him but was not able to before he died. One of Strasser-Hird's grandmothers said it devastated his mother so much, she moved to Bolivia and cut ties with everything she had known.

“Not only did I lose my dear grandson, I lost my daughter, Audrey, as I once knew her,” she said. “She has shut out the world and her nightly prayer is that she won’t wake up to face another day, knowing that it would be without the most important thing in her life… her only child; her son.”

Other family members say they are haunted by nightmares of the night he died.

“The sound of the various medical machines are the background music of each dream – drowned out only by the sobbing, wailing sounds of my brother, pleading with god not to take his son from him. Pleading with god to take him instead,” said Mary Swaffield, Strasser-Hird’s aunt.

The three men who have been convicted in his death sat silently in the prisoner’s box while the statements were read.

Assmar Shlah and Franz Cabrera were found guilty of second-degree murder while Joch Pouk was convicted of manslaughter.

A fourth man, Nathan Gervais, has been charged with first-degree murder. He is wanted on a Canada-wide warrant but has not been arrested.

The Crown is seeking a seven to eight year sentence for Pouk, a 14-year sentence for Shlah and a 17-year sentence for Cabrera, but those terms are subject to change as they research the case heading into the sentencing hearing.

The defence did not share any details about sentence submissions.

Sentencing is expected to take place on later in January.