Travis Murray began serving a six-month jail term today for his role in a crash that killed an 11-year-old boy in front of the boy’s Waimanalo home two-and-a-half years ago.

State Circuit Judge Colette Garibaldi sentenced Murray this afternoon to five years of probation for negligent homicide and assault, but ordered him to spend the first six months of the sentence behind bars.

Honolulu police said Murray was racing with Herbert Kaio-Campbell on Kalanianaole Highway on July 25, 2010 when Kaio-Campbell crashed into the back of the car in which 11-year-old Samuel Kassebeer was riding. The impact ejected Kassebeer who died at the scene. Two others in the car suffered injuries.

Kaio-Campbell pleaded guilty to manslaughter. However, two days before his sentencing last March, he was found dead at his family’s Waimanalo home of an apparent suicide.