A 23-year-old Picton man who stabbed his friend to death after a play wrestle went awry has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 19 years behind bars.
On June 8, Dylan Anthony McColl faced a Supreme Court jury in Perth and was convicted of the murder of 24-year-old father-of-one Brent Charles Hurst Barton after a six-day trial.
The court heard on the evening of May 21 last year, the two friends were drinking in a shed at an Eaton residence on Hamilton Road when the pair engaged in a play fight which saw McColl put into a head-lock by Mr Barton.
Mr Barton let go and a visibly upset and angry McColl retaliated by punching Mr Barton to the jaw.
An apologetic Mr Barton stepped back and put his arms in the air in a mark of surrender.
McColl, a former abattoir worker, then pulled out a boning knife from his bag and lunging forward, stabbed Mr Barton in the left upper chest. As the victim turned around, McColl inflicted a second stab to the back of his chest.
Two other occupants in the shed punched and disarmed McColl who then fled the scene on a bicycle and offered the victim no assistance. Ambulances and police arrived, but Mr Barton died of his wounds.
WATCH: Forensic officers at the Eaton residence in 2015.
Senior state prosecutor Mr David Davidson said when McColl was later picked up by police, he denied stabbing Mr Barton and implicated the other two occupants were responsible.
Mr Davidson said McColl, who made no plea of guilty, had never made a clear acknowledgement that he had committed the stabbing murder and remorse on his part was “really non-existent”.
Justice Stephen Hall said McColl’s stabbing of Mr Barton on the second occasion when he was turning away was a “cowardly” thing to do and highlighted an intent to cause a life endangering injury.
Justice Hall also said McColl’s criminal conviction in 2013 which involved him threatening two people with a chainsaw, suggested he had poor impulse control and some propensity to violence.
He said the occupants of the Eaton residence, who were friends with both men, were haunted by the “the most terribly traumatic series of events”.
He said Mr Barton’s grieving family which includes his two-year-old daughter, his two sisters, and mother had been tragically affected.
McColl, who was remanded in custody since May 21 last year, will be eligible for parole in 2034.
