Three men will each spend at least 15 years in jail for the "crack house" murder of a Sydney man whose naked, beaten and stabbed body was dumped next to a house.
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But a NSW Supreme Court judge hasn't been able to say for certain who stabbed Jamie Phillips in the heart during the fatal fight on October 25, 2018.
Mr Phillips, 46, was set upon by three apparent strangers in a bedroom of a home Justice David Davies said was "notorious" as a "crack house".
"It had all the hallmarks of commercial premises, albeit illegal commercial premises," he said on Friday.
A jury this year was told a close friend of Mr Phillips, also in the home at the time, heard what sounded like furniture being moved in the bedroom.
"It's alright ... it's just us boys sorting out our s***," she was told through the closed bedroom door.
By the time she passed the room later and glimpsed the bottom of Mr Phillips' downward-pointing shoe, Mr Phillips was either dead or dying, the judge said.
The three murderers confined the woman to another room before moving Mr Phillips' body to one of their cars.
Deciding against going to a hospital, they settled on dumping his body by the side of a nearby house.
One of the men and his girlfriend then burned the victim's clothes in a 44-gallon drum, the judge said.
Sean David O'Keefe, 39, said he stabbed Mr Phillips in self-defence after Mr Phillips lunged without warning.
But a jury in February rejected that account, instead finding O'Keefe, Barry Paul Cavanagh and Nathan McIvor guilty of murder.
The 12 jurors had heard evidence O'Keefe was pressured to put up his hand and that he would be looked after by "the boys" if he did so.
But a lack of evidence meant Justice Davies couldn't be sure which of the 39-year-old offenders stabbed Mr Phillips, except to say it was likely not McIvor.
Similarly, the judge couldn't say who inflicted the most serious blows, and coudln't be satisfied to the criminal standard the offenders intended to inflict serious harm.
Scant evidence of motive pointed to an argument over drugs.
Noting Cavanagh had run from a violent home aged 10 and become a state ward aged 12, Justice Davies said Cavanagh "scarcely stood a chance" of avoiding a life of crime and was a high risk of reoffending without substantial treatment in prison.
O'Keefe had struggled with ADHD and drug use and was genuinely remorseful for Mr Phillips' death but maintained he acted in self-defence.
Remorse was also shown by McIvor, whose upbringing in a good home came undone when the victim of a serious crime in his early teens that "permanently impaired" him.
Justice Davies sentenced McIvor to 20 years in prison, setting a non-parole period of 15 years.
The other men received 21 years and minimums of 15 years, nine months.
McIvor will be the first eligible for parole, in March 2039.
Australian Associated Press
