Dael Newman claimed he wanted a “quick snatch and grab” when he broke into a couple’s rural home.
But instead of stealing cash and weed from what he had presumed was an empty home, Mr. Newman stabbed to death a person who was living with cancer.
David Gaskell and his wife Karen Lyons were enjoying a peaceful evening watching late cricketer Shane Warne’s memorial service on March 30, 2022, when they heard Mr. Newman in their kitchen.
Mr. Gaskell, who was wearing an oxygen mask, had battled cancer for two years but was finally on the road to recovery when Newman broke in.
Newman was returning after previously stealing cannabis from the house at Manangatang in Victoria’s northwest when the couple were not there.
Mr. Gaskell and his two dogs confronted Newman in the kitchen and told him to get out of the house.
Mr. Newman, who had his face covered, tried to taser Mr. Gaskell, but it did not work, and when the dogs started biting at his legs, the burglar grabbed a knife from the bench.
He swung the blade at Mr. Gaskell, stabbing him several times in the chest, face, neck and arm before running to the front door.
Mr. Newman encountered Ms. Lyons at the door, who was trying to call for help, and slashed her middle finger and leg with the knife.
He took $200 from the kitchen bench and ran out to a waiting car.
A neighbour tried to save Mr. Gaskell, but he died as a result of the stab wounds.
When he was arrested, Newman told police he was desperate, broke and had planned to rob a drug dealer for “a quick snatch and grab” but it backfired.
He was jailed for at least 16 years in Victoria’s Supreme Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to the reckless murder of Mr Gaskell and recklessly injuring Ms Lyons.
Justice Jane Dixon said Newman should have seen people were home, given there was a car in the driveway, and the TV was on.
She said the stabbing was “reactive and impulsive” and both victims were entitled to feel safe in their own home.
“Even if the stabbing of Mr. Gaskell and the assault on Ms. Lyons resulted from sudden panic, the fact remains that you stabbed Mr. Gaskell to numerous parts of his body,” she said.
She handed him a maximum sentence of 21 years, lower than the standard sentence for murder, after taking into account his difficult upbringing and early confession.
He has already served 15 months of his sentence.
