UNHAPPY with the quality of the methamphetamine they had purchased earlier that day, Dion Welsh and Joshua Rae went back to their drug dealer's house to make known their dissatisfaction late on the night of December 18, 2017.
But what Welsh didn't know was that Rae was armed with a sawn-off shotgun and he planned to use it.
Only moments after they burst through the door of the unit in Gordon Avenue, Hamilton, drug dealer Phillip Stennett grabbed an ornamental samurai sword and swung it at Welsh, striking him in the arm and leaving his DNA at the scene.
Then, Rae, calm as can be, raised a sawn-off shotgun to chest height, pointed it at Mr Stennett's head, said "F--- you, Phil" and then fired the weapon, blowing a hole in Mr Stennett's head that Rae later told an associate left "half his face hanging off".
Rae pleaded guilty to discharging a firearm with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and was last month jailed for a maximum of 11 years, with a non-parole period of more than eight years.
But Welsh ultimately pleaded guilty to a less serious charge of aggravated enter with intent to commit intimidation, because the prosecution were unable to prove Welsh knew Rae was armed with the sawn-off shotgun before they entered the unit. Welsh, already institutionalised after spending much of his adult life behind bars, was on Friday jailed for a maximum of three-and-a-half years, with a non-parole period of one year and nine months.
He will be eligible for parole in February, 2020.
Welsh told a sentence hearing that he had only met Rae on the day of the shooting and had given him money to buy methamphetamine from Mr Stennett.
But later in the day Rae became displeased with Mr Stennett because of the quality of the drugs.
Rae, Welsh and a third unidentified man returned to the unit about 10.30pm on December 18, 2017.
They pushed past the person who opened the door, Welsh was struck with the sword and then Rae fired the shot into Mr Stennett's face.
A month after the home invasion, Rae still believed Mr Stennett had died in surgery as a result of the gunshot wound.
"I shot him in the face," Rae told an associate on January 12, 2018. "I went there with a couple of mates and he got a bit cheeky. You can Google it."
