JUSTIN Fuller, who used two machetes to stab his half-sister's partner to death at Belmont South in 2018, the culmination of a bitter and long-running family dispute, will be out of jail in less than two years after he successfully appealed against the severity of his sentence.
Fuller, now 35, had seven months shaved off his non-parole period on Monday after his barrister, Winston Terracini, SC, successfully argued that Justice Richard Cavanagh had erred in not giving him a 25 per cent discount on his sentence for offering to plead guilty to manslaughter when the matter was still before the local court.
The plea offer was rejected by the prosecution and Fuller faced a murder trial in 2020 that ended with him being found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter after a jury found he was either provoked or acting in self-defence when he stabbed Guy McCulloch five times during a chaotic confrontation in Beach Street on December 19, 2018.
He was later jailed for a maximum of nine years with a non-parole period of six years and three months, making him eligible for parole in March, 2025, after Justice Cavanagh incorrectly gave him a 20 per cent discount for offering to plead guilty to manslaughter.
The sentence enraged Mr McCulloch's family, particularly his partner and Fuller's half-sister, Kristy Duley, who stormed out of the courtroom.
Fuller launched an appeal against the severity of his sentence in the Court of Criminal Appeal (CCA), arguing not only that the discount was incorrect but that Justice Cavanagh had erred in finding the objective seriousness of the killing was "well above mid-range".
The final ground of the appeal was that the jail term was "manifestly excessive".
Mr Terracini had submitted during an appeal hearing in May that Fuller was not the aggressor when he returned to Beach Street armed with the machetes after Mr McCulloch had earlier twice rammed his vehicle.
Mr Terracini also said Fuller could have thought his then partner, who was in the car at the time it was rammed, had been forced into Mr McCulloch's car and Fuller was hanging onto the side of Mr McCulloch's car - which had just been reversed towards him - when he stabbed him repeatedly through the window.
"As against these factors, his Honour found that [Fuller] decided to bring knives to the scene, brandish them and then chase the deceased's vehicle with them in his hands," Justice Adams said in a published judgment. "The deceased was sitting in his vehicle, defenceless, at the time he was stabbed to death. "The use of weapons was an aggravating feature, as was the "extreme force" used and the public nature of the violence."
The CCA delivered its judgment on Monday, upholding the ground about the discount but dismissing the other two grounds.
The CCA re-sentenced Fuller to a maximum of eight years and four months, with a non-parole period of five years and eight months, meaning he will be eligible for parole in August, 2024.
