An aspiring actor who killed a fleeing home invader with a samurai sword seconds after being floored by a punch has been jailed for more than five years.
Blake Davis, 31, chased and then struck Jett McKee in the head with the sword after the ice-fuelled intruder fled Davis's Forest Lodge unit on August 10, 2018.
Moments earlier, Mr McKee had pointed a fake gun at Davis and his girlfriend Hannah Quinn inside the unit, threatened the lives of their families and punched Davis in the face with knuckledusters when told there was no cash on the premises.
The NSW Supreme Court fell silent as Justice Natalie Adams on Tuesday jailed Davis for five years and three months.
Davis, who will be eligible for parole in April 2023, shook as he learned his sentence before leaning forward in the dock with his hands across his face.
He successfully defended a murder charge at trial last year, having argued he was acting in defence of Quinn, but was found guilty of manslaughter.
The court heard Quinn had caught up with Mr McKee and pulled him to the ground outside the unit, with Davis slicing Mr McKee's head open as the fleeing invader was on his hands and knees.
Consistent with that verdict, Justice Adams said she was not satisfied Mr McKee was pointing the gun at Quinn at the time Davis dealt the fatal blow.
She sentenced Davis on the basis he "somehow misread the situation" about the threat Mr McKee posed to Quinn, not that he was a vigilante.
"He was suffering fear and trauma ... and was terrified for his girlfriend," she said.
"It would clearly have been a very traumatic event."
But that trauma didn't adequately explain his hiding of evidence and days on the run from police, she found.
Davis had expressed remorse for killing Mr McKee but that remorse hadn't extended to the crime of manslaughter, Justice Adams said.
"He regrets killing Mr McKee but denies killing him unlawfully," she said.
Davis was granted a 25-per-cent discount for an offer to plead guilty to manslaughter in 2019
Quinn, who was found guilty at trial of being an accessory after the manslaughter, will be sentenced in April.
