Family devastated by sentence handed down to ice-addict killer
A Melbourne ice addict could spend just the next four years in jail despite admitting to fatally shooting a garbage man he believed had robbed him.
The victim's family is devastated at the sentence handed to the killer, who claimed he acted in self-defence.
Scott McDonald was high on ice, paranoid and angry when he killed father-of-one Michael Jones.
The pair had stolen drug equipment from a farm and McDonald believed his victim was planning to double-cross him.
He thought he saw Mr Jones trying to break into his house, so in retaliation he armed himself with a sawn-off shotgun and went hunting for the garbage collector.
He came across his victim walking along a Heidelberg West street, pointed his shotgun from the window of his car, and shot Mr Jones in the chest.
The 49-year-old claimed self-defence but the court heard Mr Jones was alone and unarmed when he was murdered.
While Mr McDonald pleaded guilty to manslaughter, he had earlier faced trial for murder, but the jury could not read a verdict, so he cut his losses and accepted the lesser charge.
The victim's family broke down in court as Justice Jane Dixon read out his sentence – nine years in jail with a non-parole period of seven years.
With time already served, Mr McDonald is eligible for release in four years.
"I've lost my grandson, I'll never get over it," Mr Jones' grandmother Norma Smith said.
"I just have to remember him now and the way he was.
The family believes there needs to be harsher penalties.
