THE FAMILY of a grandmother executed in the doorway of her own home in Stockton has spoken out after a contract killer "thug" and his getaway driver were sentenced to jail.
Stacey Klimovitch was shot dead at point blank range after answering a knock on the door of her Queen Street home about 8pm on June 9, 2021.
The 61-year-old swimming instructor's only crime had been trying to protect her daughter from a manipulative drug dealer, Stuart Campbell, who ultimately hatched the chaotic plot to assassinate her.
He recruited Canberra "thug" Jason Paul Hawkins as a hitman and a former bikie that owed him a favour, Stephen John Garland, as the getaway driver.
Hawkins was on Friday sentenced in the NSW Supreme Court in Newcastle to 32 years behind bars, with 24 years' non-parole, after a jury found him guilty of murder.
Prosecutors had been pushing for a life sentence.
The 48-year-old had always maintained a "fanciful" story of innocence and sat shaking his head in the dock as Justice Peter Hamill told him his fate.
After months of investigation and nine weeks of trials and denials last year, Mrs Klimovitch's grieving family saw it as a final show of disrespect.
"It's not life but he's turning 50 in a couple of years so it could be his life, we don't know," sister Bronwyn Scheffer said outside court on Friday.
"I think we're all a bit glad it's over, we're a bit shell-shocked I think ... it's still unbelievable that she was taken from us like that."
"Now this is finished, it's a chapter done, and maybe we can move on grieving without all the other feelings."
Ms Scheffer said her big sister was an amazing person who would be remembered for much more than her murder, a crime so horrific it sent shockwaves through the Stockton community and beyond.
"She was just larger than life, she was full of energy," she said.
Hawkins will be eligible for release in 2045, and his total sentence will expire in 2043.
Mrs Klimovitch's family wept in court as the sentence was handed down.
"In many ways it was an incomprehensible crime, and in every way, a callous and brutal one," Justice Hamill told the court.
"Nothing I can say today can alleviate the grief and trauma this family has to endure."
As Hawkins was led to the police cells, he had some final words for Justice Hamill.
"I'm gonna appeal, Your Honour," he said.
Mrs Klimovitch was the victim of a targeted execution masterminded by Campbell, her former son-in-law, over an ugly and ongoing dispute between the pair.
Campbell was charged with murder but died in jail before facing trial.
Justice Hamill found that by the time Hawkins left Newcastle bound for his home in Canberra after a quick visit on June 6, 2024, he had become wrapped up in the planning of the chaotic murder plot.
Why he agreed to carry out such a horrendous crime, only he and Campbell knew.
"One of those men is dead, and the other denies any involvement at all," Justice Hamill said.
The only evidence of payment was a few hundred dollars for car registration.
Justice Hamill found the motive was not "misguided loyalty" but likely a combination of the supply of drugs - or the promise of drugs - and the power dynamic between Hawkins and the manipulative Campbell.
Justice Hamill said Hawkins had carried out a "premeditated assassination" and a "cold-blooded execution of a person with which he had no grievance" when he knocked on Mrs Klimovitch's front door and fired a shotgun at her at close range when she answered.
He had never even met her.
Mrs Klimovitch's daughter Alex and baby grandchild were home at the time.
"This is a very grave example of the crime of murder," Justice Hamill said.
But Hawkins wasn't acting alone on that life-changing winter night - he needed a getaway driver.
Campbell recruited Garland into his tangled web.
Garland agreed to drive Hawkins over the Stockton bridge, where he waited for him, then drove the getaway car.
A NSW Supreme Court jury last year found Garland didn't know he was giving Hawkins a lift to carry out a murder, but did know that something criminal was going to unfold, and found him guilty of manslaughter.
On Friday, he was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison, with four-and-a-half years' non-parole.
"He knew little of the planning and was kept in the dark as to the true nature of the criminal enterprise," Justice Hamill said.
Garland made an unusual request to address Mrs Klimovitch's family directly in court this week, a day after their heart-wrenching victim impact statements.
He cried as he read a letter he'd penned, which Justice Hamill found showed his genuine remorse, despite his efforts to set up false alibis in the months after the execution.
"I'm so, so very sorry for my involvement in this very sad and tragic crime," he said at the time.
"I made the biggest mistake of my life by driving that night, and nothing I say or do will bring Stacey back."
The court heard details of Hawkins' depraved and traumatic upbringing, and other subjective matters in Garland's background.
