A killer was acting like "everyone wanted to fight him" before he murdered a man he mistakenly blamed for stealing his satchel.
The impulsive and reckless stabbing that robbed Jordan Powell of his life has now cost Kenan Dowden-Carlisle, 20, his freedom for at least a decade.
Dowden-Carlisle was sentenced in the ACT Supreme Court on Friday to 14-and-a-half years in jail, with a non-parole period of 10 years.
The Queanbeyan man had previously pleaded guilty to the murder of Mr Powell, which occurred in a laneway beside a Civic pub in December 2021.
The senseless slaying took place after a chaotic 48 hours, during which Dowden-Carlisle drank copious amounts of alcohol, smoked cannabis and took Xanax tablets.
He did not sleep throughout the bender, during which he argued with and assaulted a friend who would later tell police he was "on edge" and "little things were ticking him off".
This friend went clubbing in Civic with Dowden-Carlisle the night before the killing, later describing the murderer as possessing an attitude that "everyone wanted to fight him".
The mindset was manifest when Dowden-Carlisle made his way to Petrie Plaza and, about 8.30am on a Saturday, accused a stranger of stealing a satchel that contained his drugs.
This person was Mr Powell, who had only just been released from the city police watch house after being detained for several hours under the Intoxicated People Act.
They "shaped up" to each other and exchanged blows before heading their separate ways.
When the pair quickly crossed paths and clashed again, an agreement was struck for them to have a fist fight.
They met in Bible Lane, beside the King O'Malley's pub, to thrash their issues out about 9.40am.
Mr Powell, a 29-year-old father of four nicknamed "Ducky", immediately took off his shirt and punched Dowden-Carlisle in the head.
Dowden-Carlisle did not fight back with his fists but instead pulled out a tactical knife, which he plunged into Mr Powell's heart with fatal effect.
It was all over nothing, with Dowden-Carlisle having forgotten he had in fact left his satchel in a Queanbeyan motel room.
Multiple members of the public tried in vain to revive Mr Powell, whose sister would later describe his untimely demise as a "death sentence" for his entire family.
Dowden-Carlisle was arrested about an hour later after a short foot pursuit.
He has been behind bars ever since, though some of the time he has served relates to a jail sentence for crimes committed before the killing. These include fighting in a public place.
On Friday, Acting Justice Stephen Norrish said Dowden-Carlisle had been on bail in the ACT for those offences at the time of the murder.
Dowden-Carlisle had also been given a community corrections order in the Queanbeyan Local Court just one month earlier in relation to an incident that involved multiple knives.
Acting Justice Norrish said the killer had been so intoxicated on the morning of the murder that he had limited memories of the offence, which now "does his head in".
He found Dowden-Carlisle's expressions of remorse over the incident to be genuine, noting the murderer had been emotional with a pre-sentence report author.
The judge ultimately described the murder as being of low objective seriousness compared with other crimes of its type, saying Dowden-Carlisle's actions had not been premeditated.
"The stabbing was the immediate reaction to being struck in the head," Acting Justice Norrish said.
He also rejected the prosecution's claims the killer had acted in a vigilante fashion to exact revenge over the missing satchel, rubbishing suggestions of "underworld enforcement".
While prosecutors alleged the substance abuse that resulted in Dowden-Carlisle's downward spiral had been purely a result of the killer's poor life choices, the judge disagreed.
He referred in this regard to factors like Dowden-Carlisle having been adopted, racially abused and bullied at school, and diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
While he acknowledged the killer had a poor record of compliance with community-based court orders, Acting Justice Norrish expressed hope things would be different when a more mature Dowden-Carlisle became eligible for parole in January 2032.
Dowden-Carlisle will be 29, the same age Mr Powell was, when that time comes.
