TROY McCosker - one of two men jailed for setting alight Wade Still at Whitebridge in 2018 - is appealing against the severity of his maximum 36-year jail term and says the judge erred when finding the murder would never have happened without his help.
Mr Still died after he was twice set on fire in a disused quarry off Oakdale Road in the early hours of August 20, 2018. It was "an objectively sadistic and callous act" and Mr Still, 24, died "in one of the worst ways imaginable", Justice Robert Hulme found.
One man, who kicked a bucket of petrol towards Mr Still, engulfing him in flames and leaving him writhing in agony before returning an hour later to "finish him off", pleaded guilty to murder and in 2020 was jailed for a maximum of 23 years. The man, who cannot be identified, had his sentence reduced from a maximum of 36 years because of his guilty plea and willingness to give evidence against McCosker at his trial.
McCosker was not involved in the first burning of Mr Still, but later picked up the other man and agreed they should "finish him off" before driving to get petrol and returning to the quarry.
He never got out of his car, but McCosker had formed a joint criminal enterprise to kill Mr Still and was found guilty of murder after a trial in October, 2020.
And when sentencing him, Justice Hulme found it was "immaterial" that McCosker was not involved in first setting Mr Still alight and both he and the other man were equally culpable for the murder. And with no discounts for providing assistance or pleading guilty, McCosker was jailed for what the other man would have received; a maximum of 36 years with a non-parole period of 27 years. He won't be eligible for parole until 2045.
McCosker's lawyers have since lodged a severity appeal against the sentence in the Court of Criminal Appeal, claiming Justice Hulme erred when finding both men were equally culpable for the murder.
Other grounds of the appeal include that Justice Hulme erred when making findings about the respective roles the pair played, that McCosker "used" the other man to get back at Mr Still and the murder would not have happened without McCosker's involvement.
"Fundamentally, this case is about parity between two offenders," McCosker's lawyers said. "The first offender deliberately tipped petrol on another person. Then left him in an isolated quarry and drove off while he was engulfed in flames. He contacted [McCosker] and nearly an hour later they had a conversation that they either call an ambulance or finish him off. The two then agreed to finish him off, finish what [the other man] started."
The three-judge panel reserved their decision.
