A teenager who murdered a rival and seriously injured another in a stabbing in the Hunter region has been jailed for a maximum of 16 years.
The teenage boy, now 18, will serve at least 11 years behind bars before he is released on parole, Newcastle Supreme Court heard on Friday.
In handing down her sentence, Justice Dina Yehia, SC, described the crimes as "very serious offences".
She said the teenager was 16 years old when he fatally stabbed one boy in the chest and another in the back of the shoulder and torso while out in the street one night in September 2021.
Justice Yehia said the teenager and his victims had belonged to opposing groups of young people involved in an ongoing conflict and that the boy who was stabbed to death had recently beaten his murderer in a fight that had been organised on social media.
The court was told the teenager was at home when he heard the pair pass by on the night of the attack. He fetched his knife - with a 21cm blade - and approached them in the street and stabbed them.
The teenager pleaded guilty before this week's two-day hearing, which focused on whether he should be sentenced on the basis that he intended to kill the 16-year-old boy or to cause him grievous bodily harm.
Justice Yehia found on Friday she could not say beyond reasonable doubt he intended to kill the boy.
"It is clear to me that although [the teenager] armed himself with a knife before he left the property, his actions were spontaneous...," she said.
"Any intention to kill, had it existed, was fleeting at best."
Justice Yehia said the victim who survived was living with serious ongoing effects of the trauma - including flashbacks and night terrors - and that the boy who died "had his whole life to look forward to but his dreams and ambitions will never be realised".
She described the teenage murderer's prospects of rehabilitation as "very good" and said he had "averted significant trauma and stress" by lodging an early guilty plea in the children's court and avoiding a trial.
"I am satisfied [he] will be haunted by his actions ... he will have to live with that guilt far longer than any sentence I impose on him," she said.
The teenager will be first eligible for parole in September, 2032.
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