An ice addict who shot and killed a burglar outside a house in Hoppers Crossing last year has been jailed for 11 years.
Werribee man Harley Munt, 23, earlier pleaded guilty to manslaughter after firing a sawn-off shotgun in the direction of 29 year-old Zebulon Harris outside a house in Branton Road during the early hours of August 19 last year.
Supreme Court Justice Paul Coghlan said Munt had been using methamphetamine when he was asked to go to the Branton Road house in Hoppers Crossing to try to retrieve a car, which he had been told had been stolen by Mr Harris and his friends.
Mr Harris, a father of two, was found robbing the house and was confronted by Munt and two other men, who ordered him to drop a stolen television.
Although Harris dropped the television, Munt fired a shot which hit Harris in the shoulder. Harris later died in a nearby driveway.
Justice Paul Coghlan said the shooting was “pointless and unnecessary” and it was “beyond belief” a person would fire a gun at someone in the dark. “It is the world of the methamphetamine addiction; it is a world I do not understand.”
Munt had purchased the gun three months earlier because he had started drug dealing.
Justice Coghlan said Munt could not explain why he had shot Mr Harris, and his drug-addled state at the time was no excuse. He accepted Munt was remorseful and attempting to overcome his addiction.
“This case demonstrates the danger of drugs, methamphetamine in particular, and the danger of firearms,” he said.
“The combination of them both is now often seen to be fatal and in the most inexplicable circumstances.”
Justice Coghlan sentenced Munt to 11 years prison with a non-parole period of eight years.
