A judge has described the stabbing of a man at a party at a Mooroopna home as “senseless, shocking and savage violence”.
Brody-Jay Webster, 24, from Shepparton, pleaded guilty in Shepparton County Court to intentionally causing injury and possessing cannabis.
He also pleaded guilty to a summary charge of committing an indictable offence while on bail.
The court heard Webster had been at a party in Mooroopna earlier in the night on February 12, before many from the party went back to a Mooroopna house.
At 3am, Webster became angry at a man who had been invited to the after-party by his mother, and he told the man to leave.
The man agreed to leave but needed to get his keys from inside.
Webster would not let him and instead got a large knife from inside and ran at the man, stabbing him in the abdomen.
The prosecutor told the court that while the victim was bleeding profusely, Webster told him to “f*** off down the street and die”.
The victim collapsed on the ground unconscious before being taken to hospital by ambulance.
The court was told that without medical help, he would have died.
In a police interview, Webster said he “must have” stabbed the man but “has no recollection of doing so”.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, the victim spoke of needing to be revived more than once, before spending two weeks in hospital in the intensive care unit and a further 16 weeks of having to have the stab wound open so it could heal.
He also told of having flashbacks to that night and was often triggered by news stories.
“I remember this like it was yesterday. I try to forget it but I can’t,” the victim said.
He also said he had relocated from the Shepparton area and was wary of other people.
“Everywhere I go I am wary of other people and always looking over my shoulder,” he said.
Webster’s defence counsel Matthew Page told the court that on the night his client felt the man was “making jokes and insulting his family”.
“In his intoxicated state, he lost it,” Mr Page said.
He also told how Webster had a “heavy attachment” to his mother and was ”deeply protective of her”.
Mr Page said Webster had had a drug habit when he was younger but after a stint in prison managed to kick the habit, but had started to smoke cannabis again after he lost his job a few months before the incident.
Mr Page said Webster had already “paid a price for his crime as he missed the birth of his child as he was in jail on remand when he was born and was going to miss out on some of his early years.
He also said Webster was young and did not have any good male role models in his life in recent years.
In sentencing Webster, Judge Michael Bourke acknowledged moderating factors, including Webster’s “chaotic childhood”, which included witnessing family violence.
He also acknowledged his youth and “a genuine desire for a better functioning life” he had shown in the past.
“This was senseless, shocking and savage violence,” Judge Bourke said.
Webster was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison, with a non-parole period of three years and three months.
The 270 days Webster has already spent in pre-sentence detention will count as time already served.
“You did a terrible thing, but I see in you a real desire to turn things around,” Judge Bourke said.
“I wish you the best when you are released from prison and hope you can turn things around.