Yaoying Bi had promised to make Liang Zhao a cake to celebrate his 28th birthday, their first such celebration as husband and wife.
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But Mr Zhao was murdered as he walked along Northbourne Avenue in August 2011.
Instead of planning a large wedding celebration, his family were forced to arrange his funeral.
Ms Bi still made the cake, as promised, when Mr Zhao's remains were returned to his family on what would have been his birthday.
The grieving widow's moving victim impact statement was read out at the ACT Supreme Court sentencing hearing of Taylor Lewis Schmidt, 22, on Thursday.
Schmidt and another man, who cannot be named as he was a juvenile at the time, pleaded guilty to murder in August.
The co-offender was sentenced to 17 years for his role earlier in October.
Mr Zhao, 27, arrived at the Jolimont Centre in Civic about 4am on a bus from Melbourne. He decided to begin the walk home to Gungahlin in the hope of meeting his mother along the way. Instead, he met Schmidt and the juvenile, who had armed themselves with a machete and baseball bat with the intention of committing a robbery.
They knocked the university graduate to the ground, dragged him from the footpath, and robbed him of $21 cash and his mobile phone.
Mr Zhao cried out when he was hit by Schmidt with the baseball, prompting the juvenile to warn him to be quiet and not tell the police.
The young offender then hit the victim on the wrist with the machete, causing him to scream in pain.
The pair then fatally beat him, breaking his skull and leaving his brain exposed.
Schmidt showed little emotion as Ms Bi's statement was read out in court by a victim support officer.
The statement explained that she found it too distressing to attend.
The court heard that after the
murder Ms Bi "fell into an abyss of anguish". She dropped out of university, became reclusive and lost 10 kilograms.
"Who gave you the right to destroy my life and dreams?" the statement said.
Crown prosecutor John Lundy told the court Schmidt had been involved in a number of incidents while in custody, including fighting, possessing weapons, abusing staff and theft.
But defence barrister Ken Archer said Schmidt acted in self-defence on one occasion, and not enough detail had been put before the court about other incidents. He said his client had completed a number of courses on remand and had recently been nominated by prison staff as a spokesman for his section of the jail.
The court also heard from a psychiatrist, called as a defence witness, who diagnosed Schmidt as suffering from substance abuse disorder, depression and adolescent conduct disorder.
The hearing will resume on November 25.