A convicted Victorian murderer staying at supported crisis accommodation in the ACT allegedly robbed a St Vincent de Paul Society staff member at knifepoint on Thursday.
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Warren Michael Lander, 35, appeared in the ACT Magistrates Court on Friday, charged with aggravated robbery.
Lander was staying at Samaritan House, run by St Vincent de Paul, when he allegedly walked into the office, asked a staff member for his wallet, and produced a knife.
The worker later told police he felt flustered and wasn't sure whether Lander was going to stab him.
He said that Lander appeared calm during the alleged robbery.
Police later picked up Lander at Hackett shops, where he was drinking bourbon and cola. He told them he had left the knife in a flower bed nearby.
Lander did not apply for bail when he appeared before Magistrate Robert Cook on Friday.
He has a conviction for murdering his workmate while the pair were drinking in 1998 at Moonee Ponds in Victoria.
Lander, then 18, was found to have "bit, punched, kicked, struck him with a bottle, and stabbed him repeatedly using two knives", according to remarks made at sentencing in the Victorian Supreme Court.
The second knife was taken up when the first snapped off at the handle, the court heard in 1999.
He then set fire to the flat and disposed of the body and other items by the side of a highway.
It is thought the aggression was sparked by excessive alcohol consumption and some suggestion that the victim may have once been accused by his own family of child molestation.
Lander will reappear in court at a later date.
