A Canberra court has dismissed an appeal by a convicted killer who bashed a drug dealer to death during a robbery.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Corey James Martin, 42, is serving a 22-year sentence for the murder of Andre Le Dinh in May 2010.
But he appealed the jury's verdict and the sentence imposed.
The ACT Court of Appeal on Thursday dismissed both bids, finding all 12 grounds of appeal had failed.
Mr Le Dinh, 26, died of head injuries after Martin beat him during a drug robbery at the victim's Belconnen unit on May 10.
Martin, also known as Budgie, briefly went to his daughter-in-law's apartment across the hall before knocking on the victim's door.
Martin then bashed the diminutive Mr Le Dinh - who weighed only 48 kilograms and stood at 165 centimetres - unconscious, stole drugs and money hidden throughout the apartment, and left him choking on his own blood.
Mr Le Dinh suffered two fractures at the back of his skull.
Martin - who weighs 110 kilograms and is 189 centimetres - pleaded not guilty, claiming the pair got into a fight after the smaller man became aggressive during a disagreement over drugs.
He said Mr Le Dinh was standing and conscious when he left the unit.
But an ACT Supreme Court jury found him guilty in 2013.
Justice John Nield sentenced Martin to 22 years' jail, with a non-parole period of 17 years and six months.
Martin's lawyers argued the judge had made a number of errors during the trial, including:
- not discharging the jury after a witness made reference to the killer's criminal history
- that telephone intercepts in which Martin discussed his plans to commit robberies should not have been allowed as evidence
- that showing graphic photographs of the murder to the jury has not been justified by the probative value of the images
- issues with police bugs at Martin's home
- and unjustified significance to blood-spatter evidence.
The killer also told the Appeal Court that the sentence did not fit in with past murder sentences, and the parole period had been wrongly set.
Justice Nield had findings of fact during sentencing that was not supported by the evidence.
That included the suggestion that Martin had grabbed Mr Le Dinh's head and smashed it on the floor, causing fractures to his skull.
In a decision published on Thursday, the appeal judges – Justice Richard Refshauge, Justice John Burns, and Justice Iain Ross – said the grounds had not been made out.
"In our opinion, no lesser sentence than that imposed by the trial judge is warranted," the judgment said.
