The three men - Alexander Raymond Iacuone, 23, Alexander Duffy, 24, and another man, who cannot be named as he was under 18 at the time – were sentenced in the ACT Supreme Court on Tuesday morning.

In 2008, they planned to use a baseball bat to murder the victim, after he fell out with Iacuone.

The trio, accompanied by another two men, lined a car boot with a curtain to stop his blood from spreading, and obtained a shovel and mattock to help bury his body.

They then went to his Tuggeranong home and lured him outside, with the juvenile telling the victim he was having problems with his girlfriend.

"He believed he was leaving to help a friend in need," Justice John Burns said on Tuesday.

Instead, Duffy and Iacuone emerged from the dark, running at the victim.

The teenager fled, eventually running across Athllon Drive and into bushland in Tuggeranong.

Duffy was the first to come across the victim, but let him go after he begged not to be hurt.

He gave him help to avoid the others and then left the area.

But the others eventually caught up with the victim.

He was told to get on his knees and put his hands on his head.

The victim was pleading for his life, asking what he had done, and saying he wouldn't go to the police.

But he was told he was going to be killed, and his body buried at the Cotter.

Iacuone began to choke him, and the pair fell to ground, while the juvenile offender started hitting the victim with the baseball bat.

They fell down into a nearby creek, and the 17-year-old was able to escape and run to safety.

He ran to the door of a nearby home and asked for help.

The police were called, and Iacuone and the juvenile were arrested in a car near the victim's home.

The trio were found guilty of conspiracy to murder by a jury in October, five years after the murder plot was hatched.

They had denied allegations they were plotting to murder the teenager, saying they only meant to bash him, and that the curtain, shovel and mattock were just there to scare him.

They said the baseball bat had been taken in case a planned fight between Iacuone and the victim got out of control

Iacuone had claimed he feared he was going to be bashed by the victim and his friends, and was trying to strike out first.

But Justice Burns rejected that evidence when sentencing the three to terms of imprisonment on Tuesday morning.

He described Iacuone as the "main architect" of the plot, and sentenced him to five years jail, 18 months of which would be served through full time imprisonment, followed by 12 months weekend detention.

The rest of the sentence would be suspended and Iacuone will enter a good behaviour order for three years and six months.

The juvenile, who is now 22, was sentenced to four years, with 12 months in full time custody, nine months in periodic detention, and the rest suspended on condition of a three year good behaviour order.

Duffy, whose role in the murder plot was considerably less, was sentenced to two years and nine months jail.

He will only serve 18 months in periodic detention, with the rest of the sentence to be suspended.

Justice Burns said the murder plot had developed after Iacuone began to feel threatened by the victim's entry into his friendship group.

Iacuone was vulnerable at the time, having been kicked out of his family home, and was scared he would lose his friends to the victim.

He began to demonise the teenager to his friends, in a "calculated" attempt to galvanise the group towards him, and against the victim.

The court found all three were a low risk of reoffending and had good prospects for rehabilitation.