Reatile Ncube, 19, was granted bail when he faced the ACT Supreme Court on Tuesday.

His successful bid for conditional liberty came three weeks after he pleaded guilty to a charge of being an accessory after the fact to the June 2021 doorway shooting murder of Phillip man Glenn Walewicz.

Ncube pleaded guilty on the basis that he knew a person had been shot, but not that they had died, when he helped Mr Walewicz's killer flee the scene.

He had earlier driven a group of people involved in the murder to a unit complex on Mansfield Place, where two known drug dealers lived.

The idea was the group would carry out a home invasion, in which they planned to steal cash or illicit substances from the drug dealers.

However, the group knocked on the door of the wrong unit and one of them, alleged to be a boy aged 17 at the time, fired at Mr Walewicz with a rifle.

As the innocent 48-year-old victim died from a single gunshot wound, Ncube, who had stayed in his car throughout the incident, sped off in his Proton Suprima with the shooter and other parties to the killing.

Nearly a year after the event, Ncube became the first of six people to be taken into custody over the murder when he was arrested in early June.

On Tuesday, defence barrister Travis Jackson said the 19-year-old had "kept to himself in prison" ever since and maintained a clean disciplinary record.

Mr Jackson argued special or exceptional circumstances favoured Ncube's release on bail, citing in particular the length of time already served on remand.

He referred Justice David Mossop to a number of comparable cases as he argued the idea of a sentence involving no jail time whatsoever was "not necessarily beyond comprehension".

In circumstances where Ncube had already been behind bars for six months, Mr Jackson argued it was unlikely the teenager would be sentenced to further full-time custody.

The barrister proposed conditions that included Ncube, who moved to Australia from Zimbabwe at the age of four, living with his family in northern Belconnen.

Other conditions included bans on the consumption of alcohol and illicit drugs, the latter of which Ncube admits he was using at the time of his offending.

Mr Jackson said Ncube had, however, not used drugs at all while in custody.

"He's been offered them [and] has refused them," the barrister said.

The ACT's chief prosecutor, Anthony Williamson SC, said the sole issue from his perspective was whether special or exceptional circumstances existed.

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He argued it was "far from a given" that a sentencing judge would find Ncube did not need to serve more than six months behind bars, telling Justice Mossop decisions in comparable cases revealed "a disparate range" of penalties.

While Mr Williamson conceded Ncube was "not looking at a sentence anywhere near the maximum penalty" of five years in jail, he noted the teenager had only served about 10 per cent of that length of time.

Justice Mossop ultimately found special circumstances did exist in Ncube's case, taking into account factors that included the time already served.

He said it was "possible, if not certain" the sentencing judge would decide to suspend any further period of imprisonment ultimately imposed on Ncube.

Ncube was accordingly granted bail to await sentencing on January 30, 2023.

Four other people remain before the courts over the death of Mr Walewicz.

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