A man who brutally murdered another man over unpaid debt involving members of a secretive Sydney fight club will remain behind bars until at least 2033.
Diego Carbone was convicted for murder for his role in the merciless killing of 25-year-old Bradley Dillon on August 11, 2014.
Carbone, who was 23 at the time, pleaded not guilty to murder in his second trial before the Supreme Court, after his previous 2018 conviction for the murder was quashed on appeal.
But Justice Peter Garling was not convinced of his innocence and found Carbone guilty of murder for the second time.
Mr Dillon, a father-of-two, was shot three times and stabbed at least four times as he was trying to flee the prearranged meeting with Carbone and his cousin Antonio “Tony” Bagnato.
He was found collapsed on his back near Leichhardt Marketplace shopping centre.
Bagnato, a kickboxer, has not been charged with any offences and fled to Thailand two days after Mr Dillon’s murder, where he is on death row for unrelated crimes.
While delivering his sentencing remarks in the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday, Justice Peter Garling described the crime as a “brutal and callous attack”.
“This was not a spontaneous offence,” he said.
The court was earlier told both Carbone and Mr Dillon were then former and current members of the St Michael Fight Club.
Mr Dillon wanted to recover $2000 his sister had loaned to her ex-boyfriend, also a fight club member, but he was threatened and turned to senior fight club member Bagnato for help.
Justice Garling said “Tony Bagnato was the ‘leader’ and the accused (Carbone) was the ‘follower’.”
When handing down his findings Justice Garling said there was no rational inference available except that the accused had entered into an agreement with Bagnato to at least cause grievous bodily harm to Mr Dillon when they met in an underground carpark on the day of his death.
The court was told on the day of the killing Carbone and Bagnato spoke on the phone before Bagnato changed into a hooded sweatshirt and left the apartment to pick up the accused.
The pair, armed with a loaded Glock with at least five rounds in it and a knife, then drove toward Leichhardt where they told Mr Dillon to meet them at a TAB.
But they contacted him as they approached and redirected him to an underground carpark.
Carbone and Bagnato parked their car 200m away on a quiet street with easy access to Parramatta Rd before heading to the car park to meet Mr Dillon, the court was told.
There was a physical struggle between “at least” Carbone and Mr Dillon, during which time he was stabbed, Justice Garling found.
He also found that as Mr Dillon attempted to flee, he was shot in the back.
Bagnato and Carbone were spotted running from the car park before getting into their car and fleeing the scene, the court was told.
Justice Garling said the pair had used a burner phone and chose to hold the meeting in a place with no CCTV or witnesses.
Carbone was arrested trying to board a flight back to Bangkok weeks after the murder.
He must serve at least 18 years behind bars but could be freed by 2033 after serving nearly eight years of pre-sentence detention.
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