Zlatan Popovic, who shot dead a man in Keira Street, Wollongong in 1999, has been jailed for at least 26 years for ordering the contract killing of Dragan Sekuljica at Splashes nightclub in 2007.
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The gunman he hired, Tevi Koloamatangi, has been jailed for life.
At their sentencing in the NSW Supreme Court on Friday, Justice Robert Hulme revoked a non-publication order, saying the community had a right to know the identity of the men responsible for the September 2007 shooting.
Mr Sekuljica, a father of two, was shot as he left the nightclub to get into a taxi across the road.
Wounded, he ran back into the club and was chased by the gunman who fired further shots, one at close range to the back of his head. A security guard was also shot in the arm.
In sentencing the two men and their two accomplices on Friday, Justice Hulme said there was no evidence of any relationship or animosity between Koloamatangi and the victim, who was killed for money.
Koloamatangi ‘‘showed great determination when, not having succeeded in killing the deceased outside the nightclub, he pursued the deceased inside, administering the fatal shot in the presence of a number of patrons,’’ Justice Hulme said.
Given his history of violence and criminal record, which included the attempted murder of a police officer after a bungled armed robbery in 2009, Justice Hulme said he regarded Koloamatangi’s prospects of rehabilitation ‘‘as zero’’.
‘‘The nature of a contract killing is such as to create strong demand for retribution,’’ Justice Hulme said.
‘‘One can accept, and to an extent understand, that human frailty sometimes leads to murder. However ...there is something entirely alien to the most basic standards of humanity when murder is premeditated and committed just for monetary reward,’’ he said.
Popovic on the other hand, had fallen out with the victim who had been overheard saying ‘‘Zlatan was the biggest traitor in Serbian history’’.
When he organised the hit he was on parole for manslaughter over the 1999 Keira Street shooting of rival Vedran Ravnjak and wounding of bystanders.
Justice Hulme said Popovic had armed himself with weapons in 1999 and ‘‘resorted to violent and illegal self-help’’.
He said the 42-year-old’s lengthy criminal record meant ‘‘personal deterrence and the protection of the community should be given more than the usual weight’’.
The court heard the Splashes shooting was payback over a dispute between Mr Sekuljica and the family of Dalibor Bubanja, who was also jailed for 26 years for his role in the murder.
Bubanja, who informed Popovic of the victim’s whereabouts and acted as a lookout, had an ‘‘unhealthy disposition to resort to self-help or thuggery, a disposition to which he gave full vent in the murder of Mr Sekuljica’’.
Justice Hulme said Bubanja’s prospects of rehabilitation were ‘‘remote’’.
Jason Hristovski, who provided the murder weapon, was sentenced to a minimum jail term of 22 years.
Justice Hulme said Hristovski’s behaviour showed a firearm was ‘‘but a tool of trade’’.
