The man who orchestrated the "revenge" shooting of ex-Comanchero bikie Darko Janceski outside his Berkeley home in 2012 will spend at least 20 years behind bars.
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Robert Nikolovski, 44, of Cordeaux Heights, who believed the murder victim was responsible for the death of his brother Goran, was sentenced to a non-parole period of 20 years, and could spend up to 33 years in jail.
He was found guilty of an accessory before the fact to murder charge by a Supreme Court jury on July 6.
In the two week trial, jurors heard evidence from several witnesses that Nikolovski believed Janceski was responsible for the disappearance and suspected murder of his brother, Goran Nikolovski, in late October 2011.
It was alleged Nikolovski organised for one of his brother's close friends, Matthew Paul Wiggins, to shoot Janceski outside his parents Berkeley home five months later.
Wiggins, who was found guilty of the murder in May, was on Tuesday sentenced to spend a minimum of 24 years and six months in jail.
With a maximum sentence of 33 years, Nikolovski – who is nicknamed “Boxer Rob” – could be in jail until December 2050, when he will be 77 years old.
In sentencing the mastermind behind the crime, Justice Megan Latham in the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday highlighted the “profound impact” Janceski’s death had on his parents.
“Losing an only son in such violent circumstances, and bearing witness to his passing, is a tragic and horrifying experience which will always be with them,” she said.
She described the crime as “an audacious and calculated murder that is objectively among the more serious examples of this offence known to the law”.
However, she also acknowledged Nikolovski was “grief stricken over the loss of his brother”, but said she did not completely accept that it had been a “crime of passion as opposed to a cold blooded execution” as he supplied the gun used in the shooting.
“The offender’s actions in sourcing the weapon... and ensuring that the offender was observed elsewhere at the time of the shooting are not the actions of a man acting in the heat of the moment, precipitously or irrationally,” Justice Latham said.
“Five months elapsed before the commission of a carefully orchestrated killing to avenge the death of his brother.”
Justice Latham also rejected defence submissions that Nikolovski’s depression was a major contributing factor to his crime.
In imposing the sentence, she highlighted the “implicit threat to public safety” of orchestrating a killing in a public street where residents were going about their daily business.
“Entirely innocent people were potentially at risk of serious injury or death,” she said.