A man who pretended to be a woman looking for a hook-up before helping murder a vision-impaired drug dealer has been jailed for two decades.
Daniel Treasure posed as a domestic violence survivor before he and another man stabbed 36-year-old Felk Repia to death in a drug robbery gone wrong at Berwick, in southeast Melbourne, on April 30, 2018.
The 35-year-old was jailed in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Tuesday for 20 years. Justice Paul Coghlan ordered Treasure serve 14 years before being eligible for release on parole.
He pretended to be a woman and exchanged messages with Mr Repia about buying drugs in the days leading up to the murder.
"Are you chasing any today?" Mr Repia had asked before the pair arranged to meet.
Treasure directed him to a housing block, saying: "Where I live there's a complex for domestic violence babe".
"There is no staff, so it's all good and I'll buzz you in when you get here hun," he added, despite not living there.
The victim, who had night blindness, was dropped off by a female friend. He said he was going to hook up with a girl and would be about 30 or 45 minutes.
Instead of a woman, Mr Repia was met by Treasure shouting "come on, give it to me".
He and associate Matthew Coghlan, who is not related to the judge, both had knives and Mr Repia's friend pulled a box cutter out of her handbag.
The victim was stabbed multiple times and died from a 7cm wound to the chest, which the judge accepted Treasure did not inflict.
It was also accepted neither man had planned to kill Mr Repia. Treasure organised the armed robbery and Coghlan stole a knife from Woolworths hours beforehand.
"It is not a question that either of you might have fatally stabbed Mr Repia but the fact that one of you did," Justice Coghlan said.
The pair pleaded guilty to murder and Coghlan was jailed in August 2019 for a maximum of 20 years.
Treasure endured an abusive childhood and left home at 17, sometimes living on the streets.
He is intellectually impaired and a psychological report found this would have contributed to the murder, alongside drug and alcohol use.
The killer was also on two community correction orders at the time and had been given many opportunities to reform through non-custodial sentences, Justice Coghlan said.
The judge also accepted Treasure was remorseful and said he had written an apology letter. Its details were not revealed in court.
He has already spent 426 days in custody.
Australian Associated Press
