A man who dodged the death penalty for murdering a bikie in Thailand has been jailed in Australia over the killing of a cafe owner a decade ago.
Bradley Dillon was brutally murdered in the Leichhardt Marketplace car park in Sydney's inner west in August 2014 when he was stabbed four times in the back then shot three times as he was trying to flee.
The 25-year-old, who owned a cafe in the luxury harbourside suburb of Balmain, had attempted to recover $2300 owed to his sister when he was killed by cousins Antonio Bagnato and Diego Carbone.
The money had been lent to a member of the Saint Michael Fight Club.
CCTV footage showed Mr Dillon leaving the car park after being attacked and collapsing on the grass verge outside.
Emergency services attended but he was pronounced dead on the scene.
On Friday, Bagnato was sentenced in the NSW Supreme Court to 17 years and three months for the murder, with a non-parole period of 12 years.
The 35-year-old denied actually pulling the trigger or holding the knife but pleaded guilty to murder on the basis he agreed with Carbone to inflict grievous bodily harm on Mr Dillon.
The muay thai enthusiast fled to Thailand two days after the car park killing but was later arrested by local police and jailed for the murder of the Australian head of the Hells Angels, Wayne Schneider.
Schneider was bludgeoned to death in the Thai coastal tourism hub of Pattaya in 2015 and buried in a shallow grave, in what was thought to be a drug-related dispute.
Originally sentenced to death, Bagnato's sentence was commuted in the Thai courts before his release and extradition back to Australia in 2022.
On Friday, Justice Richard Cavanagh noted the 35-year-old had been crammed into a Thai prison cell with 150 other inmates with a squalid toilet, maggot-infested food and frequent water shortages.
But the judge said the onerous conditions would not reduce the sentence imposed for the murder of Mr Dillon because what happened in Thailand was largely a result of Bagnato's actions in fleeing there.
Mr Dillon's killing was objectively serious, Justice Cavanagh said, involving a high level of violence as well as a degree of planning through the use of a burner phone.
The murder was also carried out without regard for public safety, including bullets being fired in a public car park where bystanders could have been hit.
Justice Cavanagh expressed his sympathies to Mr Dillon's family, who previously spoke of the impact the murder had on their lives.
“They were moving and heartfelt statements. They were expressed with determination and courage," he said.
The judge accepted that the kickboxer had shown some remorse - albeit in a late show of contrition after his escape from Australia - and his PTSD from the Thai jail time would make his next stretch behind bars more onerous.
Carbone was jailed in 2022 for a minimum of 18 years after contesting the charge in two separate trials.
He was given a non-parole period of 18 years.
