A promising young chef would not have been on the road where he was fatally struck by a car had he not been pursued by two other men, a court has heard.
Andrew Peter Franklin and his father-in-law Kevin Stokes were intent on punishing 26-year-old Cade Shiells over an earlier violent altercation, the NSW District Court was told on Thursday.
Mr Franklin was sentenced to five years and six months jail, with a non-parole period of three years, after a jury found him guilty of manslaughter in relation to Mr Shiells' death.
During the altercation, shortly after midnight on July 8, 2018, Mr Shiells was struck and killed by a vehicle travelling on Wilfred Barrett Drive, on the Central Coast.
Mr Stokes was also struck by the vehicle and sustained serious injuries from which he never regained consciousness. He died in hospital several weeks later.
Judge David Barrow found it could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt that either of the men had actually assaulted Mr Shiells, but he would not have been lying prone on the road had it not been for their actions.
The evidence showed that both Franklin and Mr Shiells were heavily intoxicated at the time.
"I proceed on the basis that both this offender and Mr Stokes ran to the roadway and confronted Mr Shiells, who fell over during an intoxicated and unco-ordinated effort to escape," Judge Barrow said.
Mr Shiells was remembered by family members as a "bright, sunny, creative young man with so much life and potential ahead of him," the court was told.
"Cade was also a chef with dreams and a promising future in the culinary world," Mr Shiells' aunt said in a victim impact statement.
"Every day we wake to be reminded that we will never hear his funny jokes or enjoy his humour again."
Mr Franklin will first be eligible for release on May 29, 2027.
