A killer has been sentenced to decades behind bars for breaking into a stranger’s south-west Sydney home after hearing about “bundles of cash” flashed on a Tinder date.
“It’s a big outcome for the family, it’s been a long time coming,” Luke’s brother Jake Lembryk said outside court.
“I know it’s not going to bring him back but it’s a step to healing.”
Nehme is the last of four people to be sentenced over the killing.
Two co-offenders, Bilal Rahim and Lisa Price, were jailed for manslaughter.
The plan for the home invasion was hatched when Price mentioned seeing “bundles of cash” on a Tinder date with Luke in December 2019.
Tapped phone calls played in court recorded Nehme calling Taufehauma for backup.
“The girl, a girl told me a week ago she was at a house there … listen, 50 grand,” Nehme could be heard saying.
“You wanna make money, I’ve got a job, let’s go.”
“Where?” Taufehauma asked.
“Condell Park,” Nehme replied.
The two men were in the house for less than two minutes, stabbing Luke five times, including in the heart.
Luke’s mother was also assaulted and watched her 29-year-old son die from his injuries.
She died from cancer a few months later.
“Thinking about her last months being in such distress is a hard thing to think about,” Jake said today.
Luke’s final words were, “I’m dying, they’ve stabbed me.”
The judge said this indicated that two people were there when Luke was attacked, even though Nehme claimed he only entered the house after the murder.
The judge ruled on the balance of probabilities it was his accomplice who inflicted the stab wounds but said Nehme was the “leader of the venture”. He was sentenced to 21 years and six months in prison, with a non parole period of 15 years.
The Lembryk family faces life without Luke.
“He was a big life, that bloke and he was very hard to lose,” Jake said.
