A used car salesman-turned-killer will spend at least 14 years behind bars after a drug deal with a Perth teenager ended in murder.
A judge today described both young men as trying to play gangsters, with deadly consequences.
Jaden Martinovich was described by family as kind, loving, and caring but a late night meetup in North Perth to sell fake drugs in August 2022 showed another side.
Martinovich didn’t realise he was the one being set up when one of his mates, who was also best friends with the 17-year-old victim, hatched a plan to steal Martinovich’s car.
Martinovich, who was 18 at the time, was struck on the head with a hammer before the victim took off in his hatchback.
Martinovich tried to stop him and stabbed the 17-year-old boy once in the heart.
Fleeing the scene, Martinovich disposed of the knife in a drain and was then recorded on a dash cam saying: “I am going to sleep like a baby tonight knowing I plunged a knife into some f—ing c— vital organs”.
In sentencing, Justice Bruno Fiannaca told the WA Supreme Court the “offence was the tragic culmination of foolish and reckless decisions by two young men intent on acting like gangsters”.
He accepted Martinovich was genuinely remorseful, saying his comments after the stabbing were to project a “tough guy or gangster persona”.
The judge also took into account the fact Martinovich had been placed in protective custody not long after the murder. That came after his jaw was broken in a prison attack by someone known to the victim.
Martinovich’s parents were in court today as the now 21-year-old was sentenced to life behind bars.
He’ll have to serve 14 years before being eligible for parole.
