SA man jailed for sexual advance murder
AAP
Margaret Scheikowski - October 3, 2013, 4:12 pm
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A man who repeatedly punched, kicked and stabbed a guest who offered him money for sex has been jailed for at least 23 years for murder.
Justice John Sulan accepted that the comment offended and angered Michael Joseph Lindsay, but rejected a submission it involved provocation which would justify reducing his non-parole period.
"Your response in hitting and stabbing him was a totally disproportionate response," he said in the South Australian Supreme Court on Thursday.
Lindsay, 29, was sentenced to life after being found guilty of murdering Andrew Negre, 37, whose dumped body was found in an Adelaide reserve on April 8, 2011 about a week after he died.
His friend, Luke James Hutchings, 30, was acquitted of murder but found guilty of assisting an offender by helping to clean up the scene and using a wheelie-bin to dispose of Mr Negre's body.
He was jailed for seven years with a non-parole period of four years and eight months.
Mr Negre, who was described as a sociable, friendly and generous man, had gone to Lindsay's house for a social gathering where alcohol was consumed.
The judge accepted he made an inappropriate sexual movement towards Lindsay, but then apologised and said he was only joking.
Mr Negre later said something along the lines of "I will pay you guys for sex", a comment one witness interpreted as a joke.
But Lindsay became enraged and brutally attacked him, before Hutchings grabbed the knife and slit the throat of Mr Negre, whom he believed was already dead.
The judge noted there was a reasonable doubt as to whether Mr Negre was alive when his throat was cut.
Hutchings told the jury he acted out of fear and was in shock.
But the judge said his offending was serious as it resulted in the extensive decomposition of Mr Negre's body, hampered the police investigation and caused great stress to the missing man's family and partner.
Lindsay had shown no remorse and his prospects for rehabilitation were poor, Justice Sulan said.
But he found Hutchings had a genuine desire to turn his life around and was distressed and genuinely remorseful about the crime.
