By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A drug dealer had no lawful excuse for fatally stabbing a ‘customer’ who clasped him in a headlock during a fight outside a Doveton milk bar in 2018, a Victorian Supreme Court judge has found.
Ricky Mark Garrard, 21, was jailed for up to seven years on 2 April after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of the then-24-year-old man Sadiq Husseini.
Garrard had arranged to sell cannabis to the victim at the milk bar in Linden Place shortly before 9pm on 19 July 2018, Justice Rita Incerti stated in her sentencing remarks.
During an argument, the pair scuffled and threw punches at one another. Mr Husseini grabbed Garrard in a headlock on the ground.
Garrard felt he was being strangled and losing consciousness in what was a “very vulnerable and threatening situation”, Justice Incerti stated.
In an act of “excessive” self-defence, he grabbed a 30-centimetre knife from his jacket pocket and plunged it backwards into Mr Husseini’s lower abdomen.
Despite first aid attempts by witnesses and police, Mr Husseini was pronounced dead about an hour later.
Garrard and his friends fled from the scene, one of them taking home the knife.
“It is beyond question that your offending is grave,” Justice Incerti said.
“You were armed with a knife and used it while in a public place, to a fatal end for Mr Husseini.”
Justice Incerti noted the “profound” suffering of Mr Husseini’s “close-knit” family. In victim impact statements, he was described as a generous and kind son and brother who was missed “enormously”.
Throughout his childhood, Garrard was in a “state of disadvantage and despair”.
He suffered chaotic homes, parental separation, early school expulsion, ADHD and intellectual difficulties, sexual abuse, suicide attempts and drug abuse from 12 years old.
“You were in repeated contact with mental health services and heavily abused illicit drugs.”
His “ongoing, harmful” drug addiction partly caused the offence, which lessened his moral culpability, Justice Incerti stated.
“Having said that, you must be fully accountable for the conduct you have voluntarily engaged in, including taking drugs and then trafficking in drugs to feed your habit, which led you to committing this offence.”
With treatments, support and supervision, Garrard had “fair” rehabilitation prospects despite a criminal history of “recklessly endangering other people”.
On the other hand, he had shown “genuine remorse” and undergone drug-and-alcohol counselling and study while in custody.
“I accept that you have a genuine desire to change,” Justice Incerti stated.
“I believe you when you say that you want to work and be a normal person in society, away from crime and that you do not want a part of drugs.”
Justice Incerti said it was in the community’s interest that Garrard accessed supervised rehab programs as part of parole.
Garrard was jailed for up to seven years, including a five-year non-parole period.
He had already served 524 days in pre-sentence custody.
