A man who shot a childhood friend hours after telling him "you're a dead man Joshy George", has been sentenced to at least nine years in prison.
Graham Smith, 22, shot his friend Joshua George in the chest on January 20, 2013 after an argument broke out between the two at the end of a binge in which they used the drug ice, smoked dope and took some Xanax.
During the initial fight Smith had called out to his friend "You are a dog, you are a dog, I'm going to smash your head in", adding: "you're a dead man Joshy George".
Later that day Smith met up with Mr George in Claymore in Sydney's southwest to have a `fist fight'.
Smith, believing he was about to be physically attacked, fired at his friend and killed him almost instantly.
He was found not guilty of Mr George's murder but guilty of manslaughter by a jury in the NSW Supreme Court in June.
In sentencing Smith on Friday, Justice Peter Garling said the 22-year-old and Mr George had known each for most of their lives.
"They had been particularly close for a period of nine months or so prior to the shooting, when they shared a common interest in smoking methylamphetamine (ice), and consuming other illicit drugs," Justice Garling said.
He said he was satisfied Smith had taken the rifle to the fight, because he had generally come off "second best" and that in the course of the verbal confrontation he formed the view he was going to be attacked.
Smith's reaction was "manifestly excessive" and his ability to perceive what was happening was, to some extent, affected by his deliberate consumption of drugs, Justice Garling added.
During his sentence hearing in July, Smith and one of three men wearing black collared shirts with "Brothers in mourning" and "Joshy G R.I.P" printed on them barked insults at each other.
F*** ya mum, ya dog," Smith said as he disappeared with two corrective services officers.
On Friday Justice Garling said Smith was "argumentative, he swore at the cross-examiner, he made statements that were patently untrue ... he pretended a failure of memory when it suited him".
Taking into account his early guilty plea to the manslaughter charge, he sentenced him to a minimum of nine years and a maximum of 12.
He will be eligible for release in February 2022.
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