A Victorian man who fatally punched a defenceless holidaymaker and then danced over him like a boxer has been jailed for nine years and three months.
Dylan Closter was 18 when he roundhouse punched David Cassai in an unprovoked street fight, at the coastal town of Rye in the early hours of December 31, 2012, the Victorian Supreme Court heard
Mr Cassai fractured his skull in the attack and died hours later.
Closter, now aged 20, of Launching Place, must serve a minimum of six years after pleading guilty to manslaughter and affray.
Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth said Mr Cassai and his friends took a defensive position and were trying to defuse the situation and retreat when Closter and two of his friends attacked.
After the fight, as Closter's group fled, witnesses heard laughing and someone yelling out "that's what we come here for", the court heard.
Justice Hollingworth said Closter handed himself into police out of pragmatism rather than remorse, given the number of witnesses and CCTV, and said Closter initially claimed he was acting in self-defence.
"What happened that night was entirely of your making," the judge told Closter.
"The affray involved a violent, frightening and completely unprovoked attack by you and members of your group on another group, in the middle of the night, on a public street, at a busy time of year.
"In the space of less than a minute, multiple punches had been thrown, one man was dead and five others were injured."
Mr Cassai's mother Caterina Politi said the sentence highlighted the need for Victoria's mandatory 10-year minimum terms for one-punch deaths.
"Six years minimum, it'll never be enough, but it doesn't send a message of deterrence and punishment for a man who took my son's life," she told reporters outside court.
"People waste their lives on the dole for five years and six years. Ten years is more significant."
Ms Politi said her son and his friends posed no threat to anyone that night.
"They just went out (to) celebrate a birthday and they just wanted to get home. They were ambushed and they had no chance," she said.
One of Cassai's friends, Tyrone Steven Russell, 23, from Perth, was jailed for 15 months with an eight-month minimum.
He pleaded guilty to recklessly causing injury, and affray, over the attack on Mr Cassai's friends.
A third man, Thomas McCluskey-Sharpe, 26, of Kilsyth, has indicated he will plead guilty to his involvement in the fight with Mr Cassai's friends.
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