A Melbourne panel beater who shot dead a burglar during a break-in should have grabbed his phone, not his gun, a court has heard.
Wade Vandenberg's family have spoken of a life cut short because Ivan Joe D'Angelo took the law into his own hands.
Mr Vandenberg was shot in the head and killed, when he was one of three men trying to break into D'Angelo's panel beating shop one night in March 2013.
Mr Vandenberg's mother, Patricia Vandenberg, told D'Angelo he had other options.
"I know he wasn't perfect, but he was to us," she said, reading her victim impact statement to the Victorian Supreme Court.
"You had no right to be judge, jury and executioner for what he may have been doing."
D'Angelo, 39, was acquitted by a jury of Mr Vandenberg's murder but he pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
His trial heard D'Angelo lived at his Thomastown shop and was under the influence of marijuana and alcohol when he was woken by the three burglars.
The court heard he grabbed his legally-owned rifle, loaded a magazine with two bullets but did not realise there was another already in the chamber when he accidentally pulled the sensitive trigger.
D'Angelo's lawyer Peter Faris QC told Tuesday's plea hearing his client was remorseful.
"He is terribly sorry for what happened," Mr Faris said.
"He understands as best he can what a tragedy it's been for the family."
Mr Faris said D'Angelo was responding to the "grossly illegal" conduct of the three men.
"He was ill equipped to handle it, and he handled it badly," Mr Faris said.
Justice Lex Lasry said D'Angelo should have called police.
"The answer would have been to ring triple zero and this would not have happened," Justice Lasry said.
"There's no question he should have rung police."
D'Angelo was remanded in custody for sentencing on October 16.
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