Warning: this article contains distressing and violent content and the name of an Aboriginal person who has died.
Cassius Turvey was robbed of his life and promise in an act of brutality, a judge has said.
The 15-year-old Noongar Yamatji boy died in hospital 10 days after he was chased into bushland and beaten to death in Perth's eastern suburbs on October 13, 2022.
Jack Steven James Brearley, 24, and Brodie Lee Palmer, 30, were convicted in May of murdering the teenager after a 12-week trial.
Chief Justice Peter Quinlan sentenced Brearley to life imprisonment.
“I find that you have no remorse whatsoever," the judge said.
Cassius’s mother Mechelle Turvey became visibly emotional as Justice Quinlan handed down Brearley’s sentence.
Chief Justice Quinlan sentenced Palmer to life in prison, with a minimum non-parole period of 18 years.
The judge said Palmer did not physically strike Cassius, and showed some restraint by interrupting Jack Brearley who was hitting Cassius.
“A small flicker of decency and restraint in the context of a murder of a child does not weigh heavily,” Justice Quinlan said.
“You are equally responsible but not equally culpable.”
There was some applause in the audience when the sentence was handed down.
Mitchell Colin Forth, 27, who was also on trial in the WA Supreme Court for Cassius's murder, was found guilty of manslaughter.
He received a sentence of 12 years for his part in Cassius' death, along with abducting and assaulting two other teenagers a few days earlier.
Chief Justice Quinlan said the teenage victim showed great promise from a young age and was a natural-born leader with a sense of community that pointed to a bright future.
"Cassius Turvey was robbed of his life and of his promise ... all because you killed him, Mr Brearley," he said on Friday as he delivered his sentencing remarks.
"You cut short Cassius Turvey's life in an act of aggression, violence and brutality, which, regardless of the sentences I impose today, can never be made right.
"You too are responsible for his death, Mr Palmer and Mr Forth, in different ways."
Justice Quinlan also addressed claims the attack on Cassius was racially motivated, saying the killers used racial slurs to refer to him and other children he was with.
It was no surprise that an attack by a group of non-Indigenous adult men on a group of predominantly Aboriginal children using racial slurs that resulted in a boy's death would have been interpreted as racially driven, he said.
"That fear is real and it is legitimate," Justice Quinlan said.
But the convicted killers were not monsters, rather they were humans informed by their life histories who had committed horrendous crimes, the judge said.
He also noted how the case had revealed the disturbing normalisation of violence in the community.
The victim's mother, Mechelle Turvey, earlier said her son was a gentle giant who was unjustly taken from his family and his death "left a void that will never be filled".
The trial heard Brearley delivered the fatal blows while "hunting for kids" because somebody had smashed his car windows.
Forth and Palmer were accused of aiding him in the common purpose, along with Aleesha Louise Gilmore, 23, who was acquitted of a murder charge.
The attack on Cassius followed a complex series of events that started on October 9 when Forth, Brearley, Gilmore and another man allegedly "snatched two kids off the street" before punching, kicking and stabbing one of them.
Four days later, Brearley and his co-accused allegedly armed themselves with metal poles pulled from shopping trolleys before climbing into Palmer's ute and driving off to search for some youths.
About the same time, Cassius and a group of about 20 fellow students caught a bus to the same area to watch a fight being talked about on social media.
Brearley, Forth and Palmer intercepted them near a field, and Cassius and some other "terrified school kids" fled into bushland.
It was there that Brearley caught up with him before the teen was knocked to the ground and hit in the head with a metal pole, causing bleeding in his brain.
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