RELATED: Woman to be sentenced for murder
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A WOMAN who murdered Kerang man William 'Bill' Stevenson on Christmas Day 2013 with a rock, knife and tree branch, and who taunted him as he begged for his life, will spend 21 years in prison.
Mr Stevenson's partial remains were found in the boot of a car in Wellsford Forest in early 2014.
Danielle Kerr, 37, of Kerang, was sentenced in the Supreme Court in Bendigo on Thursday to 21 years' imprisonment with a minimum 16 years' and six months' non-parole period.
Supreme Court Judge Terry Forrest spoke about the circumstances of how Kerr and a co-accused, Darren Lewis, came to know Mr Stevenson in 2013, as well as the events leading up to Mr Stevenson's murder.
Judge Forrest read statements provided by Lewis about how Kerr and Lewis had smoked ice before picking up Mr Stevenson from work on December 25.
Kerr told Lewis she wanted to know what it was like to kill someone, laughed that there was a movie called Kill Bill, and then hatched a plan to stop in a remote place and kill him.
The court heard how after picking Mr Stevenson up from work in his car, the pair stopped on a dirt road in Kamarooka.
While Lewis went to the toilet, Kerr changed into a dress and then smiled at Lewis as she hit Mr Stevenson over the head with a rock from behind.
When Mr Stevenson staggered back to the car, Kerr got a large hunting knife out of the car and walked towards him saying, "I told you I was going to kill you", before stabbing him in the face and throat multiple times.
Mr Stevenson then tried to run, but Kerr and Lewis chased him down in the car until he collapsed against a tree.
As Kerr came towards Mr Stevenson with a tree branch he begged her, "Please don't, please don't" and then, while she was hitting him with the branch, Kerr yelled "Die, die".
Judge Forrest told Kerr he was satisfied Lewis' account was backed up by evidence and that he had formed a favourable view of his testimony, which included "considerable detail" about the hunting knife police later found in Lake Weeroona.
"Regrettably, I regard your current account, given for the first time two-and-a-half weeks ago, as self-serving and dishonest," he said.
"This account is unsupported by evidence and is the first time you have conceded any part in the attack at all."
He said he considered the circumstances which characterised Kerr's formative years had played a part in her depression and drug use in later life, but none of it excused her behavior.
"I regard your objective criminality or moral culpability as very high," he said.
"I consider that you were the initiator and driving force behind this vicious attack."
Judge Forrest said he agreed with counsel's submission that Kerr's abuse of ice in 2013 was a central aspect of her otherwise "inexplicable" offending.
But he said there were no exceptional circumstances to reduce her moral culpability arising from her ice use.
"I must take a stern view of your cruel and senseless conduct. This was a wicked crime," he said.
Before handing down his sentence, Judge Forrest also told Kerr he did not accept she had shown remorse.
"The murder of Bill Stevenson was savage, needless and cowardly," he said.
"You taunted him in his dying moments. You must be punished and your conduct denounced."
He said if not for her guilty plea, Kerr would have been sentenced to 23 years' jail, with 18 years' non-parole.