Kyle Leigh Verhey, 25, faced Bendigo County Court on Wednesday seeking a re-hearing after being sentenced to 18 months for shooting Robert and Ada Cooper in May 2012.

Verhey withdrew his objection against his conviction and instead chose to protest the severity of the sentence.

County Court judge Susan Cohen agreed to lessen the sentence to 14 months, with a non-parole period of eight months.

Verhey was charged with two counts of recklessly causing serious injury and a single count of reckless conduct endangering life.

The court heard victim Robert Cooper owed Verhey $300 when he shot him in the front yard of Cooper’s North Street home from a moving vehicle on May 23, 2012.

Verhey fired a single shot from a shotgun toward Mr Cooper.

His sister Ada, who was inside the house, was collateral damage from the drive-by shooting, with her wounded hand needing surgery.

The blast also injured Mr Cooper’s leg.

After a series of text messages, Verhey asked Cooper to stand in the front yard and after shooting him, was heard to say: “How does that feel?”

He was arrested and charged five days later, giving police a no-comment interview.

Verhey was found guilty in December 2012 and in March last year was sentenced to 18 months with a non-parole period of 12 months.

Verhey lodged an appeal after 12 days in prison, enabling him to walk free while waiting for day in court this week.

The court heard just days after his appeal, Verhey was drug-affected while driving to Swan Hill when police saw him switch places with his partner while speeding along the highway.

The driving while disqualified, drug-driving, reckless conduct endangering and speeding charges landed him a six-month jail sentence, which ends on December 17.

Ms Cohen warned Verhey’s solicitor Matt Mahady that Verhey risked a longer jail sentence.

Mr Mahady tendered reports from two psychologists – Dr Bernard Healy and Dr Kevin Ong – detailing Verhey’s mental health issues, including paranoid schizophrenia and learning difficulties.

Ms Cohen said the pair raised concerns about genuine mental illness or the ill effects of sustained drug abuse, which started with cannabis at 14 and graduating to meth amphetamine abuse at 17.

Mr Mahady said Verhey had taken an active role in raising his partner’s child, as well as a child of his own from a previous relationship.

He said spending the past six months in jail had changed his client, with Verhey taking steps to rid himself of drug addiction.

While Mr Mahady conceded a jail term was inevitable, he asked Ms Cohen to consider a 12-month sentence with a six-month non-parole period with the possibility of a community corrections order upon his release.

Ms Cohen dismissed this request, saying it was a serious matter.

Mr Mahady said Verhey also wanted to help his father’s trucking business upon his release.

“I have known him for a long time and it is clear to me his appearance and attitude has changed now he has stayed off the substances,” he said.

Ms Cohen also questioned Verhey’s veracity.

“What concerns me is that 12 or 14 days in jail was not confronting enough to change his ways and he was caught using drugs two weeks later,” she said.

Mr Mahady agreed the 12-day jail sentence served was not enough for Verhey to wake up and it was a similar story for many other people affected by drugs.

The prosecution argued Verhey was lucky injuries to the Coopers were not more serious, otherwise the matter could have been heard in a higher court with tougher penalties.

Verhey was also appealing a six-month sentence for trafficking ice, after being caught with 1.5 grams of ice in his Hare St home in 2012.

The drugs, with a street value of $1500, were enough for a six-month sentence, which Ms Cohen upheld, to be served concurrently with the other charges.

When handing down her verdict, Ms Cohen said while it was a serious case, a guilty plea and a realistic chance of rehabilitation worked in Verhey’s favour.

“You deliberately called him out into the yard and drew him into danger,” she said.

“You got into a car with three other people, carrying a loaded shotgun and from the safety of inside the car you pointed a shotgun at someone.

“It was reckless conduct. It was cowardly, planned and pre-meditated.”

Ms Cohen said it was serious in that even though Verhey fired a single shot, he injured someone who was not his intended target.

“This deserves unqualified condemnation, it must be denounced and a serious message must be sent to others considering similar conduct,” she said.

She said while Verhey’s criminal history was significant it was not extensive or severe, with three matters in Victoria leading to one custodial sentence.

She was also hopeful Verhey could continue to seek help for his drug addiction, which reached one gram of ice a day at its worst, while serving his jail sentence.

With 12-days already served and a non-parole period of eight months, the earliest Verhey can walk free from prison is a little over seven and a half months.