"My pop died shortly after, more from heart break at losing the only Freeman grandson," Amy Freeman told a sentence hearing in the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney on Thursday.

Justin Shawn John Smith was acquitted of murdering her 28-year-old brother who had sustained two knife wounds in the abdomen at a home at South Grafton in January 2019.

But the Coffs Harbour jury found the then 33-year-old South Grafton man guilty of assault occasioning death when intoxicated.

The offence carries a mandatory minimum non-parole period of eight years and a maximum term of 25 years.

In her victim impact statement, Ms Freeman said her only sibling had always been "a lover not a fighter" who would shy away from conflict.

After being told he had been stabbed, the family rushed to Newcastle after he was flown there for treatment.

"For the next 29 hours, Luke fought with determination we knew he had," she said.

"The four of us spent the night on the concrete floor with sleep not an option.

"The doctors informed us that Luke was not going to make it and the humane thing to do is to turn his life support off.

"We got to spend some time with him before he took his last breath at 8pm January 6th 2019.

"I can still hear my parents' cries."

Her brother had been a quiet, shy and gentle man who would have given anyone his last dollar.

Throughout the trial, the family had to hear how he was said to have been aggressive that night from the start, with evidence given about "his vice-like grip of a hand shake".

"This would have made my father proud knowing that his son shook your hand like a man as he always taught him.

"He didn't know he was shaking the hand of the coward who would kill him later that night."

His mother Debbie Freeman said she and her husband Carl missed their "gentle giant" of a son so much and thought of him not just every day, but every minute of every day.

"We find it hard to get out of bed - we look for purpose now, purpose which we cannot find."

After losing her son, she now had to phone her daughter every day to check on her.

Prosecutor Brendan Campbell submitted Smith had not said anything to Mr Freeman before obtaining the large kitchen knife and stabbing him.

But his barrister Jason Watts said that scenario was "untenable", arguing the judge would find Mr Freeman had become aggressive.

He contended the jury must have found his client assaulted Mr Freeman by hitting him with the knife in a manner not dangerous, but which resulted in him becoming impaled on the weapon.

Justice Ian Harrison will sentence him on July 15.

Australian Associated Press