A Sydney strip club regular who shot a man and left him for dead in a luxury hotel room after a 30-hour bender will spend the next 20 years behind bars.
Hasan Fazlilar, 32, was sentenced to 26 years jail with a non-parole period of 19 years and six months for the ‘senseless’ killing of Central Coast man Donovan Mileham.
New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Natalie Adams said Mr Mileham’s death was a case of mistaken identity, which stemmed from the killer thinking he was a police informant.
Hasan Fazlilar, 32 (pictured), was sentenced to 26 years jail with a non-parole period of 19 years and six months for the ‘senseless’ killing of Central Coast man Donovan Mileham
Fazlilar and Mileham were partying at the infamous Kings Cross strip club and brothel, Love Machine (pictured), before going back to the Fraser Suites.
Justice Adams said Fazlilar was an extreme drug user who had consumed a cocktail of crystal meth, cocaine and whisky on the night he partied with Mr Mileham.
The pair were partying at the infamous Kings Cross strip club and brothel, Love Machine, with its co-owner Elias Dimarelis, before going back to the Fraser Suites.
The court heard Fazlilar then became paranoid about Mr Mileham after he found a contact in the man’s phone called ‘police crime’.
Thinking Mr Mileham was associated with the police, Fazlilar beat him over the head with a pistol, before shooting him in the leg, as he lay there whimpering.
After the shooting, Fazlilar and eyewitness Elias Dimarelis apparently left Mr Mileham in the luxury suite.
When the 44-year-old’s body was eventually found by hotel staff, it’s understood it had been there for 38 hours.
NSW Supreme Court Justice Natalie Adams said Donovan Mileham’s (pictured) death was a case of mistaken identity, which stemmed from the killer thinking he was a police informant
Justice Adams said she believes Mr Mileham, who was found in a foetal position on a couch, could have survived if he had been given immediate medical attention.
The court also heard that the fatal bullet fired into his leg had passed through his bowel and struck a vital vein.
Despite the mountain of evidence that linked Fazlilar to the crime scene, he continually denied being at the hotel, pleaded not guilty at trial and plans to appeal.
Regardless, fingerprints, CCTV, the victim’s blood on his shoe, and Dimarelis’ evidence in court all linked Fazlilar with the murder.
When the verdict was handed down on Friday, some of Mr Mileham’s family were present in the courtroom, including his brothers Dustin Mileham and Danie Sims.
As they entered the courtroom, the brothers carried portraits of their older brother.
‘My brother was a good man, a normal bloke like us … and then he met that psychopath,’ Mr Mileham’s brother told AAP outside court.
With the time Fazlilar has already served in jail, after been sentenced, he’ll be eligible for parole in May 2035.
When the verdict was handed down on Friday, some of Mileham’s family were present in the courtroom, including his brothers Dustin Mileham and Daniel Sims (pictured)