Danny Clarke, 41, of Shepparton, was found guilty by a jury of kidnapping 19-year-old Charlie Gander on December 24, 2022.
Mr Gander was kidnapped and then killed, before his body was placed in a vehicle that was then set alight on a remote road at Bunbartha.
A jury found Clarke not guilty of Mr Gander’s murder and arson that involved setting his car alight while his body was in it.
Dimitri D’Elio, 27, of Mooroopna, was found guilty by the jury of murder, kidnapping and arson over Mr Gander’s death, while Kylie Anne Stott, 40, of Shepparton, was found guilty of manslaughter and kidnapping.
Clarke pleaded guilty to a charge of arson over a separate car fire in Community St, Shepparton, on December 24, 2022.
In handing down his sentence for Clarke only, Justice Michael Croucher spoke of how Mr Gander had driven to Shepparton to buy methamphetamines from Stott, and how Stott, D’Elio and Mr Gander arrived at Clarke’s house at 1.44pm on December 24.
At 5.18am Clarke drove the Ford Territory Mr Gander had borrowed from a friend to a house in Community St, Shepparton, where he set fire to a Hyundai that was parked in the carport.
Clarke told the court he had burnt the car he believed belonged to the man because he heard he kept his guns in his car.
When he got home after 6.20am, Stott told Clarke there had been a fight between D’Elio and Mr Gander and that Mr Gander had been put in the boot of D’Elio’s Holden Caprice.
Stott asked Clarke if he would help them by driving Mr Gander’s Ford Territory to an abandoned house in Wanganui Rd that he had suggested they go to, and it is at this point that Justice Croucher said Clarke’s part in Mr Gander’s kidnapping began.
Justice Croucher said Clarke was told other people were coming to deal with Mr Gander, and he thought they were just waiting for them.
For most of the two hours at the house, Clarke stayed in the car and smoked ice, apart from at one point where he threw Mr Gander to the ground after he tried to run at Stott.
At 9.12am Stott and D’Elio put Mr Gander in the boot of the Territory and all three left, with D’Elio driving the Territory and Stott and Clarke in the Caprice.
It was when they left the abandoned house that Justice Croucher ruled that Clarke’s part in the kidnapping ended.
The Territory was set alight in Loch Garry Rd with Mr Gander’s already dead body inside it.
Justice Croucher said while the kidnapping was serious, it was less so than his co-accused as he had “no sinister motive”, and he just wanted Mr Gander removed from his house.
He labelled the arson of the car in Community St as a “serious instance of arson”; however, he accepted that Clarke believed the man who lived there had guns and would shoot up his house.
Justice Croucher said Clarke’s drug use increased after the sudden death of two extended family members.
He said Clarke had good prospects of rehabilitation and that it was “unlikely he would involve himself in this sort of offending again”.
Clarke was sentenced to a total of four years in prison — including three years on the kidnapping charge.
A non-parole period of two years and four months was set, meaning that with the 868 days Clarke has already spent in custody awaiting the finalisation of the matter, he is able to apply for parole immediately.
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