Stefan Gawlik, who shot at house after girlfriend smoked cigarette, jailed for less than time already served

A “controlling” man who didn’t like his girlfriend smoking has been sentenced for shooting up the house of a man who gave her a cigarette.

• Where there’s smoke, open fire

A “controlling” boyfriend who did not approve of his girlfriend’s smoking habit and shot up the house of a man who gave her a cigarette will walk from prison almost two years after the incident.

Stefan Jozef Duncan Gawlik, 27, of Torrens Park was on Thursday jailed in the District Court for 21 months for the crime — less time than he has already served since his August 10, 2017 arrest — and handed a non-parole period of 14 months.

In sentencing, Judge Paul Cuthbertson said Gawlik spotted his girlfriend smoking a cigarette with a regular customer when he drove past a Hawthorn cafe where she worked on July 13, 2017.

About 2.30am the next day Gawlik peppered nine rounds of bullets into that man’s Westbourne Park home.

“(He) fire five rounds of .22 calibre ammunition from a semiautomatic handgun directly at the bedroom window,” Judge Cuthbertson said.

“The complainant opened his bedroom blinds and saw a male standing outside his bedroom window wearing dark clothing and a dark-coloured bicycle helmet.

Shots fired at a house at Westbourne Park in July, 2017. Picture: AAP Image/ Keryn Stevens

“The complainant then ran down the hallway and the accused fired four more rounds at him through the window adjacent to the front door.”

Gawlik, who had only started dating the woman a month earlier, previously pleaded guilty to one count of discharging a firearm to injure, annoy or frighten.

Judge Cuthbertson said “the over-reaction of the offender was extreme”.

“The firing of bullets in the circumstances creates a significant risk to any person who happens to be in the vicinity,” he said.

“I do not think he was intending to cause actual injury to his victim.”

The court has previously heard none of the bullets penetrated the reinforced glass windows.

He said Gawlik’s family mixed “highly credentialed circles” and a number of those “people of substance” were supportive of him.

Police at the victim’s Westbourne Park home. Picture: AAP Image/ Keryn Stevens

“He comes from a section of the community where he has examples of right living within the community … the offender will not be allowed to fail again by the support network in his community,” Judge Cuthbertson said.

During an earlier pre-sentence hearing, the court heard Gawlik was a “controlling” boyfriend who did not approve of his girlfriend smoking.

Prosecutor Will Martin had said Gawlik “can effectively fly off the handle at the smallest thing” … which was “frightening”.

“He did that on a whim … it took two hours to source a firearm and then go to the house, go right up to the house and be prepared to use it, not once but nine times,” Mr Martin previously told the court.

Judge Cuthbertson also banned Gawlik from owning or possessing a gun in the future.