A Perth man has been sentenced to life in prison with a 14-year non-parole period for the murder of a 17-year-old he stabbed in the heart during a ‘drug’ deal gone wrong.
Jaden Martinovich, 21, listened intently while Justice Bruno Fiannaca delivered a scathing assessment of his conduct in August 2022, telling him the youth’s death was the tragic culmination of foolish and reckless decisions “by two young men intent on acting like gangsters.”
Jaden Martinovich pleaded guilty to murder over the stabbing death of a 17-year-old in North Perth.Credit: Facebook
Martinovich and the boy were intending to scam each other, it was revealed. One to sell fake drugs, the other to steal a car in a car park in North Perth.
At the time Martinovich was 18 years old and a BMW car salesman. He had arranged to sell dimethyltryptamine (DMT) to the teenager, but instead put bath salt crystals in a clip-seal bag in a bid to hoodwink the boy into giving him $250.
The youth was told about the scam in advance by their mutual friend. In retaliation, he planned to steal the car. That plan was foiled when Martinovich physically tried to pull him from the car, resulting in a fight that ended with Martinovich’s decision to pull a 10-centimetre knife from his pocket and plunge it into the teenager’s chest.
Bystanders took the unconscious 17-year-old to hospital where he died days later, despite heart surgery.
Later Martinovich was recorded on his car’s dashcam bragging “that was a good f---ing stab as well, I felt it sink in”.
He was also heard saying, “[I will] sleep like a baby tonight knowing I plunged a knife into some c---’s organs” and “I love doing that”, “if you f--- with me, you get f---ing stabbed.”
Justice Fiannaca said he was “satisfied those statements reflect a rollercoaster of emotions and rationalisation about what you’d done” and said Martinovich was displaying a “tough guy gangster-like persona”.
“It was bravado,” he said.
“[You were] purporting to take pleasure from the stab wound.”
Fiannaca told Martinovich his conduct “showed a callous disregard for what you had done”.
Martinovich has been threatened and suffered physical assaults, allegedly at the hands of associates of the victim, while in prison. One occasion he was hospitalised with a broken jaw.
Justice Fiannaca also told the court Martinovich’s mother had also been subjected to “a torrent of abuse”.
His sentence was backdated to include time spent in custody since his arrest.
Get the day’s breaking news, entertainment ideas and a long read to enjoy. Sign up to receive our Evening Edition newsletter.