Drug dealer Daniel Haile sentenced to 24 years jail for shooting murder of man in front of his fiancee

A SYDNEY drug dealer who gunned down a man in front of his fiancee and outside his mother’s home three years ago has been jailed for at least 24 years.

The scene of the shooting murder of Raymond Pasnin in Pendle Hill. Picture: Bill Hearne

DANIEL Haile didn’t murder a man in front of his fiancee out of jealousy, hate, anger, love or revenge.

But the motive of the high-earning “completely amoral” drug dealer remains unexplained, says the judge who jailed Haile for at least 24 years today.

The 29-year-old was found guilty of the shooting murder of Raymond Pasnin, 27, shortly before midnight on October 30, 2013, in the car park of a Sydney block of units.

In her victim impact statement, Pasnin’s fiancee Lyndal Archbold described how the “love of her life” collapsed in her arms after being gunned down as they left his mother’s home.

“I am forever looking into your evil eyes, your evil gun,” she told Haile.

The NSW Supreme Court jury rejected Haile’s claim he acted in self-defence.

He described himself as a very successful drug dealer who didn’t need a $4000 payment, suggested as a motive by the Crown.

Daniel Haile was sentenced to 24 years in jail for gunning down Raymond Pasnin in front of his fiancee in Pendle Hill in 2013. Picture: Bill Hearne

Acting Justice Robert Shallcross Hulme said the money may have been part of his motive.

But he was satisfied the shooting “is not explicable by reference to the ‘normal’ human emotions that inspire murder, of which jealousy, hate, anger, love, or revenge are examples”.

A motive other than that “is calculated to make the individual offence more heinous and to place a premium on deterrence, retribution and the protection of the community”.

The judge accepted evidence from a man who said he drove Haile to the scene. The witness said Haile returned to the car saying he had seen a man with a child but wasn’t sure whether it was “the right person”.

After Haile made a phone call and apparently confirmed the victim’s identity, he shot Mr Pasnin who was returning to his car with Ms Archbold.

“I am satisfied that prior to the shooting there was no significant relationship between Mr Haile and the deceased which could account for the murder,” the judge said.

Haile told the jury at the time of the shooting he was earning a minimum of $10,000 a week from drugs and conceded he was receiving at least one government pension.

The judge concluded he “is completely amoral” and does not accept the standards necessary for a decent society.

“So far as one can draw conclusions about events decades into the future, his prospects of rehabilitation are virtually zero.”

He set a maximum term of 32 years.