Man who shot and dismembered friend sentenced

A judge has handed down his sentence for a Tasmanian man who shot his friend dead and cut up his body, saying he’d shown no remorse for the “planned, intentional, execution-style killing”. LATEST >>

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MURDERER Jack Harrison Vincent Sadler has been sentenced in the Launceston Supreme Court to 32 years jail for the “planned, intentional, execution-style killing.”

In sentencing, Justice Robert Pearce said Sadler had shown an absence of remorse.

“I am satisfied that the plan for dismemberment and disposal of the body was part of Mr Sadler’s plan to kill Mr Anderson-Brettner,” Justice Pearce said.

A jury last week found Sadler, 29, guilty of the murder of Jake Anderson-Brettner, 24, in August 2018.

“Mr Anderson-Brettner was not only intentionally killed in a calculating and cruel way, but his body was then subjected to gross indignity,” Justice Pearce said.

“The way in which Mr Sadler mutilated and disposed of his body, especially given that his head and limbs were not recovered, greatly added to the emotional and psychological distress caused to Mr Anderson-Brettner’s family and friends,” he said.

The sentence will be backdated to August 18, 2018 and he will be eligible for parole after serving 20 years.

Speaking outside court, Jake’s mum Claudette Brettner, who attended every day of the trial fought back tears when asked if the sentence was long enough.

“I just put it in God’s hands and I never really thought about it, because nothing would ever bring Jake back,” she said.

“Every life is precious, even Jack’s life is precious, he just went down the wrong road too,” Ms Brettner said.

“And to me, I think Jake finally got heard and if that young man hopefully turns his life around, I hope to God that he does, that’s all I can hope for, you know, while he’s breathing, there’s still hope that he can change,” she said.

Murderer Jack Harrison Vincent Sadler and girlfriend Gemma Clark. Picture: Facebook

Justice Pearce said Sadler shot Mr Anderson-Brettner at least three times in a room he had lined in plastic at Riverside house in preparation “despite his pleas for mercy,” with Sadler’s girlfriend Gemma Clark hearing “please man don’t, please man stop,” from the room adjacent to where the murder was carried out.

Sadler then decapitated and dismembered the body using a knife and an axe.

Mr Anderson-Brettner’s torso was the only body part ever located after Sadler’s partner Clark led police to where they had dumped it down an embankment in an isolated area known as the Sideling.

They researched online which areas wheelie bins were being collected the next morning and the rest of the body parts that were placed in garbage bags were put into the bins in various locations in the Launceston area.

“The crime is very significantly aggravated by the mutilation and disposal of the body, all of which is to be regarded by members of a civilised society as abhorrent,” Justice Pearce said.

“It could only have been to hide the crime although, I can think of no reason why it was considered necessary at all,” he said.

Justice Pearce said he “couldn’t determine with any certainty what motivated the crime.”

He said there was evidence Sadler had been angry with Anderson-Brettner and it was very likely their disagreement arose from their involvement in illicit drugs and there was also evidence of antagonism over a small debt owed to an associate of Sadler, separate to the large debt Sadler said Mr Anderson-Brettner owed to Victoria drug dealers who he claimed carried out the shooting.

Sadler had pleaded not guilty to the murder.

Clark is serving a five and a half years in jail after pleaded guilty to failing to report the killing and being accessory after the fact to murder and will be eligible for parole in August.

Jake Daniel Anderson- Brettner. Picture: Facebook

Claudette Brettner hugging a supporter after last week’s verdict. Picture: Rosemary Murphy