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A Fremantle university student who fatally stabbed an itinerant man in a case of mistaken identity has been sentenced to life in jail, with a 16-year minimum.
Peter Fox-Slater, 20, pleaded guilty to murdering James Hyman as he lay sleeping on the ground at the E-shed markets in October last year.
Fox-Slater had believed Mr Hyman was a man with whom he had an altercation earlier in the night, and who said he that he had been humiliated and had his "ego bruised" in front of his friends.
The Supreme Court was told after the altercation, Fox-Slater went to his accommodation at Notre Dame university and armed himself with two knives before going to the markets.
Friends had tried to dissuade him from going after the man, but he ignored them.
Justice Andrew Beech described Mr Hyman as being "extremely vulnerable" and "without the protection of a home that night".
He said "there was an element of premeditation" in what Fox-Slater did and he said after the stabbing he made no made attempt to help Mr Hyman or call emergency services.
"It was a gross over-reaction to your feeling of having been embarrassed or humiliated in front of your friends," Justice Beech said.
"You mistook your victim for a person with whom you had an altercation, so you killed a totally innocent man.
"You showed a callous indifference... to the man you stabbed," he told Fox-Slater.
However, Justice Beech said he accepted Fox-Slater was now genuinely remorseful.
With time already served Fox-Slater will be eligible for release in 2030.
Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, fremantle-6160
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