Frustrated and angry with neighbours for turning off the hose he used to water the communal garden he planted in their apartment complex, Rodney Lee turned to murder.
He described putting his everything into the garden in the Mordialloc public housing complex and when officers arrested him for killing fellow residents Saumotu Gasio, 62, and Tibor Laszlo, 57, he asked if they agreed he had been a little bit provoked.
Lee had taken an active role in maintaining the complex's communal areas since 2006 when he moved in - repairing drainage, installing heating, mowing lawns, planting and tending to the garden.
He would often leave the hose running to water his plants.
While he lived there without issue for years, his relationship with neighbours deteriorated in 2020 when he took exception to loud music and consumption of alcohol in the communal spaces.
When a new resident moved in the following year, Lee began to make complaints to police about a suspicion the man was cooking and dealing drugs.
In January 2022 issues over the tap peaked and Lee struck a man with a garden chair in a confrontation about it being turned off.
"If you turn off the hose again you bastards, I'll f***ing kill you," he had shouted.
And he did.
Furious about finding the tap turned off again, Lee confronted a group in a social gathering at the units and Mr Gasio commented that water was precious.
Lee told Mr Gasio, who was from Samoa, that he was a worthless individual and to go back where he came from. Mr Gasio asked him to leave the gathering.
He went to his unit, got his grandfather's shotgun from under his bed and returned - shooting Mr Gasio in the upper arm and chest.
Mr Gasio and Mr Laszlo ran to a ground floor apartment to hide from Lee, who reloaded the shotgun and followed them.
He then fired and struck Mr Laszo in the chest, while he was trying to save Mr Gasio on the floor of the unit.
Both men were pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
Lee surrendered himself to police a short time later, admitting "I killed them".
He was jailed for 30 years on Monday. The 74-year-old was ordered to serve at least 24 years before he's eligible for parole, meaning he'll likely die in prison.
Justice James Elliott noted while Lee had repeatedly confessed in his police interview to killing the men, rather than express regret or remorse he perceived himself as a victim.
"I've been provoked a bit, haven't I?" he asked police.
He told police that Mr Gasio had "absolutely nothing to do with this" before asking rhetorically "why didn't he just leave the hose alone".
Lee also said another man in the apartment with Mr Gasio and Mr Laszlo had ducked to avoid his shots, but Mr Laszlo "wasn't so lucky".
The court heard Lee suffers chronic pain, uses a wheelchair to get around and was highly likely to be suffering from a paranoid personality disorder.
