A man who stabbed an elderly school teacher and left him to die after stealing $60,000 in cash will be released from jail earlier following a successful appeal.
On August 7, 2016, Christopher Whiteley was set upon in his home west of Sydney by two armed robbers intent on stealing the cash they knew he kept on the premises.
The 69-year-old attempted to fend off the intruders, who were armed with knives, but he was stabbed multiple times and left to die as the pair ransacked his Lithgow home.
The man and woman revisited the home multiple times, covering Mr Whiteley with paper and disguising his location with debris in the living room.
They searched the home, stealing the $60,000 in cash.
Mr Whiteley's decomposing body was discovered by police a month later.
One of the robbers, Ammie Douglass, was found guilty of murder after a third jury retrial and faced a sentence hearing in February.
She will find out how long she will spend in jail at a later date.
In August 2018, her co-accused - a man who cannot legally be named or identified - was sentenced to a maximum jail sentence of 22 years and six months with a non-parole period of 16 years and 11 months.
On Wednesday, he managed to reduce his sentence in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal, which found the sentencing judge incorrectly applied a discount to the murder charge but did not apply the same discount to two firearms offences he admitted.
The man pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing stolen firearms, a Winchester single barrel-shot gun and a VG Bentley double-barrel shot gun, which were found during a later police search of his home.
In interviews to police, the man admitted that he was there on the night of the murder but said his co-accused stabbed the school teacher.
In December 2017, he pleaded guilty to murder and the firearms offences in the local court and was given a discount for these early pleas when sentenced.
In its judgment, the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal shaved months off the man's sentence.
The maximum sentence imposed is now 21 years and nine months, expiring on July 4, 2038, and his non-parole period is 16 years and three months, expiring on January 4, 2033.
The charge of murder carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment while possessing a stolen firearm carries a maximum sentence of 14 years.
