And in fact, by the time he was 24 and had been in and out of jail a few times, established a raging drug addiction, a hatred of the authorities and a dangerous habit of carrying a 40-centimetre machete tucked into his waistband, Garvey had killed two people, in two completely different but extremely dangerous acts three months apart.

He was a powder keg waiting to explode that had detonated twice before he was stopped, devastating two families.

Garvey was armed with a machete when he led Luke Jones and another man, who cannot be identified, through a window into Philip Steele's house at Whitebridge in December, 2018. Desperate for drugs and cash after earlier posing as police officers and robbing Mr Steele, Garvey repeatedly slashed the 60-year-old with a machete, while one of the other men hit him with a baseball bat.

Mr Steele, a cement renderer and beloved family man, suffered 23 stab wounds and 28 blunt force trauma injuries in the attack and lamented before his death that the ordeal was not worth the $2,000 he had to steal.

Three months before the home invasion, Garvey was high on ice, disqualified from driving and behind the wheel of a stolen car that raced along the Pacific Highway at Charlestown before losing control, becoming airborne and crashing into a service station, killing Garvey's 32-year-old pregnant passenger, Kiera Forster, also known as Kiera Barrett.

On Wednesday, Garvey, now 27, was jailed for a maximum of 29 years and three months, with a non-parole period of 20 years and nine months for the murder of Mr Steele and for the earlier robbery.

He was jailed last month for a maximum of eight-and-a-half years, with a non-parole period of five years for causing the fiery crash that killed the pregnant woman.

Justice Robert Hulme said on Wednesday that Garvey's total sentence for causing the two deaths was more than 34 years and he would not become eligible for parole until September, 2044, at the age of 50.

Meanwhile, Jones, who pleaded not guilty on the basis he had no knowledge Garvey was armed with the machete before the home invasion, was jailed for a maximum of 28 years and nine months, with a non-parole period of 22 years and three months. He will be eligible for release in 2041.

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