Posted on: December 17, 2024, 08:51h.
Last updated on: December 17, 2024, 08:59h.
An Australian man who a Victoria Supreme Court justice labeled a “violent, drunken thug” has lost his appeal for a lighter sentence.
On Tuesday, the Victoria Court of Appeal denied Tyson Armstrong’s plea to have his 10-year prison sentence reduced. Justices Stephen McLeish, Christopher Boyce, and Rowena Orr agreed with Justice Andrew Tinney’s June 2023 sentencing and concluded that Armstrong’s odds of rehabilitation were “not good or even moderate.”
Armstrong was 28 years old when he entered the Crown Melbourne casino shortly after midnight on March 27, 2022. Armstrong, reportedly intoxicated from alcohol after earlier attending a music festival, encountered 29-year-old Luke Francis roughly 15 minutes after he stumbled onto the gaming floor.
Surveillance video captured the two briefly exchanging words before Francis walked away toward the nearby food court. Instead of letting things go, Armstrong rushed Francis and sucker-punched him from behind.
Armstrong then put his hands around Francis’s neck and pushed him into a railing. Francis collapsed to the floor. The tradesman who worked in concrete was rushed to a hospital where he was determined to have brain bleeding. He was later found to be brain-dead and was taken off life support two days later.
Remorseful, but Rehabilitation Unlikely
Armstrong had a lengthy history of alcohol-fueled rage. Court records revealed he had previously fought a man in front of his children and spit bloody saliva into the eyes of a police officer during another incident.
Armstrong had sought help for his alcohol problem. He told the court he had been sober for nearly three years before the Crown Melbourne incident. Armstrong also expressed remorse just hours after striking Francis.
I just wish I walked the f*** away,” Armstrong said during his police interview. “I feel selfish because I just want to see my family but I just feel like he might not see anyone again from my hands, and that’s what I can’t deal with. No matter what happens it has changed my life in a blink of an eye. I’m never going to be able to forgive myself if he passes away.”
Armstrong pleaded guilty to manslaughter after Francis died. He faced up to 25 years behind bars.
His attorneys sought a lighter sentence with no prison time in favor of court-ordered rehabilitation. Tinney refused, and the Appeals Court upheld the 10-year sentence this week.
“Milder sentencing dispositions failed to modify his behavior sufficiently to prevent the death of Mr. Francis, a complete stranger going about his life as he was entitled to do,” the three justices wrote in their ruling.
Eight-Year Minimum
Victoria law requires that anyone found guilty of — or who pleaded guilty to — the charge of manslaughter serve a minimum of 80% of their prison sentence behind bars. That means Armstrong will spend at least eight years detained.
His victims don’t think the sentence matches the crime.
Ten years is nothing. He’ll get out at 37,” Francis’ girlfriend Tessa Penberthy told the Daily Mail. “He’s got a family, he’s got kids. He took that away from Luke. He didn’t get a chance to have a family or a future.”
“Armstrong is nothing but a coward who likes to hit from behind,” added Francis’ mother, Michelle Harris.
