Canberra's Joshua Higgins, 32, sentenced to jail for killing Jae-Ho Oh after heavy drinking in Gungahlin

Joshua Higgins, 32, earlier this year was found guilty of manslaughter after stabbing his friend Jae-Ho Oh in March 2019 following hours of heavy drinking between the pair.

Higgins appeared in the ACT Supreme Court on Friday after pleading not guilty to murder but a jury trial of more than 21 days found him guilty of the lesser charge.

The court heard Higgins asked Mr Oh, 56, if he could stay over after his mother told him not to return because he lost money while gambling in NSW.

Before going over, Higgins consumed the drug ice and had not slept for about 60 hours.

On March 10, the pair spent the day drinking at Mr Oh's Gungahlin townhouse where Higgins, a former hospitality worker, had 20-30 standard drinks before going to bed.

Higgins claimed he was then woken by Mr Oh sexually assaulting him.

He said Mr Oh then started yelling before grabbing two knives on separate occasions, leading to violent struggles before the killing in which Higgins also used a sound bar.

The victim sustained 34 separate injuries that included stabs penetrating his chest wall and his lungs, as well as neck, face and back.

Higgins was then seen - with a bloodstained shirt and knife - running on the streets screaming for help before police arrived.

In his sentencing remarks, Justice John Burns said while it was impossible to be certain about what happened before the attack, he believed on the balance of probabilities that Higgins did perceive the victim sexually assaulting him before trying to kill him.

"Your volatile emotional state and your state of intoxication at that time also made it very unlikely that you concocted a complaint of having been attacked by the victim at that time," he said.

"You did not try to avoid the police and requested that they be called. You appeared to be genuinely afraid."

Justice Burns said the jury's verdict meant they did not consider Higgins to act in self defence.

"Your attack...went on for much longer than would have been reasonably necessary to defend yourself," he said.

Justice Burns said the basis of provocation "was never strong" and that the evidence supported he acted with diminished responsibility as he did not have the mental states of murder.

"Despite the number of wounds sustained by the victim, there is some evidence which tends to support that proposition," he said.

This included him being "visibly shocked and distressed when police told you that the victim was dead".

"Suggesting that you had not anticipated that the wounds that you inflicted on the victim were fatal," Justice Burns said.

During trial, the Crown argued Higgins had a drug-induced psychosis during his attack, but Justice Burns said that was ruled out based on medical evidence.

He said Higgins' drunken state and diagnosed PTSD from being assaulted in 2010 highly likely influenced his perception.

The court heard a medical assessment of Higgins found him to be a "mentally ill offender at low-to-moderate risk of aggression".

A pre-sentence report said Higgins, an arts graduate, had gambling problems since he was 18 and had limited success in alcohol rehabilitation.

Justice Burns said if he engaged in a mental health treatment plan and abstained from drugs and alcohol, his risk to the community would be manageable.

"It is clear beyond any doubt that you need to stop consuming alcohol and illicit drugs such as methylamphetamine," he said.

"You also need to seriously and rigorously address your PTSD by undertaking appropriate psychiatric and/or psychological treatment."

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In a previous hearing, Crown prosecutor Trent Hickey described the killing as an "extremely excessive" and a "short-and-frenzied attack" in which the victim "looked dead" before emergency services arrived.

With a non-parole period of five years and three months and having already been in custody since his arrest in March 2019, Higgins will be eligible for parole in June 2024.

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