Getaway driver Reatile Ncube 'read riot act' after murder of Glenn Walewicz in Phillip

Dunlop man Reatile Ncube, 19, faced the ACT Supreme Court for a sentence hearing on Monday, having previously pleaded guilty to a charge of being an accessory to murder.

Ncube admitted driving a group of would-be burglars to Phillip, where the others intended to carry out a home invasion and steal from two known drug dealers, in June 2021.

However, the teenager's co-offenders knocked on the door of the wrong unit.

When the occupant, 48-year-old Glenn Walewicz, answered the door, one of the offenders fatally shot him in the neck.

Ncube then drove the others from the scene at "considerable speed".

While he almost immediately heard his co-offenders discussing the fact someone had been shot, the 19-year-old did not learn until later that the victim had died.

Ncube, who spent six months in custody after being arrested and charged, was granted bail in December.

On Monday, defence barrister Travis Jackson told the court Ncube had been a long-term friend of the shooter.

Mr Jackson said around the time of the murder, "it became a friendship around drugs".

"[The shooter] was helping [Ncube] get MDMA, and other bits and pieces," the barrister said.

He indicated this was how Ncube had come to be driving a group of people to carry out a home invasion, in which cash and illicit drugs were to be stolen, on the night Mr Walewicz was murdered.

Since then, he said, there had been "terse conversations" in the Ncube household about illicit drug use.

"He's been read the riot act," Mr Jackson said, citing a letter from Ncube as evidence of remorse.

"There's a severe amount of disappointment in his conduct."

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Joel Hiscox, an ACT deputy director of public prosecutions, cast doubt on the sincerity of Ncube's remorse by pointing out that the teenager had turned down a chance to give a statement implicating his co-offenders.

"If somebody was genuinely remorseful and wanting to assist, they would help the authorities," he said.

Mr Hiscox added that assertions Ncube was no longer using illicit drugs were "self-reported", with no proof before the court.

The prosecutor told Acting Justice Peter Berman the only appropriate sentence was one of imprisonment, but the term's length and how it was to be served were matters for the court.

"The court mustn't forget that a completely innocent man has lost his life," Mr Hiscox said.

Mr Jackson agreed a jail sentence was warranted, but he asked Acting Justice Berman to suspend any further time behind bars.

Acting Justice Berman, who is expected to sentence Ncube on Friday, offered the court's condolences to Mr Walewicz's ever-present loved ones.

"Sometimes, in sentencing, the victim's friends and family get forgotten," the judge said. "They are not forgotten."

Meanwhile, four others charged in connection with Mr Walewicz's death remain behind bars on remand.

The shooter, who cannot be named because of his age, and Gary Michael Taylor, a 24-year-old man present when Mr Walewicz was killed, have pleaded guilty to murder charges and will be sentenced at later dates.

Holt woman Nicole Williams and her son, Jayden Williams, are awaiting trial after pleading not guilty to charges of accessory to murder.

The mother, previously described as the alleged "architect" of the botched home invasion, also denies conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary and two counts of recruiting a child to engage in criminal activity.

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