David Owen Lyttle was found guilty of murdering his friend Bretton (Brett) Hall in May 2011 at Hall's remote property near the Whanganui River. Justice Jill Mallon sentenced Lyttle to life imprisonment.

As David Owen Lyttle faced sentencing for murder, his victim's mother admonished him to look at her.

In a strong voice Lee Hall addressed Lyttle – the man convicted of killing her son Bretton (Brett) Hall – and she recalled the time they had all gone on a holiday together and how Lyttle had pretended to be a friend.

"David, you could look at me when I am speaking to you," she told him.

STUFF Brett Hall's body has not been found but his friend David Lyttle was found guilty of murdering him.

"You didn't own what you did, you tried to run from your actions, you are a coward."

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"You know where Brett is. Please have the decency to tell us where he is," she said.

STUFF David Owen Lyttle did not give evidence but his lawyers submitted his murder confession was false.

Lyttle, 54, a builder from Halcombe in the Manawatū, was sentenced on Thursday to serve at least 11 years of a life jail term for murdering Hall in May 2011.

Lyttle's lawyer, Christopher Stevenson, confirmed after the hearing that Lyttle would appeal against his conviction.

Hall's body has not been found but he was last seen at his remote rural property above the Whanganui River.

SUPPLIED Bretton (Brett) Hall was on parole for drug offences when he disappeared in May 2011.

Hall's brother Michael also asked to know where his brother was. "We want him back so we can lay him to rest. Why are you still keeping him from us?"

For years Lyttle was a suspect in Hall's disappearance, but Police thought they did not have enough evidence to charge him.

An elaborate undercover operation was launched in 2014 pretending to recruit Lyttle to an underworld group, during which he was asked to divulge anything that might attract police attention to the group.

STUFF Defence lawyer Christopher Stevenson said Hall was most likely the victim of his drug associates, not his friend David Lyttle.

A jury heard a recording of Lyttle's confession, but Lyttle's lawyers said it was false.

Lyttle also made what were said to be admissions to two prison officers and a police officer following his arrest and after he knew about the undercover operation.

The Crown said Hall thought Lyttle was ripping him off in arrangements for Lyttle to build a house for Hall, but the defence said the house was progressing more or less as expected and nothing was amiss.

STUFF Justice Jill Mallon had instructed the jurors that some suspects had made false confessions and they could not convict on the basis of the confession alone.

The defence said Hall was much more likely to have been the victim of drug-dealing associates.

Justice Jill Mallon said Lyttle maintained he did not kill Hall, the best man at Lyttle's wedding.

The judge decided financial pressure and conflict with Hall about that underlay Lyttle's decision to kill Hall. She accepted he shot Hall on the spur of the moment, and put a plastic bag over his head when he did not die immediately.

STUFF Prosecutor Michele Wilkinson-Smith said the evidence solved the years-old mystery of Hall's disappearance.

But she did not accept he had dismembered the body as described during the undercover operation. It was much more likely Lyttle buried the body.

It was Lyttle's second trial. The first, in Palmerston North, had to be abandoned in October 2018, after the judge said police had failed to submit material to the defence. Other details were suppressed.