EQUALLY CULPABLE: Karl Nuku and Mikhail Pandey-Johnson were both responsible for Nuku's fatal bashing of Dean Browne with a claw hammer.

A judge has sympathised with the parents of hammer murder victim Dean Browne, commending the dignity with which they sat through the gruelling six-week trial of their son's killers.

Two young men who called themselves the Killer Clown Fiends have received 18-year non-parole sentences in the High Court at New Plymouth for the Wellington body-in-the garage murder.

Aucklanders Mikhail Rafael Pandey-Johnson, 25, and Karl Teangiotau Nuku, 19, were found guilty in June of murdering Dean Browne, 38, also of Auckland.

In a rare move for a trial judge, Justice Mark Woolford acknowledged the pain of the dead man's parents, Ron and Faye Bishop.

"You have had to endure a trial in which all sorts of claims have been made about your son and you have felt powerless to counter the untruths of those claims.

"I've been impressed by the dignity you have shown throughout the course of the trial," Justice Woolford told them.

Pandey-Johnson will be aged 43 and Nuku will be 37 when they are first allowed to apply for parole.

Another member of the Killer Clown Fiends, Wellingtonian Rhys John Fournier, 22, sat in the public gallery for the sentencing. He was found not guilty of the murder.

Outside court, Mrs Bishop noted that when freed, Nuku would be the same age as her younger son had been when he was hammered to death.

Mr and Mrs Bishop said they were pleased with the 18-year non-parole sentence. "But 18, 28, 38 years: it is not going to bring him back," Mrs Bishop said.

Mr Browne was murdered in an upstairs bedroom of a rundown villa in Wellington's Oriental Pde in the early hours of January 21 last year, Justice Woolford said. "You, Mr Nuku, were the person to actually hit him over the head with a claw hammer while he was asleep. Your fingerprints were on the murder weapon."

Pandey-Johnson was equally culpable, because he either encouraged or incited Nuku to murder.

After their victim was killed, Pandey-Johnson came to the house, trussed him up with a third individual and wrapped up the body and put it in the boot of Nuku's car.

Pandey-Johnson and Nuku drove north, stopping first at Palmerston North.

At some point, they procured a chainsaw, in case it was needed to dismember the body.

When they arrived in New Plymouth, the body was left at Claire Davies' Drake St house. She discovered it and police were called.

"Whatever the motive was, you in particular, Mr Pandey-Johnson, were in the throes of a heavy methamphetamine addiction which made you paranoid," the judge said.

Mr Browne's family had been left devastated in what was a nightmare for them. Their life had forever changed.

Their situation was made worse by the killers' refusal to accept any responsibility or display any remorse, Justice Woolford said.

Pandey-Johnson's upbringing was troubled and his family seriously dysfunctional. His father was a drug addict who physically abused him and his mother had mental health issues and was suicidal.

When he left school, he became immersed in the drug subculture and set up the gang, the Killer Clown Fiends "which became your family".

"You are now 25 years old and continue to deny your part in the crime and do not show remorse. It seems you do not yet have the motivation to address the issues that led to your offending."

Nuku's family life was not so fraught but he took drugs at a young age and was thrown out of home at the age of 16 because of heavy drug use. Like his co-offender, Nuku denied any involvement, had no remorse, denied violent tendencies or that his drug use was problematic.

Their sentence should reflect the gravity of the offending which involved calculated premeditation and planning in the gang context of the Killer Clown Fiends and drug-dealing.

Justice Woolford said he found the murder involved a high degree of brutality. Nuku's unsent text revealed he took pleasure in the killing.

The murder could be described as cold-blooded.