A man has been sentenced to a minimum of 15 years and nine months in jail for the murder of his estranged wife Leila Alavi in 2015.

Ms Alavi, 26, was stabbed almost 60 times by Mokhtar Hosseiniamraei with a pair of scissors in the car park of an Auburn shopping centre after their relationship broke down.

Supreme Court Justice Robert Hulme said Hosseiniamraei killed his estranged wife "in the most callous and brutal circumstances".

Justice Hulme said while the "frenzied" killing was in the "context of a history of personal violence and threats to kill" he accepted the murder was not seriously planned or premeditated.

However, he pointed out Ms Alavi's final moments must have been terrifying.

Justice Hulme said Hosseiniamraei's thinking was "chaotic in the weeks and months leading up" to the killing and his "intention to kill had crystallised" that morning.

"[He had a] breathtakingly arrogant and misogynistic attitude towards the rights of his wife to choose her own destiny," Justice Hulme said.

He also said Hosseiniamraei had not been deterred by being the subject of an apprehended violence order.

Hosseiniamraei was sentenced to a maximum of 21 years in jail.

With time already served he will be eligible for parole in 2030.

The court was told Hosseiniamraei had threatened to kill Ms Alavi twice before the fatal attack, and that she had taken an AVO out against him and moved house.

The night before the attack he had called her and threatened to kill her, causing her to change her mobile phone number that night.

The next morning, he armed himself with scissors, travelled from Merrylands to her Auburn shopping centre workplace, and called her to meet him in the underground car park.

There, inside her car, he stabbed her 56 times in the head, neck and torso.

Hosseiniamraei pleaded guilty to the murder in March this year.

'She did not obey the rule of marriage'

Crown prosecutor Craig Everson has previously told the court the attack was frenzied, ferocious and planned with "rather a significant degree of forethought".

He said Hosseiniamraei had a simmering anger over Ms Alavi not meeting the expectations of what a wife should do.

Leila Alavi, 26, was found inside a vehicle in a car park at an Auburn shopping centre. ( Facebook )

When police asked where he had stabbed Ms Alavi, he told them that it was in her heart and neck because "she did not obey the rule of marriage", and he killed her "because we were married ... and she broke the contract".

Ms Alavi's sisters Marjan Lotfi and Mitra Alavi submitted victim impact statements to the court, saying how much they have suffered due to their sister's death.

In her statement Ms Lofti questioned why she had not been protected when she needed help.

Mitra Alavi said she and Leila were more like mother and daughter than sisters because she was responsible for caring for her when they were younger.