They were each issued Three Strikes warnings - McHugh for the murder and Dalrymple for assisting him in the armed robbery of Kowhai Street resident and drug dealer Jermaine Whatuira, who Mr Witeri was visiting as a friend when he was shot.
Also sentenced yesterday was Rangi Morris Wickliffe, 54, a man described as "highly institutionalised", who McHugh met while on remand and enticed with an offer of $100,000 (from a false insurance claim) to take the rap for him.
The timing of Wickliffe's false confession, which he later recanted, caused the original trial scheduled for February this year to be aborted a week before it started.
That delay caused considerable expense and inconvenience to tax payers, legal representatives and Mr Witeri's family, Justice Lang noted.
Sentencing McHugh, Justice Lang said the issue for the court was whether uplifts should apply to the 17-year statutory life term for McHugh's other related offending.
He was not persuaded by submissions from McHugh's counsel Noel Sainsbury that the statutory term alone could suffice.
But neither did he agree with the Crown that uplifts should extend the end sentence to 21 years.
In addition to the murder, McHugh was sentenced on the aggravated robbery of Mr Whatuira and recklessly discharging a firearm near him; dishonestly using a document (an insurance claim form); conspiracy to pervert justice; and wounding with intent to injure - a charge that arose out of a 2013 incident in which he shot a man in the leg to square a pool game debt (the Crown was allowed to introduce the 2013 offence at the trial as evidence of McHugh's propensity to shoot people at the slightest provocation).
Justice Lang applied an uplift of nine months for the wounding and 15 months for the perverting justice charge.
Justice Lang noted McHugh's continued denial at sentencing of any responsibility.
McHugh shook his head as the judge traversed the facts which had been accepted by jurors.
The judge said McHugh had perjured himself in the witness box by persisting with his false defence, despite Wickliffe's recantation of it.
The judge acknowledged Mr Witeri's family must have particularly struggled through that part of the hearing.
Wickliffe, who had pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge, received two years imprisonment after a full 25 percent discount for the admission.
It also included a three-month discount in recognition that due to the nature of the offence and the effect of his recantation on the trial, Wickliffe would have to serve the term in segregation.
Dalrymple's sentence was for the aggravated robbery and three charges of being an accessory after the fact to wounding Mr Witeri (the Crown accepting she did not know he would die when she drove McHugh from the scene and later organised, of her own volition, the disposal of the gun, ammunition and clothes McHugh wore).
Justice Lang noted she too continued to deny responsibility but had expressed remorse for Mr Witeri's family's grief in a letter to the court.
Evidence accepted by the jury showed her part in the offending had seen the murder weapon remain hidden for three months before the man she asked to dispose of it, Andre Hedge, gave it up in exchange for a sentence discount.
It was also accepted that even two weeks after the shooting and prohibited from contacting McHugh, she was still voluntarily involved in the methamphetamine scene and was secretly filmed during an all-night drugs session professing she would "stand by her man".
Her loyalty might have been misguided but it was loyalty nonetheless, the judge said. Her counsel, Mr Fairbrother, sought a two-year sentence commuted to home detention.
He said Dalrymple was of previous good character with no prior convictions, was assessed as posing a low risk of reoffending and deserved a second chance. Her sentence could be more rehabilitative than punitive.
Her life only unravelled when she began associating with McHugh and his drug-taking circle.
Noting the large number of testimonials and documents in support of her, Justice Lang said while no doubt all were well-intentioned, many were ill-informed.
The court had scope to consider previous good character but it was only limited and did not affect sentence start points.
On hearing the four-and-a-half year sentence, Mr Fairbrother indicated newly-assigned counsel appointed by Dalrymple's supporters would appeal the sentence and the conviction.
Mr Fairbrother sought a continuation of her bail until grounds for the appeal could be formally lodged.
Crown counsel Clayton Walker opposed the application but in granting it, Justice Lang said he did not want Dalrymple, who was nursing a new-born baby, taken to Auckland Women's Prison and separated from her child for a week if the Court of Appeal was then to grant her bail back here.
He also urged Mr Fairbrother to continue seeking a review of a Department of Corrections policy, which had caused Dalrymple to be excluded from the prison maternity unit because of her Three Strikes status.
While it was not for the court to interfere in Corrections policy, the judge believed the blanket exclusion was flawed.
His view was that cases should be decided individually.He had refused to grant bail after the trial to the then-heavily pregnant Dalrymple because he felt safe in the knowledge she would have access to a maternity facility at Auckland Women's Prison.
Instead she had been excluded and would have been subject to a rule preventing her having any contact with her child except by pre-arranged visits.
Fortunately Mr Fairbrother had successfully argued for bail from another judge.If it had been declined, she would have been taken to hospital to give birth, where her child would have been removed immediately, and Dalrymple returned to prison, the judge said.
McHugh also appeared for sentence in the District Court jurisdiction yesterday on multiple charges associated with his drug dealing - six of offering to sell methamphetamine, 11 of offering to sell cannabis and three of attempting to procure meth.
He received a three-year prison term reduced to two years and seven months due to his guilty pleas.
The man jailed for life for the murder of Gisborne man Douglas "Din" Witeri had "destroyed our beliefs", family members said in the High Court in Gisborne yesterday.
Prior to sentencing submissions, Mr Witeri's sister and sister-in-law gave statements on behalf of the family.
The pair described being haunted by the sight of Mr Witeri in the emergency department at Gisborne Hospital.
His face looked like he had been a victim of a brutal beating, not a shooting.
He was a much-loved family man, whose death had affected a vast number of people.
"You took away our backbone, our protector, our strength and our peacemaker," they told McHugh.
They were taught as children that hatred didn't exist and that people should forgive and move on.
But they hated McHugh for what he had done.The animosity and hostility felt by the family toward McHugh was indescribable, one of the women said.
"Troy, you destroyed our beliefs," she said.
They felt for his family and what he had put them through.
He was lucky to have their support."Where was your mana?" they asked, pointing to the way McHugh had left Mr Witeri to die alone without even calling an ambulance for him.
"You could have just shot him in the leg like you did your last victim. You didn't have to kill him" they said, referring to the man McHugh shot over a pool game debt in 2013.
They had hoped hearing the evidence at the trial would have made it easier for them and that sentencing would bring closure but it had not.
It had been hard to keep their emotions in check and stay quiet throughout the court case but it was to their credit they had done so, the woman said.
