NZer gets life for killing Aust drug dealer

David Galloway, who was acquitted today. Photo / Brett Phibbs.

A New Zealander and an Australian have been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a Gold Coast cannabis dealer who was strangled in a robbery gone wrong, and a second New Zealander has been acquitted.

New Zealanders David Galloway and Malakai Lui, both 20, and Australian Dustin Johnston, 37, faced a murder trial in the Queensland Supreme Court over the death of Daniel Dwyer, 46.

Today, a Brisbane jury convicted Johnston and Lui of Mr Dwyer's murder, and acquitted Galloway, who was released from custody, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Justice James Douglas sentenced Lui and Johnston to life with a non-parole period of 15 years.

Mr Dwyer died on August 6, 2008, at his unit in Biggera Waters on the Gold Coast.

He was found dead with his hands and feet bound.

During the trial, the jury heard that all three accused had visited the man's unit on the day he died.

Poor health and alcoholism may have contributed to the death of the "eccentric" drug dealer, the jury was told.

The jury heard evidence from a pathologist that Mr Dwyer had heart disease and emphysema, and was regularly heavily intoxicated on alcohol and cannabis.

The trial was also told Lui confided in an undercover police officer inside a jail cell and told him the robbery job "went wrong".

The New Zealander, who had fled home, spoke to the officer in January 2009 in the Southport police station after he was extradited from across the Tasman.

Lui said he barely knew Johnston before he took some speed with him and Galloway and went to rob Mr Dwyer.

He blamed Johnston for the death and said it was him who taped Dwyer's face with duct tape.

"The dumb **** goes and puts telephone cord around his neck and has nothing to do with the plan, hey mate, it was just meant to be in and out," Lui said.

Lui later told police in an interview that he had put one piece of duct tape around Mr Dwyer's mouth but, when he went to search the house, Johnston had put tape around the rest of Mr Dwyer's head.

He expected some later drug purchaser would untie Mr Dwyer, but said to police: "I thought I'd be going to jail for a very long time if no one found him."

- NZPA