The ‘brutal’ rampage of a man who called himself the ‘Hand of Death’ has been revealed after he spent nearly 40 years in prison for crimes the court said showed a ‘complete lack of humanity’.
Kevin James Pettiford was sentenced in the NSW Supreme Court earlier this week after being found guilty of murder and attempted murder.
The 38-year-old slumped in his chair and kept his head down as he learned his fate for bludgeoning a man to death and trying to slit another man’s throat.
Wearing a green prison tracksuit, he had a blank expression as he twirled his beard in his fingers as Judge Hament Dhanji narrated his heinous crimes.
‘Brave’ beginning
Despite the callousness of Pettiford’s crimes, the court heard he had previously been on the right side of the law when he saved a woman who was being attacked in 2006.
He was “commended by the police and the victim for his bravery” at the time, Judge Dhanji told the court.
But just six years later, Pettiford went to the hospital and told them he had homicidal tendencies.
Kevin Pettiford has been sentenced to 39 years in prison for murder and attempted murder
He told the medical staff that he had seen a man and a woman walking on the street and that he had felt a violent urge to kill the man and rape the woman.
It was “the first manifestation of a long-cherished idea,” Judge Dhanji said in sentencing proceedings.
“(Pettiford) said that from an early age he had feelings and thoughts of harming others,” he noted.
The court heard Pettiford say his brutal crimes could have been prevented if hospital staff had acted on his murderous urges.
Judge Dhanji opined that Pettiford’s attempt to seek medical help showed that the impulse to violence was ‘contrary to his view of himself’.
He was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder with narcissistic tendencies by a psychiatrist who did not appear to have access to his full medical history, the court heard.
‘Senseless, brutal’ murder
In 2019, Pettiford was sleeping rough near Jack Evans Harbor in Tweed Heads when he spotted a makeshift camp run by Andrew Whyte Murray.
The court heard he decided that if he returned later that evening and saw the resident he would kill him.
Around midnight, Pettiford walked past the camp again and saw the 56-year-old man sleeping. The court heard he sat on a nearby bench and ‘hesitated’ about whether to carry out his plan.
He then took off his thongs so he wouldn’t make any noise and grabbed a rock from the nearby sea wall.
The then 34-year-old stood over Mr Murray and repeatedly hit his head with three stones from the sea wall, beating him to death.
He stopped when he saw people approaching and threw the rocks into the water before fleeing the campsite on foot.
The court heard Pettiford threw away his bloodstained clothes and his tent and left the Tweed Heads area.
He was arrested on a bus to Sydney on an outstanding warrant and later admitted to ‘smashing Murray’s head in’.
Grieving family
In a victim impact statement tendered to the court, Murray’s daughter said her family’s lives had been ‘irrevocably’ destroyed by Pettiford’s ‘poor choice’.
She remembered her father as a man with “a wicked sense of humor” who was “way too smart for his own good.”
“Nothing prepares you for the death of a parent,” she said in a statement to the court.
‘My father is gone, and he should have had the right to do so. He deserved safety, happiness and life, not this.”
Andrew Murray was murdered in Jack Evans Harbor in Tweed Heads in 2019
Murray’s daughter said his family continued to suffer “deep grief” following his untimely death and the “overwhelming, incredible, angry, devastating” trial that followed.
She called on Pettiford to be “held accountable” for the “disgusting and pathetic act” of her father’s murder.
‘Terrifying’ attempted murder
Five weeks after the murder, Pettiford attempted to end another man’s life while in custody at Shortland Correctional Center in Cessnock.
The court heard he approached fellow inmate Nathan Mellows in the prison courtyard and slit his throat with a homemade shiv made from wire ties and razor blades.
He cut a three-inch tear in the man’s neck, requiring twelve surgical staples.
The court heard Pettiford had been planning the savage attack for days, but postponed once because Star Wars was on television and a second time because he wanted to watch the cricket.
Judge Dhanji noted it was a ‘callous’ and ‘completely unprovoked’ attack on someone Pettiford did not know and who had a ‘right to be safe’.
“There is no doubt that the attack must have been terrifying,” he said.
Pettiford chose his target after hearing the victim tell a “sob story” about having “nowhere to go,” he said.
‘Hand of Death’
In an hours-long police interrogation, the 38-year-old told police he had killed according to a “code” and hunted men he thought no one would miss.
Judge Dhanji dismissed Pettiford’s “senseless, brutal murder” of Murray, which he said showed a “complete lack of humanity.”
“The perpetrator acted on the distorted and deeply abhorrent belief that Mr Murray’s life was somehow less valuable as a result of his circumstances,” he said.
Pettiford told police he had killed with a “code” and hunted “lesser living” men, whom no one cared about.
“I like killing,” he admitted during his interview.
The 38-year-old called himself ‘the Hand of Death’ and told officers he was a ‘calculated and controlled evil’.
The 38-year-old slumped in his chair and kept his head down as he heard his fate in the NSW Supreme Court for bludgeoning a man to death and trying to slit another man’s throat.
The court heard the killer felt ‘relieved’ and ‘euphoric’ after killing Murray, but later wished he hadn’t done it because it was a ‘waste of life’.
Judge Dhanji noted that he had admitted to having “a long-held desire to kill” and that his violent actions showed a “complete disregard for human life.”
“He has shown nothing that could be described as remorse,” he said.
“He certainly seemed to enjoy being interviewed.”
Mental health defense
During his trial, Pettiford argued that he was mentally disabled at the time of the brutal acts.
However, a jury rejected his claims and found him criminally responsible for the murder of Mr Murray and the attempted murder of Mr Mellows.
“Based on the jury’s verdicts, it is clear that the perpetrator knew his act was wrong,” Judge Dhanji said.
“He could reason at least with a moderate degree of feeling and calmness.”
However, the High Court judge was satisfied that Pettiford suffered and continues to suffer from bipolar disorder, which ‘materially contributed to the commission of both offences’.
He noted that the killer has committed no further serious offenses since receiving mood stabilizing treatment.
Decades behind bars
After being found guilty of murder and attempted murder, Pettiford was sentenced to 39 years in prison with the possibility of parole after 26 years.
Judge Dhanji rejected the crown prosecutor’s arguments that he should receive a life sentence, highlighting his mental health problems and his “guarded prospects for rehabilitation.”
With time already served, the killer will be eligible for parole in November 2045.
He will serve his sentence in November 2058, at the age of 59.