Stefan Schmidt faces life in jail over musician Andy Marshalls OBH death

THE family of a New Zealand musician who was pushed to his death through a second-storey pub window by a bikie gang associate have told a Perth court they will never recover from the pain of their loss.

Stefan Pahia Schmidt, 26, is awaiting sentencing for the murder of Andrew Marshall, 29, who was pushed through a window at the Ocean Beach Hotel in Cottesloe in May last year.

A Supreme Court jury found Schmidt guilty of murder on June 20 after an eight-day trial.

He did not deny pushing Mr Marshall through the window.

But the former bouncer, trained boxer and kickboxer, who has links to the outlaw motorcycle gang Rock Machine, pleaded not guilty, saying the death was an accident because he had meant only to push Mr Marshall out of the way.

Mr Marshall was talking to two girls with his back to the window when Schmidt swore at him and pushed him through it.

Schmidt fled the pub, glancing at Mr Marshall - whom he didn't know - dying on the footpath outside.

Crown Prosecutor Amanda Forrester told the court today that a life sentence was entirely justified, and there needed to be strong deterrents to acts of random violence in licensed venues.

Schmidt's defence has sought a lesser sentence.

Mr Marshall's father Alan, who flew to Perth for the sentencing on Friday read out a victim impact statement in which he told of his devastation.

He said he felt like collapsing when WA police phoned to break the news of his son's death and he realised he would have to tell his family.

"Time slipped into a slow-motion nightmare,'' Mr Marshall said.

"Not a day starts without a sick feeling and a deep abiding pain.''

His wife Wendy likened her horror to being in "an avalanche of black snow''.

"The sense of loss is overwhelming,'' she said via videolink from New Zealand.

After the death, she had read her son's diary and learned he'd planned to return home to marry and start a family.

Supreme Court judge Ralph Simmonds today deferred Schmidt's sentencing until Monday.

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Outside the court, Mr Marshall said the family would have been relieved if the matter had been resolved today, but accepted that Justice Simmonds needed more time.

"We've trusted the system up 'til now ... so we'll just trust that the outcome will be right,'' he told reporters.''

"There is no way that we can recover.''

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