Andrew Drake was a charismatic and funny man who "lived, loved and was loved".
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And in a cruel twist of fate that remains hard to accept, his best character trait was what led to him being fatally stabbed on the South Coast in the prime of his life.
That is the belief of the Surfside man's sister, Lucy Wessell, who outlined the "devastating" impacts of the 29-year-old's death in a victim impact statement read by her husband Luke to the NSW Supreme Court in Queanbeyan two years ago on Saturday.
In her statement, Ms Wessell described falling to her knees in April 2019 when she heard that Mr Drake's neighbour Daniel Sharpe had killed him.
Mr Drake had earlier hopped over the fence from his home with a different sister, Penny Drake, to listen to music and socialise with Sharpe and his father David.
But the fun night Mr Drake had hoped for did not materialise, and the well-travelled man had a "quite heated" tussle with a heavily intoxicated David Sharpe.
Daniel Sharpe, then only 18, intervened and stabbed Mr Drake 11 times as Ms Drake "blacked out", having been injured while trying in vain to break up the fight.
"An eagerness to get to know people and an excitement to make connections; that was Andrew through and through," Ms Wessell said.
"Knowing that Andrew went over to David and Daniel's house feeling positive about getting to know them makes me feel even more saddened by the outcome of that night.
"Naturally, we wish more than anything that he'd never gone over that fence, but we cannot fault him in his excitement to make new friendships.
"It is a difficult thing to process knowing that Andrew's best character trait led to him being killed."
Ms Wessell also described feeling confused by her lack of hatred for her brother's killer, saying she instead felt "a tragic combination of sorrow and pity" for Sharpe.
"Perhaps the saddest part is knowing that if Daniel didn't kill Andrew, Andrew could have ended up being a supportive and positive addition to his life," she wrote.
"Meeting Andrew should have been one of the best things to ever happen to Daniel, but for reasons that can never be fully understood ... Daniel killed him."
This sentiment was echoed by Ms Drake, who said her brother loved mountains, sunsets, animals and, most of all, connecting with people.
"He would've shown you just how amazing life is," Ms Drake told Sharpe.
"He would've made you laugh until you cried."
Sharpe, now 20, stood trial in February over the stabbing of Mr Drake. He was acquitted of a murder charge, but found guilty of manslaughter.
Crown prosecutor Kate Ratcliffe told a sentence hearing on Wednesday that the trial jury must have concluded that Sharpe had felt compelled to defend his father, but "the extremity of the response was wholly disproportionate".
"It is a very serious example of a manslaughter offence," she said.
Ms Ratcliffe also said it seemed Sharpe's perception of danger had been "clouded by his dysfunctional relationship with his father", of whom he was "fiercely protective".
Sharpe's barrister, Troy Anderson, accepted that "there's no doubt 11 stab wounds was excessive".
He said his client was "very immature" and had "a very strange relationship" with his father, leading him to commit the "spontaneous" crime.
"A more mature person would not have done what Daniel Sharpe has done," Mr Anderson said.
The public defender urged Justice Geoffrey Bellew to find that Sharpe had "very good" prospects for rehabilitation, saying he had not been "a layabout kid" prior to his arrest and that he was now seeing what it was like to do "hard time".
Ms Ratcliffe, on the other hand, said the judge should remain "guarded" on this issue.
Justice Bellew said he would sentence Sharpe on Friday morning.
