Ashley Duane Smith, 23, will serve a period of six years and nine months in prison, with a non-parole period of four years and three months.

His sentence was backdated to May this year.

The sentence has been described as excessively lenient by Mr Hoye’s mother, Sue Hoye.

Mr Hoye was wearing a balaclava, was armed with two knives, had a blood alcohol reading of .195 and had traces of amphetamine and methyl-amphetamine in his blood when Smith beat him to death with a tree branch on Saturday, June 28, 2008.

The 32-year-old victim had been chasing a group of young men through the streets of Narrabri, after mistaking them for a group with whom he had had an earlier altercation.

He shouted after one of them: “I’m going to get you, I’m going to cut you up”, the NSW Supreme Court was told.

When one of the group grabbed a tree branch and threatened to hit Mr Hoye with it if he did not drop his knives, he called for a truce and started to back away, the NSW Supreme Court has been told.

But Smith – who had also been drinking heavily and had smoked cannabis earlier that night – took the branch and swung at Mr Hoye.

Mr Hoye died at the scene in Tibereena St at 1.40am after inhaling blood oozing from extensive injuries to his head and neck.

Smith, 23, from Wee Waa, was charged with his murder, but towards the end of his trial in September he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.

At the sentencing hearing in the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney yesterday, Justice Jane Mathews said the case had fallen within the low range of culpability for manslaughter and had involved excessive self-defence.

She said Mr Smith was entitled to leniency by reason of his “contrition and remorse” displayed by his plea and interviews with clinical psychologist Peter Champion.

“On behalf of the court, I extend my deepest sympathy to the family of the deceased,” she said.