A Hamilton man who bludgeoned an elderly man to death with a bottle of bourbon has been sentenced to a minimum of 13 years' jail.

Turei Rawiri Kingi escaped a more heftier sentence of life without parole as the murder of 71-year-old Jacques Donker was his second strike offence - his first being a low scale street robbery where he punched the victim and stole his cellphone.

However, despite crown prosecutor Ross Douch asking for life without parole, Justice Edwin Wylie agreed with Kingi's counsel Tom Sutcliffe that the sentence would be "manifestly unjust" as he was still young and had lived a crime-free life until he began displaying mental health disorders while in the NZ Army in 2009.

Kingi was sentenced in the High Court at Hamilton this afternoon. Donker's sister was in court, along with members of Kingi's family.

Kingi, 26, was fuelled by a cocktail of alcohol, cannabis and synthetic cannabis when he came across Jacques, also known as Jack, Donker near the London St toilets on the night of August 11, last year.

Kingi had been abusing people along the city's main street, Victoria St, before spying Donker in his black Subaru which he later told police he'd hoped to sell for $10,000.
Kingi was a man who often slept rough on the streets of Hamilton, but in the weeks leading up to the killing, he had been staying with his girlfriend's grandmother.

As he walked down Hamilton's Victoria St he became aggressive to other members of the public.

The court heard he'd spotted Mr Donker, a 76-year-old man weighing just 48kg, in his Subaru and told an associate he was going to kill him and take off with his car keys.

He asked Mr Donker for food and money, but he replied that he didn't have any and went to the toilet.

Kingi yelled and kicked at the toilet door and when it opened, he punched Donker in the face and hit him on the head with half a bottle of Jim Beam - which weighs about 1.4kg.
He stole his car keys out of his hand as he lay unresponsive on the toilet floor.

Kingi drove off towards Auckland and was spotted by the police on State Highway 1 at Taupiri.

Road spikes were laid near the Meremere dragway and he came to a stop about five minutes later near the foot of the Bombay Hills.

When questioned by police, Kingi told police he'd asked Mr Donker for food and money and wanted to sell his stolen car for $10,000.

Justice Wylie accepted the murder was not the worst of its type and dash cam footage inside the car showed him admitting that he had "wasted" Mr Donker but said that he didn't want to kill him.

"The victim was dealt a single blow to the head with a bottle. The bottle was unquestionably brutal and callous but not to a high degree."

By Belinda Feek for the NZ Herald