A man who admitted violently murdering Matthew Stevens and then dumping his body will spend at least 11 years behind bars.

Stuart Wilton has today been sentenced in the High Court in Wellington to life in prison.

Justice Simon France said Mr Stevens was lured to a Lower Hutt home last year, where Wilton stabbed him three times with a knife, and helped dump his body on Paekakariki Hill in an attempt to make it look like a car accident.

The sentence comes as some consolation for supporters of Matthew Stevens, with one man in the public gallery yelling at Wilton as he was lead away "payback's a bitch".

Matthew Stevens' sister read an emotional victim impact statement to the High Court in Wellington.

His only sibling said they were particularly close, they were only 18 months apart in age.

She talked about the absolute devastation, the loss, the emptiness that she feels they're going to have to now face without her brother.

Two others, Kelly Crook and Darrin Wilkie-Morris, have pleaded not guilty to murder and will stand trial in February.