David Best sentenced for ‘senseless’ stabbing murder of sleeping 23-year-old Roy Erwin in Mandurah shed

A man who fatally stabbed a sleeping squatter, in what WA’s Chief Justice described as an “utterly senseless” murder, has been sentenced to life with an 18-year minimum.

David Morris Best, 59, used a large knife to inflict a single stab wound in the chest of 23-year-old Roy Erwin as he slept on a mattress in a shed at the rear of a vacant property in Mandurah in February 2019.

That property adjoined Best’s home, and the Supreme Court was told he became angry after seeing Mr Erwin taking cigarette butts from his backyard.