A Perth man who believed he was putting two sleeping homeless men "out of their misery" when he murdered one and attempted to kill the other has been sentenced to life in prison.
Daniel James Cohen, 31, murdered homeless man Ian John Wilson when he struck him to the head four times with a hammer as he slept on the steps of the Metrochurch in Perth on July 9.
![Murder victim Ian John Wilson was killed while sleeping on the streets outside a church.](/web/20161223074618im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/3/w/s/b/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtfvbv.png/1482297990797.jpg)
He was sentenced on Wednesday to a minimum 26 years jail in the Supreme Court of Western Australia with Justice Michael Corboy ruling he was a high risk of reoffending.
The court had previously heard Cohen set out to kill the night he murdered Mr Wilson on July 9.
He strapped several weapons to his body, avoided public transport and left his mobile phone at his Subiaco hostel so his movements could not be tracked.
About an hour after he attacked Mr Wilson, Cohen was arrested by police outside Stables Bar on Hay Street, but police officers were unaware they had a killer in custody.
They took Cohen to Perth Watchhouse after discovering several concealed weapons on him, including a 14 centimetre hunting knife. He was released later that evening.
Cohen told police officers the weapons were for protection but state prosecutors would later refer to them as his "murder kit" during court proceedings.
The next day on July 10, Cohen struck another 46-year-old sleeping homeless man in Subiaco with a hatchet and walked away, believing he was dead.
The injured man awoke the next day and went to hospital where he was treated for severe lacerations to his head.
Cohen was arrested by police and confessed to the two crimes two days later.
During a hearing earlier this month, his lawyer Neville Barber said Cohen killed Mr Wilson and attempted to kill the second man to put them out of their misery.
"He couldn't kill himself because he didn't want to go to hell and hoped someone would do to him what he did to them," Dr Barber said.
During the same hearing, the state prosecution lawyer said that Cohen, in a recorded interview, said he felt euphoria when he killed.
"[He said] it felt good after doing it but not as good as when he was doing it," the prosecutor said.
"He feels no remorse for this... [and has a] clear disinterest in rehabilitation.
"He found such pleasure in murder [on July 9] he tried to repeat it the next night."
Dr Barber said Cohen was "comfortable" going to prison as it was "the only place he felt safe".
Cohen had spent time at Graylands Hospital on numerous occasions and had been imprisoned for six years when he was 24 years old in relation to a robbery and then setting his cell on fire.
Psychological reports on Cohen found he was not in a psychosis when he committed the murder, but that he did have a personality disorder.