A man who stabbed three men during a wild neighbourhood brawl, killing two of them, has had his jail sentenced reduced by two and a half years.
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Aaron Jamie Ball, 34, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and believed he was either a clone of Hitler or his grandson, was jailed for 20 years with a non-parole period of 17 years after pleading guilty to two charges of defensive homicide, and one charge of recklessly causing serious injury.
One victim, Raymond McCombe, was stabbed 34 times.
Ball, a member of a family known as "the loonies" in Victoria's south-west, appealed against his sentenced, claiming it was manifestly excessive.
His defence lawyer argued the sentencing judge failed to adequately take into account Ball's mental state when assessing the gravity of his offending.
Court of Appeal acting president Justice Geoffrey Nettle and Justices Phillip Priest and Emilios Kyrou upheld Ball's appeal on Tuesday and re-sentenced him to 17 years jail with a non-parole period of 14 years.
In their judgment, Justice Priest said the applicant (Ball) was "accustomed to taunting and chasing children which, not unnaturally, caused friction with the children's parents and other adults".
"It was this behaviour which earned the applicant and and his family the sobriquet 'loonies.'"
Justice Priest said when the Ball family moved into Miller Street, Casterton, the applicant distributed an unsigned letter to nearby residents warning them that he had a violent temper which was difficult to control.
Ball also claimed to be trained in weapons use and warned people to leave him and his family alone before he stabbed three men during a dispute at his house on October 4, 2011.
Raymond McCombe, 38, died from 34 stab wounds; Toby Lynch, 25, died from a stab wound to the chest; and Steven Mark, 32, was seriously injured but survived after being stabbed three times.
Justice Priest said Ball was assessed after his arrest as having an IQ of 77.
The judge said Ball was not intellectually disabled but "laboured under serious mental illness".
A psychiatric report showed Ball was suffering from "bizarre delusions and claims of telepathic powers".
Justice Priest said while the circumstances of Ball's offending were horrific, "the overwhelming preponderance of evidence demonstrates ... that the applicant was mentally ill when he committed the offences".
Ball was originally charged with two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder but on the day his trial was due to begin the Crown accepted his guilty pleas to two charges of defensive homicide and one charge of recklessly causing serious injury.
