Sentencing Michael Kutschera in the Newcastle Supreme Court, Justice Elizabeth Fullerton found the 26-year-old intended to kill Lukas Gleeson when he ran him over in a four-wheel-drive as Mr Gleeson lay on Sydney Street, Muswellbrook, on July 21 last year.

Justice Fullerton said Kutschera had not only shown a "chilling lack of empathy" in killing Mr Gleeson and leaving him lying on the footpath, his behaviour from the time of the murder to his arrest "displayed nothing short of a calculated self-interest".

Outside court, Mr Gleeson's grandfather, Les, who raised him, said the sentence was the most the family could have hoped for.

"I think justice has been done," an emotional Mr Gleeson said.

"It's just one big hole in our lives and that's it."

A jury found Kutschera guilty of murder after a two-week trial in September.

The court heard there were a number of fights the night of July 20, when Kutschera, another man, Adam Newbold, Mr Gleeson and his friends were at the Railway Hotel.

In two scuffles after they left the hotel, another patron who was with Mr Gleeson's group assaulted Kutschera.

After the second scuffle, Kutschera ran home and got his four-wheel-drive. In the interim, Mr Newbold became involved in another fight with Mr Gleeson. While the pair were wrestling on the ground, Mr Gleeson banged his head on the footpath.

While he was lying on the ground just before 3am, Kutschera, having driven up Sydney Street at speed, crossed to the wrong side of the road, mounted the footpath, yelled for Mr Newbold to move, manoeuvred his front wheels over Mr Gleeson' body and accelerated over him. Mr Gleeson died instantly.

Justice Fullerton said she could not find Kutschera had good rehabilitation prospects.

She sentenced him to a full term of 26 years and eight months.