A Top End man with a “lengthy and considerable history” of domestic violence has been sentenced to life behind bars for the “protracted and highly brutal murder” of his young wife.
Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the name of an Indigenous person who has died.
It also contains content some readers may find distressing.
Braden Jentian, 38, was last month found guilty by a Northern Territory Supreme Court jury of murdering his 22-year-old partner on a concrete slab in Katherine in 2024.
The woman, referred to in court as Ms Ashley for cultural reasons, died after suffering multiple injuries consistent with being hit or stomped on, including bleeding on the brain, heart damage and 17 broken ribs.
Police at the crime scene in Katherine, near O’Shea Terrace, on September 2024. (ABC News: James Elton)
Jentian was also sentenced for two previous assaults against Ms Ashley.
In handing down Jentian’s sentence on Tuesday, Justice Sonia Brownhill said death or very serious injuries to Ms Ashley were “an obvious consequence of the nature of the assaults inflicted”.
“I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that in assaulting her the way he did, he did actually intend to cause the deceased serious harm,” she said.
“You must have foreseen a risk that death would result from an assault on this nature.“
Justice Brownhill said on the afternoon of the victim’s death, the couple had spent hours drinking at local pubs before they ended up in an argument at the concrete slab they were sleeping on in a vacant block.
Soon after, Jentian became angry and “viciously assaulted” Ms Ashley, the judge said, knocking two of her teeth out and breaking her septum with a “very forceful blow”.
“The deceased was very small in stature, she weighed only 43 kilograms,” Justice Brownhill said.
“That and her intoxication made her very vulnerable to the force of the blow you inflicted upon her.”
The vacant block where the victim was found. (ABC News: James Elton)
Justice Brownhill said after the assault, Jentian laid Ms Ashley’s lifeless body on a blanket and started wailing, “yelling out that she was dead”, and ran for help.
She labelled Jentian’s offending towards Ms Ashley as “lengthy and considerable”.
Victim assaulted twice in three months before her death
Justice Brownhill said during his relationship with Ms Ashley, Jentian had previously been convicted of committing aggravated assault against her four times, and had also breached domestic violence orders against her on four occasions.
Before their five-year-long relationship, he was convicted five times for aggravated assault against other victims including his former partners.
The court heard Braden Jentian had assaulted Ms Ashley four times during their relationship and had also assaulted former partners. (Supplied: NT News)
On Tuesday, Justice Brownhill also sentenced Jentian over two other assaults perpetrated against Ms Ashley in the months before she died.
On one occasion in July 2024, the pair had a verbal argument while drinking around a fire, which led to Jentian punching Ms Ashley and knocking her to the ground before striking her with a metal bar multiple times.
He then stabbed her with a screwdriver, before hitting her with glass bottle.
Rebecca Everitt represented the prosecution during the trial. (ABC News: Marcus Kennedy)
In another occasion the month before Ms Ashley died, she was drinking at a park with her friends and family when another person punched her to the ground, and Jentian proceeded to stomp on her head and body 10 times, breaking her shoulder blade.
He then bit Ms Ashley on the cheek and hit her over the head with a mobile phone multiple times, causing her to briefly lose consciousness.
‘You stole the deceased from her family’
In sentencing Jentian, Justice Brownhill referred to a victim impact statement from Ms Ashley’s mother that she had read.
Sonia Brownhill said Braden Jentian’s offending warranted a “longer non-parole period than the standard 20 years”. (ABC News: Tiffany Parker)
“She said that she still gets sad about her daughter’s death, she still struggles to visit her grave, and the deceased’s child still cries out asking for her, which is distressing,” Justice Brownhill said.
“The deceased’s mother said she never expected to have to do things that she has had to do, like closing her daughter’s bank accounts and organising her funeral.
“You stole the deceased from her family, and she [the victim’s mother] misses her daughter.“
Justice Brownhill said she believed Jentian had poor prospects for rehabilitation, “even after 20 years or more of service in custody”, and presented a significant risk of further domestic violence offending in the future.
“Given the protracted and highly brutal nature of the murder of your domestic partner while you were intoxicated and she was vulnerable, I consider that the seriousness of the offending does extend beyond the mid-range for such offences and that the seriousness of the offence warrants a longer non-parole period,” she said.
Life imprisonment is the mandatory sentence for murder in the Northern Territory. (ABC News: Che Chorley)
She said she had taken all the circumstances into account, including the two earlier aggravated assaults, “in deciding to impose a longer non-parole period than the standard 20 years”.
“The assaults were protracted, you were not dissuaded by the efforts of witnesses, you caused significant harm to the deceased, and those experiences must have been extremely frightening and distressing for the deceased,” she said.
Justice Brownhill sentenced Jentian to life imprisonment — the mandatory sentence for murder in the NT — with a non-parole period of 21 years and six months.
He will be eligible for parole in June 2045.
