The 50-year-old who admitted to the violent and sadistic murder of Whorouly’s Karen Chetcuti Verbunt, committed in January last year, will find out on Friday whether he will be given hope of ever being released from prison on parole.

Crown prosecutor Gavin Silbert said Cardamone entered the plea after he and his 79-year-old mother were charged with incitement to murder, for hiring a hitman – who they did not realise was an undercover police officer – to kill the key prosecution witness in the trial.

“The prisoner may have pleaded guilty to secure his mother’s release … That may have been a factor in his change of attitude,” Mr Silbert told Wangaratta Supreme Court on Tuesday.

“It was motivated by self-interest, not remorse.”

He said the Crown would accept the three and a half months served by Maria Cardamone as an appropriate sentence when she faced the County Court next week.

Defence barrister Patrick Tehan, QC, said his client had expressed remorse during an assessment with psychiatrist Lester Walton.

“In relation to his involvement in the killing, Mr Cardamone stated, ‘I feel bad for it, I can't turn back time. I feel so bad for their family, my family. I've stuffed up a lot of people's lives.’ He's becoming tearful as he related this," Dr Lester said in his report.

Mr Tehan said Cardamone had a “tortured conscience” when he “speaks of her body burning and her screaming”.

Justice Lex Lasry said a lack of explanation for exactly what happened to Ms Chetcuti Verbunt counted against him.

“There are ways of showing regret and remorse, I haven’t seen much of that in these proceedings,” he said.

“There are other things that could have been done to atone for this. He could have given you detailed instructions and a reason why.”

Mr Tehan argued Cardamone should have hope of parole because he provided Ms Chetcuti Verbunt’s family some closure with a guilty plea, was already 50 years old and would spend most of his remaining life in jail.

Mr Silbert contradicted the argument that Cardamone’s statement led police to Lake Buffalo, where they located the body, saying investigators had already begun searching when they found a “scuff mark” in the area.

A life sentence without parole for Cardamone would be a landmark case in Victoria, because the maximum sentence has never been handed down to a prisoner who did not have a prior conviction for murder.

The case was adjourned for Justice Lasry to hand down his decision on Friday.

The former husband of Karen Chetcuti wants the “dog” responsible for her murder to never be released from prison.

Speaking outside court after Tuesday’s plea hearing, Tony Chetcuti said he did not believe the killer had shown any remorse at all and had a life set out before him in custody.

Friends and family had glared at the man in the dock during the two-day plea hearing, but he kept his eyes focused on the ground and did not say a word.

When Mr Chetcuti looked at Cardamone, he said he saw “just the dog that he is, it’s just disgusting”.

He denied the defence claim that a guilty plea had given the family closure, saying his and Karen’s two teenage children were struggling with the case in the spotlight again.

“It’s not going to bring Karen back, the kids are still without their mother,” he said.

“It’s terrible, just going through and listening to what has taken place, it’s still very hard to comprehend.”