Daniel Hounslow was sentenced to at least 26 years jail in the Supreme Court on Thursday for the brutal killing of Micah Kawalek, with a maximum term of 33 years.

Hounslow had been out of jail for only about three months, having threatened a woman and her son with a knife in Wodonga in late 2017, when he murdered Mr Kawalek in Melbourne.

The 42-year-old killer - who has previously been jailed for a brutal and prolonged rape on a woman in her home - had "felt a powerful desire to hurt" the victim from the moment he met him.

Hounslow had been acting bizarrely in the lead up to the killing, which occurred on March 24 last year in the Melbourne suburb of Wyndham Vale.

He was seen leading Mr Kawalek out of the home they shared, holding the back of his neck.

He kicked and punched him to death over more than two hours, and used the victim's dressing gown cord to try to strangle him.

Hounslow punched and kicked Mr Kawalek about 40 times, stomped on his head, and made blood come from his ears, mouth and eyes.

Hounslow kicked him so hard, he was left with a limp.

The victim's wife, Julie, said Hounslow had targeted a "broken man".

"You took advantage of an innocent, defenceless man," she told the court through a victim impact statement.

"A good man at the lowest point of his life."

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She said the incident had not only killed her husband of 18 years, but had changed her life forever.

"You cowardly took life away from an innocent man who was so weak emotionally," she said.

"What you did was just demonic.

"The emotional pain you inflicted on me is indescribable.

"Not only did you kill my husband but you killed me emotionally.

"You have completely robbed my life."

Hounslow had tried to conceal the body but told multiple people what had occurred a few hours later, including that the victim's head was now "flat" and that he had to clean up and hide the body.

He called triple zero and admitted what he had done, and told the first police who arrived "he's outside, behind the shed".

Hounslow said he thought he had been bashing his brother and made strange comments about the victim being involved in trafficking people through shipping containers, and had felt like he had been poisoned.

Ice and alcohol were found in Hounslow's blood about 24 hours after the murder.

Justice Andrew Tinney said it was a heinous crime.

A 12-year jail term for rape more than 20 years ago had failed to change his ways.

"You were clearly a very dangerous person at the time of your offending in 1999, your current crime makes it perfectly plain that you are still very dangerous," he said.

Hounslow will be in his late 60s when he is eligible for parole.