A man acquitted last year of a Corowa murder has avoided more jail time over a death threat he made to a pub licensee soon after smashing-up an automatic teller machine.
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Police said Heath Kevin Parkinson's offending was so serious and his violent criminal history so significant that such a sentence was the only option truly available.
Magistrate Miranda Moody said on Monday that she too was concerned about Parkinson's years of offending.
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"He must have been very frightening and terrifying to the worker in the hotel," she said.
"What a way to behave."
But in the end Ms Moody decided against a jail term, whether that be full-time custody or an intensive corrections order served in the community, for the incident at Albury's Astor Hotel on the night of January 20.
Instead, she released Parkinson on an 18-month community corrections order and ordered he pay the pub $566.50 compensation.
Ms Moody told Parkinson, who appeared in Albury Local Court via a video link to Parklea jail, that she took into account the 18 days he had spent in custody and the fact he had not committed crimes of violence since 2016.
On his way out of the pub, on being told by the licensee he was never to return, Parkinson asked him at close quarters: "Do you know who I am?"
The victim replied: "No, I don't."
"You should find out who I am," he said in return.
"I am Heath Parkinson, I'll f ... ing kill you!"
Parkinson, 35, pleaded guilty to destroy or damage property and intimidation.
Last June, a Supreme Court of NSW judge acquitted Parkinson of the murder of Christopher Quirk, 41, in 2018.
Judge Stephen Campbell, SC, found Parkinson had no other choice when he knifed Mr Quirk in the back of the leg, severing his femoral artery and vein.
Mr Quirk had gone to the scene armed with a knife and was either crouching or leaning over Parkinson at the time he was stabbed in the leg from below.
Defence lawyer Samantha Little told Ms Moody on Monday that Parkinson suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.
Ms Moody said this made it even more important that Parkinson "address his propensity for making threats and committing acts of violence".
An enraged Parkinson had been captured on CCTV aggressively vandalising the ATM and punching poker machines.