Daniel John Kissell (28), draughtsman, of Lower Shotover, Samuel Gordon Coupe (28), glazier, of Invercargill, and Jonathan Charles Burke (26), also a glazier, of Arrowtown, stood passively in the dock of the Queenstown District Court as Judge Kevin Phillips handed down the sentences.
All three men admitted the charge of intending to commit a crime, namely theft by violent means, and wounding Jason Scott Maynard (28) on November 26.
"It was a chaotic scene with everyone striking the victim with closed fists to the body," the judge said of the attack which took place at the the isolated Crown Range Rd intersection at night.
"It was a ferocious attack."
The defendants "got totally carried away".
Coupe was sent to prison for two years and nine months for the first charge and for assaulting Mr Maynard's girlfriend. He was ordered to pay reparation of $2000 to Mr Maynard and $1000 to his girlfriend.
Kissell was sentenced to eight months' home detention at a Queenstown residence and 300 hours' community work and reparation of $5000 to Mr Maynard for the first and only charge. Kissell was to complete a drug and alcohol counselling programme and not to consume drugs or alcohol.
Judge Phillips said Coupe, Burke and a Queenstown associate bought ecstasy tablets for themselves and for co-defendant Kissell, who was not present, from a woman in a Queenstown bar.
When the men discovered they had bought flour and brown sugar instead of the drug, they, including Kissell, decided to confront the victim in Cromwell, "rough him up a bit" and demand their money back, Judge Phillips said.
The defendants and five other alleged accomplices, who also face charges, met in a Frankton residence where they discussed the need to bring firearms, as they heard the victim had firearms. The idea was dropped when they learned the victim was still in Queenstown.
Judge Phillips said Kissell was the first to approach Mr Maynard and his partner at the intersection.
Mr Maynard was first struck in the face by Coupe, then head-butted and punched to the ground and kicked about the face.
Mr Maynard was bundled into one of the cars, which headed towards Arrowtown. Kissell called his associates in the car which contained the victim and told them to let him go, so they dumped him on the road.
Clothes they had worn were burned at the Frankton residence, then the group "bunkered down" in Burke's home in Arrowtown, Judge Phillips said.
"You knew exactly what you had done, you knew exactly how much trouble you were in," he told Coupe.
The judge discounted initial sentences of up to 10 years in prison by giving credit for their individual guilty pleas, remorse, co-operation with police and otherwise good characters.
The other defendants are either awaiting trial or have not entered pleas yet.
