A serial offender who stabbed a father to death following a bust-up outside a North Lanarkshire nightclub has been jailed for at least 18-and-a-half years.
Brandon McLachlan, 22, murdered Jamie Lucas, 33, just days before Christmas last year.
A court heard there had earlier been a brief altercation between the pair in Airdrie’s Stirling Street, but Mr Lucas walked away from the scuffle and returned to the club to enjoy his night out with his partner.
Despite attempts by a doorman to calm McLachlan down, he continued to shout and threatened to retrieve a knife from his home to kill Mr Lucas.
The killer made good on his threat and repeatedly knifed Mr Lucas as the victim later made his way home with his partner.
In his sentencing statement, Judge Lord Young said: “You stabbed him four times in the chest and upper arm, with one blow penetrating his chest cavity and entering his heart.
“Jamie Lucas was pronounced dead about two hours later. The causal way in which you fetched and used a knife to avenge what you saw as a slight on your dignity is difficult to comprehend.”
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The attack occurred on 22 December 2024.
McLachlan pleaded guilty to murder and was handed a life sentence with at least 18-and-a-half years in jail at the High Court in Glasgow on Monday.
Lord Young accepted that McLachlan had “expressed remorse” for the murder and acknowledged his “relative immaturity” at the time of the offence “will have played some part”.
However, the judge highlighted how the killer was already the subject of two bail orders at the time of the attack.
Lord Young added: “This was not an impetuous or instinctive reaction by a young immature person. By fetching a knife and returning to target Jamie Lucas, you can be seen to have plotted revenge on him.
“Your criminal record includes previous convictions for assaults, police assaults and threatening behaviour including the use of a knife.
“The courts have given you opportunities in the past to learn from your mistakes and to mature into a law abiding citizen. You have spurned those chances.”
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Detective Inspector Gary Smillie said Mr Lucas’s family had shown “courage and resilience” throughout the case.
He added: “Nothing will bring Jamie back, but I hope seeing McLachlan imprisoned offers them some sort of solace knowing justice has been done.
“The level of violence in the commission of this crime was abhorrent and it is right that McLachlan is held to account. The community is undoubtedly safer without him in it.”
