20 years jail for killing drug dealer

A [man] has been sentenced to at least 20 years in jail for bashing [a] drug dealer to death and hanging the man to make it look like suicide.

The body of Gary Kirk Beaumont, 33, was found in the boot of his car in the car park of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide in June last year.

He had been repeatedly bashed and kicked, stabbed and then hanged by Steven James Newton, 49.

The victim had driven to Newton's house at Birkenhead earlier in the evening to sell him methamphetamines.

Justice Michael David said it was unclear how the fight started.

Newton and his de facto partner, Rebecca Lee Bone, 39, drove around with the body for hours, before dumping the car at the hospital.

Mr Beaumont's girlfriend wept in the courtroom as Newton was sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole term of 20 years.

Bone was given a two-year jail sentence, with a 15-month non-parole term.