A killer who fatally stabbed an innocent and unarmed man in an elevator has been jailed for 11 years.
Kloud Allen, 24, looked ahead and blinked rapidly he was sentenced in the Victorian Supreme Court on Tuesday for the manslaughter of 42-year-old Andrew Sullivan.
The 24-year-old was with two teenage boys on January 16, 2024, when he attacked Mr Sullivan at Carlton apartment building in Melbourne‘s inner north.
Mr Sullivan had arrived home on an electric scooter and got into the elevator to go to his apartment, about 11.30pm, with the three young men.
Allen had a tartan scarf around his face and was armed with a kitchen knife, and the group discussed an earlier fight.
Mr Sullivan tried to calm the young men down, but within minutes Allen stabbed him inside the elevator as he tried to fight back and escape.
In a horrible twist, Mr Sullivan’s dying body was sent down a floor where the elevator opened up to his partner Desiree Schmidt.
‘I haven’t gone near an elevator since that night,’ Mr Sullivan’s partner of nine years, Desiree Schmidt, previously told the court.
Pictured, Kloud Allen, 24, shields his face as he is led into the Victorian Supreme Court
A supplied undated image obtained on Wednesday, April 23, 2025, shows Andrew Sullivan, 42, who was stabbed to death inside an elevator
Andrew Sullivan’s partner Desiree Schmidt (left) and family members Feuina Sullivan, mum Beverley Krieger and Jaydin Meredith outside the Victorian Supreme Court
‘He was stolen from me in the most brutal way possible,’ she said.
‘Since that day I have been living in a nightmare I can never escape, he was the love of my life, we were inseparable, I’m still so lost, completely and utterly lost.’
Allen then fled the scene and escaped interstate to Queensland, where he was arrested and extradited to Melbourne on February 17.
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Kaye said Allen had killed a complete stranger who was unarmed, outnumbered and defenceless.
‘You have taken a life of an entirely innocent person who was quite clearly a decent and much loved member of his family,’ Justice Kaye said in sentencing,’ Mr Kaye said.
Allen also pleaded guilty to an armed robbery that took place six days before the manslaughter.
He was jailed for 11 years but will be eligible for parole after seven years and four months.
