Ms Brameld's daughter, Amanda Hamilton, spoke of feeling constantly "dead inside" and "absolutely broken" since her "beautiful" mother was killed by Louis Norman Woodham on June 10, 2021.

"I hate living life without my mum. I crave even just the smallest conversation with her," Ms Hamilton said in a victim impact statement, read out by Crown prosecutor Nerissa Keay on Monday.

"But that's not possible because a monster who shouldn't have been let out in the community ... had other plans.

"Mum was caring, loving, passionate, funny, joyful, down to earth, and just an all round beautiful person with a heart of gold."

Woodham, 38, faced the NSW Supreme Court for a special hearing on Monday after he was found unfit to stand trial for murder in August 2022.

The Nowra man was arrested near the Comerong Island Road home of Ms Brameld, 51 whose body was found by her son, Travis Hamilton, on June 11, 2021 after she was unable to be contacted.

Police described the scene as "very confronting".

"When I found my mum my whole world got turned upside down," Mr Hamilton's victim impact statement read.

"The horrific scene I ran into was something you couldn't imagine ... her eyes were wide open, I touched her tummy and it was cold.

"The trauma this has caused me and my family, there are no words."

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Forensic psychiatrists Dr Kerri Eagle and Dr Adam Martin agreed Woodham, who has schizophrenia, was experiencing psychosis at the time of the killing and didn't appreciate the wrongfulness of his acts.

With a defence of mental health or cognitive impairment established, Justice Richard Weinstein found Woodham's acts had been proven but he was not criminally responsible.

Woodham admitted to stabbing Ms Brameld in a chilling police interview at Nowra Police Station, which was aired in court.

Detectives asked how he sustained a cut to his hand, to which Woodham said it came from "a knife".

"I was stabbing someone ... Denise," he said, adding "I can't tell you the reason, nah. That's for my solicitor."

Asked about what he was trying to do, Woodham told police he wanted to "get her head off".

Dr Eagle said Woodham's distracted and simplistic demeanour in the interview was consistent with someone who was psychotic at the time.

Woodham was released from custody only six weeks before the incident, and was not subject to a treatment plan for psychiatric or cognitive impairment.

He received some treatment in custody, however this was halted, with Ms Keay saying he "fell through the cracks in the system".

In custody again, Woodham's condition deteriorated as he refused medication. He was transferred from Lithgow Correctional Centre to Long Bay Hospital.

Woodham's medication was changed and Dr Eagle said he exhibited some improvement after it was administered.

However the medication would not address his fitness to stand trial due to his declining cognitive impairments.

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Ms Hamilton said Woodham was known to their family for the last three decades, and that he would ask Ms Brameld for favours including lifts to the shops.

Ms Brameld's cousin, Ian Usher, told Woodham his actions robbed not only his family of the love from their mother and grandmother, but also the community of an upstanding citizen.

"There is a huge hole in our hearts that will never be repaired," Mr Usher said as he addressed Woodham in court.

"We can only hope you live with the shame you have brought your own family and the sorrow you have inflicted on other lives."

Justice Weinstein extended his condolences to Ms Brameld's family before he handed down his verdict.

"I thank you for providing those statements and those photographs which really make one understand how close a family that you were and how beautiful that your mother was with her grandchildren," he said.

"I hope you can instill the kind of love that your mother showed to you so that her memory is passed on."

He reserved his reasons for Wednesday, but the verdicts mean Woodham will be referred to the Mental Health Review Tribunal and detained at a correctional facility "until released by due process of law".

Read more Illawarra court and crime stories here.

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