A jury on Wednesday found Joshua Searston, 27, and Dewald De Klerk, 30, guilty in the Queensland Supreme Court of the murder of Andrew Walsh, 35, at a transport business in Brisbane's south in November 2021.
The body of Mr Walsh - known as "Ghost" - was not discovered until March 2022 when police dug down 1.5 metres at the Coopers Plains transport depot.
De Klerk pleaded guilty to interfering with a corpse at the start of the trial.
Crown prosecutor Chris Cook last week told the jury in Brisbane the defendants attacked and stabbed Mr Walsh believing he had been "franking", which meant sexually assaulting someone after drugging them.
Mr Cook on Wednesday called for the mandatory life sentence for the pair and said they showed no signs of remorse.
He asked Chief Justice Helen Bowskill to impose more than the minimum 20 years without parole for De Klerk, whom he called the instigator of the killing.
"This was an evil crime. The defendants are purely dangerous men. The community must be protected. They are not interested in rehabilitation," Mr Cook said.
The jury started deliberating on Tuesday afternoon after hearing evidence and closing statements over eight days in the trial.
Mr Walsh's mother read from a victim impact statement and told Justice Bowskill her son had been far too trusting toward people he thought were his friends and who then killed him in extremely terrifying circumstances.
"We found out the vile and inhumane way he was murdered and his body disposed of," she said.
"We only recovered from the coroner a bag of skeletal material that was unrecognisable."
Searston's barrister Anna Cappellano said her client had hit "rock bottom" in the months before he killed Mr Walsh due to his heavy drug use.
"In his words, he 'just didn't care anymore about anyone or anything,'," she said.
De Klerk's barrister David Funch said his client had been a talented baseball player who had become involved in drugs while on a sports scholarship in the USA.
"There is evidence to suggest my client was the lesser involved (in the murder)," Mr Funch said.
Justice Bowskill said the murder of Mr Walsh was despicable and the treatment of his body had been disgraceful and disrespectful by moving him with a forklift and pouring on corrosive chemicals.
"That was a cruel and violent assault on this man lasting for a considerable amount of time involving stabbing with knives," she said.
"One of the most disturbing aspects was the phone call you made in 2022 in which you were laughing about what happened ... it was chilling."
The defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment with Searston to serve 20 years and De Klerk to serve 22 years before being eligible for parole.
De Klerk as a citizen of South Africa faces a mandatory deportation process upon release.
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