The 46-year-old, who was found guilty by a jury of the July 2018 murder of his former partner Samantha Fraser, faced the Supreme Court in Melbourne for another pre-sentence hearing after his previous legal team dropped him.
Basham strangled Ms Fraser with a rope at her home in Cowes, Phillip Island, after prosecutors said he was laying in wait for her and arranged the scene to appear like a suicide.
He had been charged with raping his estranged wife months earlier and Ms Fraser was due to give evidence against him a week after she was killed.
Prosecutors claimed Basham's primary motive was to prevent Ms Fraser from speaking against him on the alleged rapes at a committal hearing. The rape charges were dropped after Basham was found guilty of murder.
Basham's new barrister, Dermott Dann KC, on Friday said his client continued to maintain his innocence, which he said had "limited him" in arguing for Basham.
He said the murder was not an "execution" of Ms Fraser over her upcoming court appearance and argued the offending did not fall into the worst category.
Basham did not deserve to be handed a life sentence because he was not a threat to the wider community, he said.
"As found by the jury, Ms Fraser was the victim of a terrible crime, however the point is he does not represent an ongoing danger to the wider community, he does not have that history about him," Mr Dann told the court.
"We aren't at the very worst category, we aren't at the extreme end."
He cited Basham's work history and submitted references to the court as evidence of him being a "loving father" and "very hard working".
Mr Dann argued the murder was not premeditated and his motive was more complicated than prosecutors had submitted. Basham was jealous, angry about not seeing his children and upset about the relationship breakdown, he said.
"Amongst all of these competing motives and inferences, you cannot be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that this is a case of a man executing his former wife simply to avoid a situation where she gave and would give evidence at a committal," Mr Dann said.
Justice Lesley Taylor challenged his submission and said Ms Faser was living in "abject terror" of Basham before she was murdered.
"She was giving evidence against him the next week, that's got to be relevant doesn't it?" she said.
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC said, while there were many motives, Basham's primary motive was to prevent Ms Fraser from giving evidence.
"The timeline here is crucially important, being seven days out," she said.
Justice Taylor said she would sentence Basham in the new year.
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