John Ward Skinner, 38, was jailed for life with a minimum non-parole period of 15 years by Justice Geoffrey Venning in the High Court at Auckland today.
Skinner was found guilty by a jury in June of murdering Mr Wilkinson, along with the attempted murder of Mr Wilkinson's colleague, who has name suppression, and of assault with a weapon.
Iain Lindsay Clegg, 36, was jailed for eight years with a minimum parole period of four years for the manslaughter of Mr Wilkinson.
Mr Wilkinson and his colleague had been trying to install a tracking device on a car at Skinner's house as part of a drugs investigation on September 11, 2008 when they were detected.
After they ran away, Skinner got in a car being driven by Clegg to chase them.
Skinner and Clegg found the two officers down a driveway, where both were shot with a high-powered air rifle by Skinner.
Mr Wilkinson, who was not wearing a protective vest, died at the scene. His colleague, who was wearing protective clothing, survived.
Skinner had argued during the trial that he thought the two officers, who did not identify themselves, were burglars and he fired the air rifle in self-defence after one of the officers appeared to reach for a weapon.
