What do you mean 'choices vs who he is'? You think people are born with a prescribed mentality to do these sort of things? I'd say in most cases it's those around them that influence who they become. Depending on the amount of influence and their individual vulnerability they change from an innocent young bloke to someone who engages in these sort of things. Who someone 'is' constantly changes. Much like someone can go from a role model to a crack addict, the reverse can also apply. Make a weighted judgement based on who they've become compared to who they once were, as opposed to ruling someone out entirely. If a friend of myn used to practice as a civil engineer but now works in business and has been for a while, I wouldn't take their advice on a structural design as gospel, but acknowledge their opinion and give it weight based on how long they've been out of the field for, how long they previously worked for etc.
He isn't exactly Ted Bundy, I wouldn't consider his actions as more a psychological concern to claim that this is 'who he is'. It's very obvious, especially having grown up with these boys (Primary/High school), gang affiliation and suburb wars was a very prominent aspect, unfortunately influencing the young impressionable mind. Why wasn't I involved in this? Probably because there was less opportunity to become influenced, I had other friends and groups to also hang out with.
"Have you ever been in a life and death situation and seen people expose who they really are?" Sounds like a line out of a TV show.
Not to suggest Manase will change during his time in jail, but he definitely can change 'who he is'.
