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Kelowna killer convicted in hammer attack back in jail
Original Publication Date: November 25, 2025 10:19AM
Publication Updated: November 25, 2025 10:19AM
For the second time since being released from jail for manslaughter, Steven Pirko has been found guilty of possessing weapons.
At the Kelowna courthouse Monday, Nov. 24, Judge Dennis Ferbey sentenced Pirko to spend another four months in jail, noting that in the two-and-a-half years since being released from prison for killing Kelowna resident Christopher Ausman with a hammer, he’d been back behind bars twice.
Months after being released for killing Ausman, Pirko was found with a weapon and did more time in jail.
In September, police went to investigate an individual in the parking lot of a Kelowna funeral home.
The court heard how a Kelowna RCMP officer had heard the sound of metal hitting the ground when they approached Pirko in the parking lot.
The 33-year-old then gave them a false name before an officer discovered two knives and a can of bear spray on him. The knife that Pirko had dropped was found on the ground.
Pirko is under a lifetime weapons prohibition after being convicted of killing Ausman with a hammer.
The high-profile case dates back to 2014, when Pirko, who was 21 years old at the time, got into an altercation with Ausman and hit him with a hammer, killing the 32-year-old.
After a lengthy trial, Pirko was found guilty of Pirko guilty of second-degree murder in 2019 and sentenced to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 11 years.
However, in 2023, the BC Court of Appeal found the judge had made errors in instructing the jury and overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial.
Instead of going to a new trial, Pirko pleaded guilty to manslaughter, and having served more than six years behind bars, was released on a sentence of time served.
Since then, he’s breached his probation on numerous occasions.
The court heard how Pirko’s criminal record started when he was 21 years old and he’d breached court orders on nine occasions.
He was once convicted for having a machete, a baton and brass knuckles on him.
The Crown said the fact that Pirko had dropped the weapon the police approached was aggravating as it showed he understood he had a lifetime weapons ban.
Pirko told the court he was homeless and needed to protect himself, but he understood he’d lost the privilege to carry a weapon.
In a joint submission to the court, lawyers asked for seven months’ jail, which, with credit for time already served, meant Pirko will spend another four months in jail.
“More jail is the tool that we have to use here to try to discourage you or deter you from doing this again and to denounce your decision to continue to possess weapons in the community,” the judge said in handing down the sentence.
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One response
Steven Pirko has, for some 13 years now, been consistently involved in the criminal justice system. His actions led directly to the death of another person. He was carrying a weapon at that time and used it when that person was no threat whatsoever to him. He has repeatedly been found with weapons in his possession since that time. I’m going to go out on a limb here and take a guess as to Steven Pirko’s future. I see a Long Term Offender designation in his future, and when he messes that up I see potential for a Dangerous Offender designation with an indeterminate prison sentence. In the entirety of his adult life there’s been nothing good that he brought to the City of Kelowna. An indeterminate prison sentence is perfectly suited to such a guy.