Photo: Facebook

Steven Pirko in a Facebook photo from June 2024.

A Kelowna killer has another 75 days left to serve after once again violating parole conditions for his manslaughter conviction.

Steven Pirko served approximately six and a half years in prison for killing Chris Ausman with a hammer in the early morning hours of January 25, 2014. Although a jury initially convicted him of second-degree murder, the U.S. Court of Appeals BC overturned the ruling and instead pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

But since his release in May 2023, under a three-year probation order, Pirko has continued to reoffend.

He was most recently arrested at the end of September and charged with possession of stolen property, obstructing a police officer, breach of probation and possession of another person’s identification. While details about the crimes are unclear, the incident occurred in Kelowna.

Pirko was scheduled to appear in Kelowna court on Wednesday for a bail hearing, but instead pleaded guilty to three of the four charges he faced. In return, the Crown suspended the identification charge.

Pirko received a total sentence of 4.5 months in jail for the three convictions, but with two months of enhanced credit for time served, he now has 75 days left on his sentence.

Second breach of parole

The September 2024 breach of parole charge is the second time He has been found guilty of breaching his three-year probation order stemming from his manslaughter conviction.

Pirko spent almost four months in prison between October 2023 and February 2024, after police found him carrying brass knuckles and a knife, violating the conditions of his parole.

During sentencing on those charges in February, his attorney Melissa Lowe noted that Pirko has struggled with substance abuse for many years and had not attended a substance abuse management course as directed by his probation officer.

“He may have slipped in the fall, but he’s back on that program,” Lowe said in February. “He’s looking forward to doing some programming with probation in the future.”

Pirko apologized to the court in February, saying: “I know I need to do better when it comes to my probation order, and I will do that.”

Fatal hammer blows

Pirko’s previous manslaughter conviction occurred in an incident on Highway 33 near Rutland Road in the early morning hours of Jan. 25, 2014.

Pirko and his friend Elrich Dyck were walking south on the road when they encountered Chris Ausman walking north on the other side of the road. Ausman had recently abandoned a poker game with friends. The three men were drunk.

Pirko and Dyck had never met Ausman before, but they exchanged words and the pair ran toward Ausman. Ausman and Dyck then got into a fistfight.

When Ausman took the lead, Pirko appeared behind Ausman and hit him several times in the head with a hammer. The blows proved fatal.

Pirko and Dyck left Ausman’s lifeless body on the sidewalk and fled the area. An RCMP officer came across Ausman’s body that same morning.

Conviction overturned

The murder remained unsolved for years, until Pirko was arrested and charged in November 2016. It was convicted of murder after a seven week trial in the spring of 2019, and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for 11 years.

He would still be behind bars if it weren’t for the British Columbia Court of Appeal. annulling the conviction Four years later, he ruled that Judge Allan Betton’s instructions to the jury were “so confusing as to constitute an error of law.”

Instead of proceeding with another trial, the Crown accepted the declaration of involuntary manslaughter and was released within the time served, with an additional three years of probation.

“Not a day goes by that I don’t regret what I did,” Pirko told Ausman’s family during his sentencing. “I don’t expect them to forgive me, but I hope one day they understand my side. I will continue trying to improve myself.