Alexandra and Steven Kurzinger were due in court over their five children the morning after he killed her outside her Chardon home.
CHARDON, Ohio — The day before a scheduled custody hearing, Steven Kurzinger sent his former wife a message that appeared to look toward a less confrontational future: He said he hoped the two could become better co-parents to their five children.
By the next morning, Alexandra Kurzinger was dead and the court hearing would never occur as planned. Prosecutors said Steven’s invitation to discuss holiday arrangements on June 25, 2025, was part of the sequence leading to a planned killing outside Alexandra’s home in Chardon. He later pleaded guilty to aggravated murder. On Aug. 5, 2026, Geauga County Common Pleas Court Judge Matt Rambo sentenced the 37-year-old to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The timing of the crime became one of the defining facts of the case. Lake County court records showed that Steven and Alexandra had been involved in divorce-related litigation dating to 2021. They shared five children, who police said ranged in age from 9 to 16 at the time of their mother’s death. A hearing concerning custody was set for June 26, 2025. At sentencing, Geauga County Prosecutor Jim Flaiz argued that Steven had formed a plan that would ensure Alexandra did not appear in court the following day.
The messages exchanged before the killing gave the court a direct view of the meeting’s stated purpose. Shortly before 1 p.m., Steven asked whether he could come over to talk about holiday arrangements before the hearing. He told Alexandra that both of them had come a long way and said he hoped they could improve their co-parenting. Alexandra agreed to meet but set boundaries. According to testimony, she said she would walk away if he began yelling or calling her names and reminded him that cameras were outside.
Steven proposed meeting at a park or taking a drive, but Alexandra said they could speak in the driveway. The distinction later became part of the documented chronology rather than proof by itself of his intentions. Investigators combined those messages with other evidence, including surveillance recordings, location data and the handgun Steven had acquired about a week earlier. Prosecutors argued that the full record showed preparation before a meeting that had been presented to Alexandra as a conversation about their children.
The former spouses spoke at the residence that evening. Steven then drove away. Surveillance cameras tracked his vehicle into Chardon, where he stopped at a Sheetz station and entered a restroom before leaving without making a purchase, according to police testimony. His departure from Alexandra’s property became important at sentencing because prosecutors said it gave him time and distance to abandon any plan to harm her. Instead, he returned to Irma Drive.
At 9:10 p.m., Steven sent Alexandra another message telling her he was back. Approximately one minute later, a nearby camera captured the sound of gunfire. Authorities said Alexandra was shot twice outside her residence. Investigators testified that physical evidence showed one shot was fired at close range after she had fallen. Steven then left in his vehicle. A neighbor who heard the shots called 911 after seeing a woman down near a doorway.
Police identified Steven as the suspect and sent out an alert for his vehicle. He drove to a residence on Ravenna Road in Concord Township, where authorities said he told someone he had killed his former wife and indicated that the gun was in the vehicle. Lake County sheriff’s deputies took him into custody at about 9:37 p.m. Chardon Police Chief Scott Niehus said in the days after the killing that investigators were still examining electronic evidence and trying to establish the circumstances surrounding the former couple’s relationship.
The consequences extended immediately beyond the criminal investigation. Alexandra and Steven’s five children were in Lake County and were not at the Chardon residence when their mother was killed, according to authorities. Officials said county child-services agencies were involved in addressing their care. Prosecutors later kept their focus in court on Alexandra’s death and Steven’s conduct rather than attempting to speak for the children about the personal effects of losing their mother while their father faced a murder prosecution.
Family members and friends supplied that human dimension at the sentencing hearing. Supporters arrived wearing shirts bearing Alexandra’s name and a message about justice. Her cousin Rachel Vogel told the court the killing had added another layer of trauma to a family already affected by the couple’s difficult relationship. Friend Marie Anne Brown focused on the life Alexandra no longer had the chance to build and on what her absence meant to the children and people around her.
The criminal case moved through several stages before Steven accepted responsibility in court. He was first charged with murder and held on a $5 million bond after his arrest. A grand jury later indicted him on aggravated murder, murder and a weapons count. He initially pleaded not guilty. His defense subsequently raised mental-health issues, and a court-ordered evaluation later found that he did not meet the legal standard for insanity at the time of the killing.
Steven changed his plea on June 17, 2026. He admitted aggravated murder, and prosecutors agreed that the other charges and specifications would be dismissed at sentencing. The plea resolved the question of criminal guilt but not whether he would ever have the possibility of parole. Ohio law gave the judge sentencing options that could have left open a future release date. Flaiz argued that the evidence of planning and the circumstances surrounding the upcoming custody hearing supported life without parole.
Defense attorney Matthew Bangerter urged Rambo to impose a sentence that preserved some possibility of release. He cited Steven’s mental-health history and participation in treatment and jail programs. Steven told the court he was sorry to Alexandra’s family and friends. He said he intended to continue working on himself and hoped one day to rejoin society. He also told the court that he had intended to hurt Alexandra but not anyone else.
Rambo determined that the circumstances did not support a future chance at parole. The judge said Steven had killed Alexandra with prior calculation rather than in self-defense or during an uncontrolled confrontation. He noted that Steven acquired the gun, went to the residence, left and returned. Rambo also referred to the terror Alexandra likely experienced when Steven approached her before the shooting.
By sentencing Steven to life without parole, the court ended the possibility that the former spouses’ years of family litigation would be followed by his eventual release from prison under the sentence imposed in the murder case. Defense counsel requested appellate representation after Rambo announced the punishment, leaving an appeal as the next possible stage of the criminal proceedings.
The custody hearing scheduled for June 26, 2025, remains a crucial point in the chronology because it explains why the former spouses were communicating that day and why prosecutors viewed the timing as evidence of planning. The hearing itself never took place as intended. Instead, the exchange about holiday arrangements and co-parenting became evidence in the case that ended with Steven Kurzinger receiving a life sentence for killing the mother of their five children.
Author note: Last updated Sept. 20, 2026.