Messages, surveillance footage and location data documented Steven Kurzinger’s movements before he killed his former wife outside her Chardon residence.
CHARDON, Ohio — A one-word message sent at 9:10 p.m. became one of the final markers in a digital trail investigators used to reconstruct the killing of Alexandra Kurzinger: Her former husband, Steven Kurzinger, had returned to her home and texted, “I’m back.”
About a minute later on June 25, 2025, a camera near Irma Drive recorded the sound of gunfire. Alexandra Kurzinger, 37, was found dead outside the home. More than a year later, prosecutors laid out the sequence in a Geauga County courtroom as Steven Kurzinger, also 37, faced sentencing after pleading guilty to aggravated murder. Judge Matt Rambo sentenced him Aug. 5 to life in prison without the possibility of parole, citing evidence that the killing had been planned in advance.
The reconstruction began hours before the shots. Police extracted messages exchanged between Steven and Alexandra on the afternoon of June 25. Shortly before 1 p.m., he asked whether he could come by to discuss holiday plans before a custody hearing scheduled for the next day. He told her they had both made progress and wrote that he hoped they could co-parent better. Alexandra agreed to meet but set limits, telling him that she would walk away if the discussion turned to yelling or insults. She also told him cameras were outside the home.
The messages showed a discussion over where they would meet. Steven suggested a park or taking a drive, according to testimony at sentencing. Alexandra instead said they could talk in the driveway. Investigators later paired the text history with footage from surveillance cameras around Chardon and location information from the Life360 app. The combination allowed police to track Steven’s movements before and after the killing and gave prosecutors a time-stamped sequence that became central to their argument that the crime involved prior calculation.
The two initially spoke at the property. Steven then left. Cameras later captured his vehicle traveling away from Irma Drive and into Chardon, where he stopped at a Sheetz station. Chardon Police Lt. Matthew Delisa testified that Steven entered a restroom and remained there for several minutes but did not purchase anything before leaving. Instead of continuing away from Alexandra’s home, he turned back. By 9:10 p.m., he was close enough to send the message announcing his return.
The next portion of the timeline unfolded in seconds. A camera at Irma Drive and South Hambden Street captured the sound of gunshots at 9:11 p.m., according to testimony. Prosecutors said Alexandra was shot twice outside the residence. Scene evidence indicated that one shot struck her before she fell and another was fired at close range afterward. A camera then recorded Steven’s vehicle leaving the area. The state presented that movement as part of an uninterrupted chain connecting the earlier communications, the return to the house and the shooting.
A neighbor helped turn that electronic trail into an active police response. Shortly after the gunfire, a 911 caller reported hearing shots and seeing a woman down in or near the doorway of a neighboring home. Chardon police and firefighters responded, and Alexandra was pronounced dead. Officers quickly developed Steven Kurzinger as the suspect. An alert was issued for his vehicle as agencies in neighboring Lake County were notified.
The trail continued after he left Chardon. Authorities said Steven drove to a residence on Ravenna Road in Concord Township, where he told someone that he had killed Alexandra. Police said he also indicated that the gun was in his vehicle. Lake County sheriff’s deputies took him into custody at about 9:37 p.m., less than half an hour after the camera captured the gunshots. Chardon Police Chief Scott Niehus later said the speed of the arrest was significant, while cautioning in the earliest days of the investigation that officers were still examining electronic devices, video and the relationship between the former spouses.
That initial investigation grew substantially over the following months. Police determined the handgun had been obtained at a pawnshop about a week before the killing, Delisa testified at sentencing. Authorities also examined the former couple’s communications and court history. Steven had stored Alexandra’s contact under her first name and a crude derogatory nickname, according to evidence presented in court. Prosecutors argued that the phone evidence, gun purchase, travel pattern and return to the residence all pointed in the same direction: The killing was not spontaneous.
The timing added another element. Steven and Alexandra shared five children and had been involved in years of divorce-related litigation in Lake County. Court records showed a hearing involving custody was scheduled for June 26, the morning after the killing. Geauga County Prosecutor Jim Flaiz argued at sentencing that Steven intended to make sure Alexandra never reached that hearing. He emphasized the moment when Steven left her property as an opportunity to abandon the course he had chosen. Instead, the prosecutor said, Steven returned.
For much of the case, Steven Kurzinger faced multiple charges. He was initially arrested on a murder charge and held on a $5 million bond. In August 2025, a Geauga County grand jury indicted him on aggravated murder, murder and having a weapon while under disability. He pleaded not guilty. His defense later raised issues involving his mental health. A court-ordered evaluation reported in 2026 found that he was not legally insane at the time of the offense. The case ultimately did not go before a jury.
On June 17, 2026, Steven pleaded guilty to aggravated murder. As part of the plea, the state agreed to dismiss the other charges and specifications at sentencing, and he agreed to forfeit the firearm. There was no agreement over punishment. That made the Aug. 5 proceeding less a dispute over what had happened than a decision over whether Steven should ever be eligible to leave prison. Prosecutors relied on the reconstructed timeline to argue for the harshest available result.
Defense attorney Matthew Bangerter asked the judge to leave open the possibility of parole. He cited Steven’s mental-health history, his participation in treatment and educational programming in jail, and what he described as a limited criminal history. Steven apologized in court to Alexandra’s family and friends and said he would continue working to improve himself. He also said his intent had been to hurt Alexandra and no one else, a statement that drew particular attention during a hearing already focused on intent and preparation.
Rambo sided with the prosecution’s view of the evidence. The judge said Steven had not acted in self-defense or in a sudden burst of rage. He pointed instead to a succession of choices: obtaining the gun, bringing it to the meeting, leaving, returning and then killing Alexandra. He sentenced Steven to life without parole. The defense asked that counsel be appointed for an appeal.
The digital records that once helped investigators establish where Steven Kurzinger had been and when now form part of the closed trial-court record supporting his conviction and sentence. More than a year after the killing, the texts, camera footage and location data remain central to the documented sequence of Alexandra Kurzinger’s final evening and to the court’s finding that the crime was planned.
Author note: Last updated Sept. 20, 2026.