Peter Khill sentenced to 8 years in prison for shooting death of Six Nations man Jon Styres
Peter Khill will serve eight years in federal prison for the killing of Six Nations man Jon Styres.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Andrew Goodman sentenced Khill on Tuesday in a packed Hamilton courtroom, seven years after he shot Styres in the driveway of Khill's home.
One night in February 2016, Khill, then 26, woke up to noises outside. He grabbed his shotgun from his closet and ammunition from his nightstand drawer and went outside. He found Styres breaking into this truck and fired two shots, killing the 29-year-old father of two.
Khill was charged with second degree murder and pleaded not guilty, claiming he acted in self-defence. In December, a jury found him guilty of manslaughter.
The mandatory minimum sentence of manslaughter with a firearm is four years imprisonment, which was requested by Khill's defence lawyer. The Crown requested 10 years behind bars.
The high-profile case attracted public interest as it bore similarities to the 2016 shooting death of Colton Boushie, a 22-year-old Cree man in Saskatchewan. A jury found the accused not guilty of second-degree murder.
Sentence to discourage 'brazen killing of intruders'
On Tuesday, Goodman told the courtroom, filled with members of Styres's and Khill's family, that Khill should serve double the minimum because his actions were not an accident or necessary for self-defence.
The justice said Khill had time to consider his response and could have called 911, but instead "decided to arm himself and gain control," the justice said.
"It was indeed Peter who failed to avoid the final, fatal confrontation."
The sentence will also discourage other people from taking "the law into their own hands" and the "brazen killing of intruders," Goodman said.
He said the case is a "sorrowing tragedy," and he took into consideration the utter devastation felt by Styres's death, both from his family but also the Six Nations community.
At the sentencing hearing, Styres's partner, Lindsay Hill, described telling their young daughters someone had shot and killed their father.
"To tell them daddy is dead is excruciating and still breaks my heart," Hill said. "Hearing my daughter say when she was four she wanted to die so she could go see daddy is terrible."
After Khill was sentenced on Tuesday, she spoke to reporters.
"There's a little comfort knowing [the sentence] it's going to be eight years," she said. "But it feels like a drop in the bucket."
Mark Hill, chief of Six Nations of the Grand River, said there's still a lot of healing to do in the Indigenous community, and this sentence was a start.
"What is it that can make a bigger positive impact not just to this specific case and the community of Six Nations, but in this country of Canada that has seen an extensive number of cases like these that have gone with families getting no justice?"
An 'atrocious' ordeal
Goodman said he also took into consideration "significant" mitigating factors presented by Khill's defence, including that he didn't have a criminal record and at a sentencing hearing expressed remorse for taking Styres's life.
Khill also provided 57 character references from family, friends, co-workers and others in the community — the most Goodman said he'd seen in his career.
The justice read excerpts from statements, including from Khill's wife Melinda, who said they and their two daughters have experienced harassment, defamation, financial ruin and heartbreak. Her husband wiped away tears.
"This ordeal has been an atrocious stain on our existence," Melinda wrote.
This was Khill's third trial for the killing of Styres. In 2018, a jury acquitted the former reservist, which the Crown appealed. The Supreme Court ordered a new trial in 2021 that began last November but ended in a mistrial.
