Photo: File photo

A West Kelowna man who was convicted of fatally stabbing a man in 2015 has completed his sentence for the killing, but now faces a number of drug charges since his release.

Jose Amestica was arrested on the afternoon of April 29, 2015 after police were called to a home on West Kelowna's Solar Road for reports of a stabbing. Amestica had stabbed Kevin McNally inside the home during an argument, and the 45-year-old man died three days later in hospital.

While Amestica was originally charged with aggravated assault, his charges were upgraded to second-degree murder. But on the day Amestica was set to face a jury trial, he struck a plea deal with the Crown, and pleaded guilty to manslaughter. In May 2017, he was sentenced to five years in jail, but with presentence credit, he was left with less than two years to serve.

Amestica had multiple drug convictions prior to his killing of McNally, dating back to 2010, and he allegedly went back to his old ways shortly after completing his manslaughter sentence.

He was arrested on Oct. 3, 2019 and charged with three counts of trafficking drugs in Kelowna in September 2019. A few weeks later, he was also charged with two counts of possessing drugs on Sept. 9 and Oct. 16 of 2019, but he remains out of custody on bail.

Last March, he pleaded guilty to one of the possession charges, but a preliminary inquiry is scheduled on his trafficking charges next February.

On Friday, a presentence report was ordered for Amestica, to highlight the “positive steps [he] has been taking towards his rehabilitation,” according to Amestica's lawyer Gavin Jones.

Amestica's possession case is scheduled to next appear in Kelowna court in January, following the completion of the presentence report.