US Woman Gets 11-Yr Jail For Murdering Sex Trafficker As A Teen. She Had Dubbed The Murder 'Legal'
Chrystul Kizer’s defence team cited a law that absolves sex-trafficking victims of any crimes that were committed as a direct result of being trafficked.
A US woman who, as a teenager, killed a man who was sexually trafficking her was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Monday. Chrystul Kizer, now 24, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of reckless homicide. She had argued in court that she was allowed to legally kill Randall Volar, 34, because he was sexually trafficking her.
According to the Associated Press, a court in the Wisconsin county of Kenosha also sentenced Kizer to five years of extended supervision after her release. Kizer was given credit for 570 days, about one and half years, of time already served while she awaited the outcome of her case.
The judge ruled that Kizer would not be eligible for parole, AP reported.
In May, she pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless homicide, which allowed her to avoid trial and a possible life sentence.
Chrystul Kizer Case
In 2018, Chrystul Kizer from Milwaukee shot Randall Volar at his Kenosha home. Kizer, who was 17 at the time, burned his house down and stole his BMW. At the time, she was charged with multiple counts, including first-degree intentional homicide, arson, car theft and being a felon in possession of a firearm, AP reported.
Kizer revealed that she met Volar on a "sex trafficking website". She said that he molested her and sold her as a sex worker for over a year until his death. She told the detectives that she shot him when he tried to touch her again, the report said.
Kizer’s defence attorneys said she should not be held criminally liable, citing a 2008 state law that absolves sex trafficking victims of any crimes that were committed as a direct result of being trafficked, reported AP. Over the last 10 years, several US states have passed this law, providing sex-trafficking victims some level of criminal immunity.
Prosecutors argued that Wisconsin legislators could not have intended for the protections to extend to homicide. They asserted that the law was not meant to shield individuals' responsibility from such serious crimes. In 2022, the state supreme court ruled that Kizer could raise the defence during her trial.