Teen Sex Trafficking Victim Faces Life for Killing Man Who 'Raped Her and Sold Her for Sex'
Chrystul Kizer killed sex trafficker who took her when she was 16 years old
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A teenage girl is facing life in prison for killing a man she says took her as a sex slave when she was just 16-years-old and "raped her and sold her for sex."
Now-19-year-old Chrystul Kizer is looking at spending the rest of her life in jail for killing Randy Volar in 2016 after a judge ruled that she cannot use a Wisconsin law that protects sex trafficking victims as a defense.
Chrystul met Volar in 2016 when she was 16 and he was 33.
She is believed to be one of about a dozen victims Volar sexually abused and filmed without their consent, authorities say.
Chrystul confessed that, after two years of alleged abuse, she shot Volar in the head twice at his home in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on the night of June 5, 2018.
She then set his body on fire and fled the scene in his BMW.
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Police located the vehicle hours later in Milwaukee and linked it to Chrystul, who confessed to killing him when questioned by police, according to the Dail Mail.
Four months earlier, Volar had been arrested on charges of child enticement, using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime and second-degree sexual assault of a child.
Photo and video evidence found at his home indicated that Chrystul was one of his victims.
Volar was inexplicably released from jail the day after his arrest, without bail, and remained free until the night Chrystul shot him.
District Attorney Michael Graveley, whose office knew of the evidence against Volar but held off on prosecuting him, charged Chrystul with first-degree intentional homicide and homicide.
The prosecutor has argued that Chrystal had pre-planned the murder, based on text messages she sent to friends and a selfie she posted on social media two hours before Volar's body was found, which captioned "My Mugshot."
Chrystul, now 19, has maintained that she did not go to Volar's home that night with the intent to kill him and says she acted in self-defense after he drugged her and tried to have sex with her.
The teen's lawyers sought to apply an "affirmative defense" under a state law which allows victims of sex trafficking to be acquitted of certain charges if they can prove they committed the crime because they were being trafficked.
A judge ruled on December 9 that Wisconsin's affirmative defense did not apply to Chrystul's case.
Her lawyer is now preparing to appeal that ruling as Chrystul remains in jail.
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Authorities linked Chrystul to the crime after finding Volar's missing BMW in Milwaukee and connecting items inside the car to her and her brother.
Chrystul's story changed several times over the course of her first interview with investigators.
She initially claimed that she didn't know Volar, and then said she saw a woman shoot him.
Finally, she confessed that she was the one who killed him because she "got upset and was tired of Volar touching her."
Her claims of abuse were already well supported by the cache of evidence police had collected in their investigation of Volar, which was sparked in February 2018 after a different teenage girl reported that he had been paying her for sex and filming it.
When police searched his home, they found computers and other electronics with videos and photos of him having sex with girls who appeared to be as young as 12.
They also came across a bank account with $1.5million in transfers, activity consistent with sex trafficking.
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The district attorney's office allegedly tried to withhold the evidence against Volar from Chrystul's defense team, arguing that they didn't have the right to review the case file.
When they were finally granted access to the evidence, Chrystul's lawyers began building their 'affirmative' defense.
The defense is based on a statute recognized in many states, including Wisconsin, which allows sex-trafficking victims to use the fact that they were trafficked as a defense against certain charges.
Wisconsin's version of the law is broad and doesn't specify which crimes the defense can be used for.
It has never been used in cases involving homicide or other violent crimes, the Post reported.
Prosecutors argued that the affirmative defense did not apply because Volar's murder was premeditated.
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If the judge had ruled that the affirmative defense did apply, a jury would have been tasked with deciding whether her crimes were a "direct result" of being trafficked.
However, Judge David P Wilk announced at a hearing earlier this month that the defense is "limited," and did not fit Chrystul's case.
In his ruling, Wilk said that allowing the teen to use it would set an extremely dangerous precedent for other cases involving trafficking victims accused of violent crimes.
"The court is satisfied that a blanket affirmative defense to all acts leads to an absurd result," Wilk said.
Chrystul was subsequently returned to jail to await her trial, where she faces up to life in prison, the mandatory minimum sentence for intentional homicide.
Her lawyer has said he intends to appeal the ruling.
Chrystul's case garnered attention due to its striking similarities to that of Cyntoia Brown.
Brown was granted clemency in August after serving 15 years in prison for murdering the man who bought her for sex when she was underage, following a massive social media campaign in which celebrities including Kim Kardashian and Rihanna advocated for her release.
