Featured Image Credit: Getty/The Washington Post/Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department
Topics: Sex Trafficking, US News, Crime
Emily Brown
Topics: Sex Trafficking, US News, Crime
Warning: This article contains discussion of sexual assault which some readers may find distressing.
A Milwaukee woman who fatally shot a man she said subjected her to sex trafficking has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Chrystul Kizer, 24, pleaded guilty earlier this year to reckless homicide, after she shot 34-year-old Randall Volar at his home in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 2018.
Kizer was just 17-years-old at the time and claimed she had been trafficked by Volar from when she was 16.
Advert
Kizer said Volar had sexually assaulted her while giving her cash and gifts, as well as selling her to other men for sex.
An investigation by The Washington Post uncovered evidence, including video, that indicated Volar had been filming his sexual abuse of Kizer, and that he was abusing about a dozen girls who all appeared to be underage.
Volar was arrested in early 2018 on charges of sexual assault, but he was released on the same day.
According to the Associated Press, Kizer told her boyfriend she was going to shoot Volar because she was tired of him touching her.
She put a gun in her bookbag and travelled from Milwaukee to Kenosha, where she shot Volar in the head, burned down his house and stole his BMW.
Kizer was arrested and initially charged with first-degree intentional homicide, arson, car theft and being a felon in possession of a firearm, however, she argued she should not be prosecuted due to the crimes she had been subject to herself.
Kizer's argument came on the basis of 'affirmative defence' provisions some states have in place, which absolves trafficking victims of criminal liability for offenses committed as a direct result of being trafficked.
Kizer had previously queried whether this defence could be used for homicide, and in 2022, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled it could.
The court ruled that Kizer's legal team should be able to present evidence to show the crimes she was charged with were a 'direct result' of her being trafficked, which would allow her to invoke immunity.
Kizer continues to maintain that killing Volar was an act of self-defense, according to a statement from the Chicago Community Bond Fund, but in May she chose to plead guilty to a reduced count of reckless homicide.
The plea came as part of a deal to allow Kizer to avoid a life sentence.
She has now been sentenced to 11 years in prison, plus five years parole.
In an email to CNN, Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley said: “The 11 years is minus … 570 days because she has served those awaiting trial."
If you've been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact The National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800.656.HOPE (4673), available 24/7. Or you can chat online via online.rainn.org