Source: The Washington Post / Getty
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has made a major decision regarding the case of Chrystul Kizer. During her last court appearance, it was ruled that Kizer be granted immunity, the Washington Post reported. Kizer was offered immunity thanks to legal protection of a never-before-used Wisconsin law. The law was designed to protect victims whose crimes are a “direct result” of sex trafficking. This means she can be cleared of all charges. She can also be charged with second degree murder instead of first degree murder. Second degree murder carries a sentence of 60 years in prison.
“We could not have gotten a better decision‚” Diane Rosenfeld, director of Harvard Law School’s gender violence program, told the Post. “If the state had taken more seriously what Volar was doing, not only to Chrystul but to all these other girls, arguably Chrystul wouldn’t have been in this position.”
Chrystul Kizer is accused of killing 34-year-old Randall Phillip Volar III in June 2018. Kizer was 17 at the time and was allegedly being sex trafficked by Volar III. Kizer said when she was 16 she met Volar online. According to the Post, she would meet him in hotel rooms where they would engage in sexual encounters that he would film. Kizer said she was also forced to engaged in sexual acts with other men for money.
After killing Volar, which she admitted to doing, she said she then set his home on fire and fled in his BMW. A few days after the murder, she confessed to killing Volar on Facebook Live. She was arrested a few days later. She is now facing life in prison for first degree intentional homicide.
Volar, a white man, was under investigation during the time of his death for sexually abusing Black underage girls. Three months before his death, a 15-year-old girl called the police and said he drugged her and planned on killing her. Volar was then arrested. Volar’s home was then raided and police found videos of Volar abusing girls as young as 12-years-old. He was freed after posting his bail. He remained free as police conducted their investigation.
Kizer’s attorneys now have to prove that her crime was a “direct result” of her being a trafficking victim. She will then go before a jury. She will be found not guilty if the jury agrees that there’s evidence to support the “direct result” claim.
Kizer, now 22, has been home with her family since being released from the Kenosha jail.
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