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Chrystul Kizer sentenced to 11 years in prison
A Kenosha County judge sentenced Chrystul Kizer on Monday, Aug. 19 to 11 years in prison plus an additional five years of extended supervision.
KENOSHA, Wis. - A Kenosha County judge sentenced Chrystul Kizer on Monday, Aug. 19 to 11 years in prison plus an additional five years of extended supervision.
The Milwaukee woman pleaded guilty in May to second-degree reckless homicide – this, after she argued she was legally allowed to kill a man because he was sexually trafficking her. With the guilty plea, Kizer avoided a trial and possible life in prison.
The reckless homicide charge carried a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.
Case details
Prosecutors alleged Kizer shot 34-year-old Randall Volar at his Kenosha home in 2018, when she was just 17 years old. She then burned his house down and stole his BMW, they allege. She was charged with multiple counts, including first-degree intentional homicide, arson, car theft and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Kizer argued that she met Volar on a sex trafficking website. He had been molesting her and selling her as a prostitute over the year leading up to his death, she argued. She told detectives that she shot him after he tried to touch her.
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Chrystul Kizer in Kenosha County Court for sentencing on Monday, Aug. 19, 2024.
Her attorneys argued that Kizer couldn't be held criminally liable for any of it under a 2008 state law that absolves sex trafficking victims of "any offense committed as a direct result" of being trafficked. Most states have passed similar laws over the last 10 years providing sex trafficking victims at least some level of criminal immunity.
Prosecutors countered that Wisconsin legislators couldn't possibly have intended for protections to extend to homicide.
In support of Kizer
Anti-violence groups flocked to Kizer's defense, arguing in court briefs that trafficking victims feel trapped and sometimes feel as if they have to take matters into their own hands. The state Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that Kizer could raise the defense during trial.
Chrystul Kizer in Kenosha County Court on Monday, Aug, 19.
The case garnered international attention. In 2020, a handful of groups helped pay her $400,000 bond so she could be free before her trial.
"We really hope that this is going to give Chrystul the chance to start healing," said Sharlyn Grace with Chicago Community Bond Fund.
Chrystul Kizer pleads guilty to reduced reckless homicide charge
A Milwaukee woman who argued she was legally allowed to kill a man because he was sexually trafficking her pleaded guilty Thursday, May 9, to a reduced count of reckless homicide.
Yasmin Vafa is the executive director of Rights4Girls, an organization working to change the narrative on the criminalization of sexually abused girls. She helped write a report on it.
"It’s a heartbreaking decision," Vafa said. "We are still letting so many of these young girls fall through the cracks. I think it’s a tragedy just all around."