Brooks Houck and Joseph Lawson found guilty of all charges in Crystal Rogers' murder

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WDRB) -- After deliberating for about four hours Tuesday, a Warren County jury found Brooks Houck and Joseph Lawson guilty in the 2015 murder of Crystal Rogers and recommended the maximum prison sentences.

The jury of six men and six women found Houck, 43, guilty of murder (principal or accomplice to the crime) and complicity tampering with physical evidence.

His co-defendant, 34-year-old Joseph Lawson, who was charged with conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence, was found guilty on both charges as well. His father, Steve Lawson, was convicted of the same charges and sentenced to 17 years in prison in May.

The jury recommended maximum sentences for both men: life in prison plus five years for Houck and 25 years for Lawson. Both would have to serve 85% of their sentence before being eligible for parole.

A final sentencing hearing will be held Aug. 21.

Sherry Ballard, Rogers' mother, left the courthouse smiling but declined to talk with reporters. Ashley Miller, one of Rogers' five children, told reporters that what Houck and Lawson did was "not fair at all. There's been days of my life I just sat down and cried because she was not there."

The Houck family left the courthouse through a side exit and did not speak with reporters. Attorney Brian Butler, who represented Houck, declined to comment. An attorney for Lawson said he would provide a statement soon.

During the sentencing phase, Rogers' daughter, Kyleigh Fenwick, who was 14 when her mother vanished, testified that her mom missed her high school and college graduation and will never see her get married or have kids.

"I've waited a long time for this," she told the jury. "I just want you all to be fair and go with what's in your heart."

Kevin Coleman, an attorney for Lawson, asked the jury for a 10-year total sentence, saying Lawson had a tough upbringing, is confined to a wheelchair and had drug problems.

Steve Schroering, an attorney for Houck, argued there is more doubt in this murder conviction than any other he has been part of because there is no body, crime scene or murder weapon. He said jurors can consider that doubt when deciding the sentence.

Schroering asked jurors to sentence Houck to 20 years in prison.

"No matter what happens, he's going to be in prison for a long, long time," Schroering said.

But prosecutor Shane Young called it "insulting" to tell the jurors they should consider their comfort level of the verdict and asked them to sentence Houck to life in prison. Young also indicated Lawson deserved the maximum sentence allowed, calling it a pre-meditated murder that Lawson and Houck almost got away with and had been planning for months.

"They were close to this being perfect," Young said, arguing that Rogers' car getting a flat tire and breaking down on the Bluegrass Parkway was likely the only reason the case was solved.

Young told jurors Rogers' five kids have to grow up and go through life without a mother.

"He took the most precious thing in the world away from them," Young said, his voice often rising to a shout. "Their kids won't have a grandmother, because that guy decided (Rogers) needed to disappear."

As the guilty verdict was read earlier Tuesday, there were sobs in the courtroom from Rogers' family, who have been waiting 10 years for some sort of closure.

Butler hung his head as the verdict was read. Neither Houck nor Lawson appeared to react.

The 10-day trial, which began June 24, included more than 50 witnesses, testimony about cellphone data, experts on policing, surveillance videos and recorded interrogations, among other evidence.

The trial was moved from Nelson County to Warren County because of the massive amount of local and national publicity over the last decade.

During deliberations, the jury asked to again hear the first 20 minutes of Charlie Girdley's testimony.

Girdley testified June 30 that Steve Lawson told him once that Brooks Houck was looking to "get rid of his old lady." He said he went drinking with Joseph Lawson on July 3, 2015, the night Rogers disappeared. They left, he said, and met up with Steve Lawson to get his paycheck. Lawson gave his son his keys so Joseph Lawson could work on Rogers' car, putting new brakes and rotors on it.

Later that night, Girdley said Joseph Lawson called him and said he broke down on the Bluegrass Parkway and wanted Girdley to bring him a trailer and come pick him up. Girdley testified he didn't go because he'd been drinking. He did not know what vehicle Lawson was driving.

At some point, Girdley said Joseph Lawson said he'd bury Rogers' car with a skid steer, so it'd never be found.

On cross-examination, Girdley admitted to changing his stories multiple times, lying to investigators and being repeatedly threatened by Kentucky State Police troopers.

He said he was taken to see KSP troopers, who questioned him for more than four hours. During that time, according to a transcript of an interview provided in court, troopers promised to take care of him, promised to get him out of charges and, eventually, threatened him repeatedly and asked him leading questions trying to get different answers.

Girdley said he'd been out drinking and doing drugs before that initial four-hour KSP interview and hadn't slept for five or six days. He told prosecutor Shane Young on Monday that he's clean now and, despite what the transcript shows were possibly coercive interview tactics by KSP, telling the truth on the stand.

"I told the truth," he said on the stand. "What I've testified today is the truth."

How we got here

Rogers, a 35-year-old mother of five from Nelson County, was last seen alive during the Fourth of July weekend in 2015 with her boyfriend, Houck. Days later, her car was found abandoned — still running — on the side of the Bluegrass Parkway. Her purse and other belongings were inside. Despite years of searching, she's never been found.

While there was no physical evidence, such as a body, murder weapon, crime scene or witness, the prosecution hammered Houck's actions in the days before and after Rogers' disappeared.

Houck acknowledged he was with Rogers from about 7 p.m. until midnight on July 3, 2015, at the family farm. She was never seen again. He took her to his family's farm that rainy night on what was supposed to be a special date, according to her friends.

Sketches of Brooks Houck and Joseph Lawson's Trial

"If she does not come home July 3 or early July 4, this man committed murder," Young said in his closing statement Monday, raising his voice and pointing at Houck.

Young pointed out that Houck's version of events given to police for what he did that day was a lie. While saying he'd been driving around doing business July 3, he was actually at the Houck farm most of the day, Young told jurors.

After Rogers disappeared, Houck didn't answer multiple texts and phone calls from her family members but did answer a call from his mother, Rosemary Houck.

Houck had told police Rogers stayed up playing on her phone when he went to bed after they got home. But records show her phone battery died at 9:23 p.m. that night, Young said, while they were still at the farm.

"She left with him," he said. "She didn't come home."

In his closing arguments, Butler referred to the prosecutions' case as a "convoluted mess" with unreliable witnesses, contradictory and coerced testimony and data proving Houck nor his co-defendants were involved.

"The whole case is garbage," Butler told the jury. "They are just throwing things against the wall."

Butler methodically went through evidence put forth in the last two weeks, arguing investigators developed tunnel vision and focused on the Houck family almost immediately and then used speculation, weak circumstantial evidence and leaps of faith to try and prove their theory.

Investigators searched the Houck farm, using hundreds of FBI agents, K-9s, divers and drones and found no evidence a murder had been committed, Butler said.

"If something had happened to her out there, they'd have found it," he said. "They found nothing. If that isn't reasonable doubt, I don't know what is."

Cellphone data police said showed former co-defendant Steve Lawson near where Rogers' vehicle was found after she disappeared actually proved he was on another parallel road, trying to get a vehicle back from an ex-girlfriend, Butler said Monday.

"There is no phone evidence at all at that shows Steve Lawson went down the Bluegrass Parkway," he said.

Steve Lawson was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence on May 30 for his role in Rogers' slaying. He faces a recommended sentence of 17 years when he is sentenced Aug. 6.

During his trial Steve Lawson admitted he was guilty of tampering with physical evidence for helping his son move Rogers' vehicle after she disappeared. Joseph Lawson drove Rogers' car, and his father picked him up when the vehicle had a flat tire, leaving it on the side of Bluegrass Parkway, he testified.

None of that testimony was allowed during this trial.

He theorized it was Rogers "who moved the car herself in the middle of the night" and may have had a flat tire and been taken by someone, adding there was a thumb print on her phone never identified.

As for the defense theory that Rogers left on her own, Young pointed out that Rogers had made plans with friends and her car was seen on the Bluegrass Parkway by two people around 10 p.m. July 3, when she was supposedly still at the farm with Houck.

Also, Young told jurors Houck's brother, Nick Houck, a police officer at the time, had his cellphone turned off between 11 p.m. July 2 and the middle of the afternoon July 4. He was supposed to be helping his wife move July 3 but told her he was going to help his brother with something instead. She called Nick Houck 15 times over a 24-hour period.

Nick Houck's phone came back on at 1:47 p.m. July 4. While he told his wife he was helping Houck, Rogers' friends testified she told them Brooks Houck was taking her on a kid-free, romantic date July 3.

"The surprise date was her surprise ending," Young said.

The defense argued Nick Houck turned his phone off because he was fighting with his wife.

After Rogers disappeared, police searched the cruiser of Nick Houck when he worked for the Bardstown Police Department. A blanket was found in the trunk, and audio accidentally recorded by Brooks Houck of him and Rosemary Houck talking about the search showed she was worried, asking Houck, "What about the blanket?" Nothing of evidentiary value was found on the blanket.

Nick Houck refused to answer questions in front of a Nelson County grand jury.

Rosemary and Nick Houck are considered co-conspirators but haven't been arrested "at this point." Rosemary Houck was in the courtroom the last two days of the trial.

Young said when Brooks Houck woke up around 6 a.m. July 4, Rogers was gone but he didn't call or text her, instead going back to the family farm.

"What he's doing, I don't know," Young said.

Young acknowledged to jurors that he "didn't know who killed (Rogers). I'm telling you who was involved," speaking of Houck and the Lawsons.

"I don't know if he killed her or was complicit," Young said of Brooks Houck.

As for a motive, Young argued Houck allegedly felt Rogers may leave and him and mentioned he didn't want to lose his son he shared with her. He told Steve Lawson he needed to "take care" of her, according to testimony.

On July 3, Steve and Joseph Lawson talked on the phone repeatedly, Young said, including a three-minute call at 12:03 a.m. July 4. Immediately after that call, Steve Lawson called Houck for 13 seconds.

"It wasn't about an apartment" as defense attorneys have alleged, Young said.

Steve Lawson deleted several calls with Joseph Lawson and Houck.

"It is nefarious," Young said. "It is sinister."

The defense team for Houck spent much of the trial trying to clear Steve and Joseph Lawson, calling them the "linchpin" for the case against Houck.

At 11:50 p.m. July 3, the night Rogers disappeared, Butler said Steve Lawson called Capital One while he was accused of being in the middle of covering up a murder. At 11:59 p.m., Butler said Lawson searched "capitalone.com" on Google. He also looked for the home of his ex-girlfriend's husband, where he believed his car was located.

At the same time this was going on, Butler said Tammy Lawson, his wife at the time, was also calling Capital One and texting her husband that he needed to get the car back from his ex-girlfriend, which was on Boston Road parallel to the Bluegrass Parkway.

"If you look at the science of it, it's ridiculous," Butler said of prosecutors trying to prove Steve and Joseph Lawson were near Rogers' vehicle.

Young focused more on Houck's actions, telling jurors that after she vanished, he only called Rogers a few times and texted her once. Meanwhile, he ignored multiple calls from her friends and family, including her 14-year-old daughter.

On July 5, Sherry Ballard, Rogers' mother, saw Brooks Houck at a gas station with Eli, the child he shared with Rogers. She asked Houck if he knew where Rogers was and if she should file a missing person's report. He told her she should. Ballard then went to the Nelson County Sheriff's Department, and Houck went home.

"He's done absolutely nothing to help find this woman," Young said. "He knows there's no sense in it."

Butler broke down the testimony of multiple witnesses, explaining how they had either been coerced and threatened by police or provided information that he said couldn't possibly be true given the alleged timeline put forth by prosecutors.

The dog handler whose K-9 hit on the scent of human remains in a white Buick owned by the Houck's grandmother was working with a church in Texas, found by the lead detective at an National Rifle Association convention in Louisville and had lost the documentation on the training of his dog. No DNA was found inside.

Even prosecutors acknowledged "things could have been done better" with the K-9 search Butler said, showing jurors a clip of testimony.

Nick Houck sold that white Buick shortly before police came looking for it. Butler acknowledged the timing looked bad but blamed it on the paranoia the family was facing after a video of a statement Brooks Houck gave to police was leaked to the media.

"The Houck family circled the wagons," Butler said, which he explained was why they also recorded interviews with police, grand jury testimony and even a discussion with one of their original attorneys.

In addition, Butler blamed this paranoia for why Brooks Houck lied about where he was the day Rogers' disappeared.

Butler said Brooks Houck was fearful that if he told police he worked on the farm all day, he was be accused of digging a hole to bury Rogers.

"They would suspect him more so he minimized" the time he was at the farm that day, Butler said.

Butler noted neither Joseph or Steve Lawson's DNA — not even a fingerprint — was found in Rogers' car. Her DNA was found on the steering wheel, he said. He also noted the jury didn't hear from the lead FBI agent in the case because he didn't find any evidence.

It's been 10 years, he said, and the only evidence they have is coerced witnesses, incorrect phone data and speculation.

"It's time to move on," Butler said. "It's time to send (Houck) home to his son. It's time to find him not guilty."

Defense attorney Bobby Boyd, who represents Joseph Lawson, pointed out in his closing argument to the jury they've heard relatively little from his defense team over the lase two weeks.

"His name didn't even come up until the third day of trial," Boyd told the jury. "You probably forgot we were on trial the last couple weeks. I've never been in this situation before."

Boyd used his closing arguments to say only a handful of witnesses even mentioned Joseph Lawson and most of those weren't credible, as they were bullied, coerced and threatened by Kentucky State Police investigators.

More importantly, Boyd said, the most concrete evidence presented was phone records showing Lawson was nowhere near the area where Rogers' car was found on the Bluegrass Parkway.

But countering that narrative, the defense has argued Lawson could have been on Boston Road, which runs parallel to Bluegrass Parkway, rather than up on the freeway. The prosecution has already used cellphone data to place his father, Steve Lawson, on the Bluegrass Parkway.

Detective Tim O'Daniel, a digital forensic expert with the Louisville Metro Police Department, testified during the first week of trial he was never given access to Joseph Lawson's phone like he was given for Brooks Houck and Steve Lawson. Butler said Joseph Lawson called his father three times between 11:06 p.m. July 3 and 12:03 a.m. July 4, and not one of those calls showed up in the cellphone tower data.

Boyd said former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin delivered an edict in 2023 that these cases should be resolved, and Lawson became collateral damage when investigators developed tunnel vision focused only Brooks Houck, Lawson and his father.

"He's just another unfortunate victim in this tragedy," Boyd said.

Boyd went as far as to call the case "a witch hunt" against Joseph Lawson in which there is no DNA evidence, no witnesses tying him to the case and phone records that clear him.

"It's shocking to me," Boyd said.

Crystal Rogers Murder Trial Coverage:

Prosecutor calls Brooks Houck a murderer: Crystal Rogers 'left with him' but 'didn't come home'

Defense rests in Crystal Rogers murder trial after claim of 'coercive interview tactics'

Defense in Crystal Rogers murder trial targets K-9 evidence, phone data