LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The first man charged in connection with the death of Crystal Rogers won't be in court this week.
Joseph Lawson's case was delayed until Jan. 5, 2024.
Lawson, 32, pleaded not guilty to criminal conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence in the Rogers case. He was scheduled to be in court Thursday.
The prosecutor said there is about two terabytes of evidence in the case.
Lawson's bond is set at $500,000.
Brooks Houck, Rogers' boyfriend at the time, has also been charged with her death. She disappeared in 2015, and her body was never found. Houck, who is being held on a $10 million bond is scheduled to be back in court in February 2024.Â
Lawson's indictment, which does not mention Rogers by name, says the crime was committed in Nelson County on July 3 and/or July 4, 2015, when Lawson "agreed to aid one or more persons in the planning or commission of the crime or an attempt or solicitation to commit the crime when he, and/or, a co-conspirator intentionally caused the death of another."
Lawson is not charged with Rogers' murder, but prosecutors instead charged him with the lesser offense of conspiracy, meaning they believe he was involved in some fashion with whoever killed Rogers.
The maximum sentence for the conspiracy charge is 10-20 years in prison.
In addition, the indictment charges Lawson with complicity to tampering with physical evidence when he "destroyed, mutilates, concealed, removed or alters physical evidence." The maximum penalty for that charge is one to five years in prison.
During his arraignment in Sept., Lawson was asked by the judge if he understood the murder conspiracy charge and replied, "kind of but yes, sir," according to a video of the proceedings.
The FBI is also still investigating the death of Rogers' father, Tommy Ballard, who was shot and killed in 2016 while hunting on his own property more than a year after Rogers went missing.
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