LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Courtroom video released this week shows the moment a judge read Brooks Houck and Joseph Lawson their guilty verdicts during their trial in the murder of Crystal Rogers.

Houck and Lawson were found guilty Tuesday, July 8, in the 2015 murder and were recommended the maximum prison sentence.

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 judge in the case didn't allow cameras in the courtroom during the trial but released the court videos Thursday after verdicts had been reached in both trials of the murder case.

The video in the Houck and Lawson trial shows the dramatic testimony that wasn't able to be shown until now.

Crystal Rogers' daughter was one of the many people who testified at the trial.

"It's been really hard," said Crystal Rogers' daughter, Kylie Fenwick. "My mom wasn't there to see me go to high school, graduate high school."

Prosecutors told jurors Houck was responsible for Crystal Rogers' disappearance and that Joseph Lawson helped cover it up.

"This was a planned out premeditated murder," prosecutor Shane Young said. "And they were going to make it look like she disappeared. Him, his brother, his mother, they did it."

Jurors spent weeks listening to painful testimony.

And the trial ended with a verdict being delivered nearly a decade after she went missing.

"In regard to commonwealth vs. Brooks William Houck...in regard to instruction number 4, it says, we the jury find the defendant guilty of murder, principle or accomplice under instruction number 4C," the judge said.

"In regard to Joseph Lawson, the verdict form number four says, we the jury find the defendant guilty of conspiracy to commit murder under number 4A and under verdict number five, we the jury find the defendant guilty of tampering with physical evidence under instruction number five."

The courtroom video of the guilty verdicts being read can be viewed below:

They were both found guilty in the trial.

Crystal Rogers Murder Trial Coverage:

Emotional courtroom video released in trial of Steve Lawson in Crystal Rogers murder case

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

Steve Lawson found guilty on all charges in connection to Crystal Rogers' murder

Copyright 2025 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.