LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The attorney representing the third man charged for his alleged involvement in Crystal Rogers' death claims someone tried to hire a person to kill Rogers.

In July 2015, Brooks Houck — Rogers' former boyfriend who has since been charged in her murder — called Steve Lawson during a police interrogation after her disappearance. 

"I just want to tell you I'm sorry about everything that's going on in your life, brother, I got you in my prayers," Lawson can be heard saying.

Police said the two talked the night after Rogers disappeared during that Fourth of July weekend.

"Do you remember the night you called me really, really late? I forgot what you asked me ..." Houck responds during the phone call. "Can you, can you remember what you asked me or what you were after? I can't remember."

Lawson said, "I sure can. I asked you for numbers for the house."

"Oh, for a rental house," Houck said.

Houck owns several properties.

During the police interrogation, Houck was asked about Lawson and said he was "somebody that works for me."

According to court records unsealed Friday, Lawson was indicted by a Nelson County grand jury in May for tampering with evidence. On Dec. 6, he was indicted on a charge for conspiracy to commit murder.

The Dec. 6 indictment claims Lawson agreed to "aid one or more persons in the planning or commission" of the death of another and then "destroyed, mutilated, concealed, removed" or altered physical evidence on July 3 or July 4, 2015, when Rogers disappeared.

"He knows nothing about her death. He has made this statement over, and over, and over to the police, in my presence and outside my presence, that he would never harm Crystal. He didn't harm Crystal, and he knows nothing of her murder or her disappearance," Theodore Lavit, who is representing Lawson, told WDRB News in an interview Friday evening.

Lavit said his client has been questioned by investigators more than a dozen times this year. Lawson did part-time construction work for Houck at the time Rogers disappeared. 

He's also the father of Joseph Lawson. In September, Joseph Lawson was charged with criminal conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence in connection with Rogers' death.

"Joey (Joseph Lawson) drove Crystal's vehicle west on the Bluegrass (Parkway) to, I believe it was Mile Marker 14 or 16, where he had a flat tire," Lavit said.

It's the first on-the-record account of how Rogers' car ended up abandoned on the highway after her disappearance, but it's not the only bombshell Steve Lawson's attorney brought to light on Friday.

"There likely is, for my knowledge of this case, evidence that there was solicitation," said Lavit.

To translate, Lavit claims someone tried to hire a person to kill Rogers.

"In my judgement, the commonwealth is going to make a heavy effort to prove that," he said.

Kevin Coleman, Joseph Lawson's attorney, did not respond to a phone call asking for comment. Prosecutors and attorneys for Houck declined to comment.

Houck, the primary suspect in the disappearance of Rogers, was arrested Sept. 27, after being charged with complicity to murder and tampering with physical evidence. He was the last person seen with Rogers, his former girlfriend and the mother of his 10-year-old son. He has pleaded not guilty and remains in jail on a $10 million bond.

The latest charges in the Rogers case coincide with a new search this week by the FBI. Prosecutors could only say the search was in connection to one of three unsolved Bardstown cases: Rogers' death, the murder of her father, Tommy Ballard, or Bardstown Police officer Jason Ellis.

After years of mystery, movement in the case now brings hope for closure.

"Not a day that goes by that we don't talk about it and think about it," Rogers' grandfather, Till Ballard, said earlier this week. "It's just, not knowing where Crystal's at."

Steve Lawson's bond has been set at $500,000 cash. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Dec. 21.

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