With 3 men sentenced to prison in Crystal Rogers' murder, focus shifts to appeals

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The men convicted in the murder of Crystal Rogers were sentenced Thursday, but the case is now headed to the appeals process.

In court Wednesday in Bardstown, Rogers' mother, Sherry Ballard, spoke directly to Brooks Houck, Rogers' boyfriend at the time of her disappearance and one of the men convicted in her death.

"Did you ever think of how my daughter felt when you murdered her?" Ballard said, staring at Houck from the stand. "Did she feel any pain? Did you make sure Crystal knew what you were going to do to her?

"You had no sympathy or concern for anyone but your own selfish being. You took your own son's mother from him."

Houck and Joseph Lawson remained unemotional in court as Rogers' family members talked to them during the sentencing hearing.

Circuit Court Judge Charles Simms III sentenced Houck to life in prison and Lawson to 25 years, the maximum sentences allowed by Kentucky law. Lawson's father, Steve Lawson, was previously sentenced to 17 years behind bars.

Joseph Lawson's attorney, Kevin Coleman, said an appeal will be filed.

"After final sentencing, a notice of appeal will be filed and then it will go to (the) Department of Public Advocacy for their Appellate Division," Coleman said. "And on appeal ... mostly they're looking at issues of due process ... and whether or not that law was applied correctly or whether or not the judge made the correct rulings."

Rogers' family said they will attend every parole hearing for the convicted men and continue to push for justice in the unsolved murder of Tommy Ballard, Rogers' father, who was shot and killed in 2016.

"You are nothing but a coward — you and your whole family," Rogers' sister, Brooke Bryan, said in court as she looked at Houck. "We all know you and your family had something to do with my dad's murder."

After Rogers disappeared in 2015, Tommy Ballard made it his mission to find her. But one year later, that mission ended abruptly when he was shot and killed. Although the FBI has since ruled his death a homicide, police initially called it a hunting accident — something the Ballard family didn't buy from the beginning.

While no one has been indicted or convicted in Tommy Ballard's murder, the arrests and convictions in the Rogers case unveiled more details in the Ballard investigation and who investigators are looking into. During a court hearing on a motion to lower Houck's $10 million bond the month after his arrest, prosecutor Shane Young told a Nelson County judge the investigation into Rogers' murder is also an investigation into Tommy Ballard's death.

Young told the judge that, during the state's investigation, a rifle was purchased from Nick Houck, Brooks Houck's brother, who was using a fake name. Young said it's the same caliber as the gun used in Tommy Ballard's death and, as of October 2023, matched four of the five criteria they were looking at in comparison.

"There's no doubt in my mind the family is responsible, 100%," said Mike Ballard, Tommy's brother. "I don't believe anything different."

At last check, investigators were waiting on testing to come back from that rifle, which they said was purchased by undercover investigators. Anyone with information on the Tommy Ballard case is urged to contact the FBI.

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