KENOSHA, Wis. (CN) — A Wisconsin woman accused of murdering the man she says sexually trafficked and abused her pleaded guilty to reckless homicide in that case Thursday.
In the original 2018 criminal complaint against Chrystul Kizer, 23, prosecutors said Kizer, then 17, took an Uber from Milwaukee to Kenosha, shot Randall Volar, burned down his house, stole his BMW and drove back to Milwaukee. The defendant was charged with multiple felonies, including first-degree intentional homicide and arson.
Kizer claimed that, after meeting him on a sex trafficking website, the 34-year-old Volar sexually assaulted and trafficked her for years, in addition to other teenage girls. At the time of his death, Volar was under investigation for crimes against children including Kizer but had not yet been charged.
As part of Kizer’s plea agreement, she pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless homicide and had her arson felony charge read-in for sentencing, which is scheduled for Aug. 19 before Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge David Wilk. Other felonies Kizer faced, including bail jumping and firearm possession, were dismissed as part of the deal. She faces up to 25 years in prison plus up to five more for the use of a dangerous weapon.
Greg Holdahl, a lawyer representing Kizer, could not be reached for comment at the Wisconsin State Public Defender’s Kenosha office by press time. Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley also could not be immediately reached.
Kizer’s case sparked nationwide attention and conversation among legal experts when her counsel began arguing that under state law, she should be given immunity because her crimes stemmed from being a victim of trafficking — a notion supported by anti-sexual violence and gender justice groups.
The issue made it to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which said in a 4-3 decision in July 2022 that Kizer could at least make her immunity argument to the jury at her trial. That affirmed a conclusion the lower Wisconsin Court of Appeals also reached when it reversed a trial court decision that she could not.
Though the high court’s decision was binding only in Wisconsin, and the issue is now likely moot as applied to Kizer because of her plea deal, legal briefs supporting Kizer’s immunity defense said the decision could expand such options for trafficking victims everywhere. At least 31 states offer similar immunity for trafficking victims, according a brief from Legal Action of Wisconsin.
Kizer’s case was made more complicated in January when she was charged in Milwaukee County Circuit Court with misdemeanor disorderly conduct and domestic abuse stemming from an incident in which authorities say she attacked a 47-year-old Milwaukee man who said she was living with him at the time.
After the Milwaukee charges were filed and a warrant was put out for her arrest, Kizer fled the city before being apprehended by U.S. marshals in Louisiana.
The Milwaukee case led to the felony bail jumping charges in Kenosha, where she was taken back into custody and had her bond raised to $750,000.
An amended information and Kizer’s amended plea agreement hit the docket for her murder case Thursday morning before what was originally scheduled to be a separate motion hearing. A jury trial slated to begin on June 10 was canceled and scrubbed from the court’s calendar after Kizer entered her guilty plea.
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