Wisconsin woman who argued she legally killed sex trafficker pleads guilty to homicide
MADISON, Wis. — A Milwaukee woman who claimed she was legally allowed to kill a man because he sexually trafficked her pleaded guilty Thursday to a reduced count of reckless homicide.
Chrystul Kizer’s decision means she will avoid a trial and a possible life sentence. It also leaves open the question of whether a state law that grants sex trafficking victims immunity for any crime they committed while being trafficked extends to murder.
Kizer’s attorneys, Gregory Holdahl and Helmi Hamad, did not immediately respond to email and voicemail messages seeking comment.
Prosecutors allege Kizer shot 34-year-old Randall Volar at his Kenosha home in 2018, when she was just 17 years old. She then set his house on fire and stole his BMW, they allege. She was charged with multiple charges, including first-degree intentional homicide, arson, auto theft and possession of a firearm.
Kizer, now 23, claimed she met Volar on a sex trafficking website. He had molested her and sold her as a prostitute the year before his death, she argued. She told investigators she shot him after he tried to touch her.
Her lawyers argued that Kizer could not be held criminally liable for anything under a 2008 state law that exempts sex trafficking victims from “any crime committed as a direct result” of the trafficking. Most states have passed similar laws in the past decade that provide at least some degree of criminal immunity to victims of sex trafficking.
Prosecutors countered that Wisconsin lawmakers could not possibly have intended to extend the protection to murder. Anti-violence groups came out en masse in Kizer’s defense, arguing in court hearings that victims of human trafficking feel trapped and sometimes feel like they have to take matters into their own hands. The state Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that Kizer could raise the defense at trial.
But that won’t happen now. Online court records show Kizer pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless homicide during a hearing Thursday morning. Prosecutors dismissed all other charges.
Kenosha County Circuit Judge Michael Wilk will sentence her on August 19. The second-degree reckless homicide charge carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison. First-degree intentional murder carries a mandatory life sentence.