Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Teen girl shoots abusive sex trafficker, burns home, claims self-defense

Episode Date: January 22, 2020

A Wisconsin teen is facing life behind bars after a judge says that sex trafficking is not a reason to kill someone.Chrystul Kizer, now 19, was 16 when she met Randy Volar, 34. According to police, Volar sexually abused numerous young girls without their consent while filming them. Kizer says the man sexually abused her as well and made her perform unwanted sexual acts.In February 2018, Kizer allegedly shot Volar twice in the head then set his home on fire.Joining Nancy Grace to discuss: Ashley Willcott: Judge and trial attorney, Anchor on Court TV James Shelnutt : 27 years Atlanta Metro Major Case detective, SWAT Officer (RET) Attorney Karen Smith: Forensics Expert, Bare Bones Consulting  Tim Gallagher: Medical Examiner for State of Florida  Dr Daniel Bober: Forensic Psychiatrist Levi Page: Investigative reporter, CrimeOnline.com Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. You know, it's certainly a shock when you think that someone died in a home fire and then when the autopsy comes back, gunshot wound, that's certainly a kick in the pants. What happened to 34-year-old Randy Volar? Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. What's going on there? Fire. House is burning. I get up in the house. The house on the corner of 78th Street and 14th Avenue is on fire? Yes. Do you see flames?

Yes. Everything is now on the flames. Do you know that one is in the house? I don't know nothing. I went, I took it to knock on the door. What corner is it? I don't know nothing. I went to knock on the door. What corner is it? What corner of the street is it?

78th Street and 14th Avenue. And which corner? North, south, east, west? It's west. You will see it. It's all houses on the fire. Okay. You said you saw a door open? Just to get it through. Yeah. I was looking through the window and it looked like flame. And I went to knock on the door. Okay. Oh, my God.

I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Story. So what did happen to 34-year-old Randy Volar? Ostensibly a fire there in Kenosha, Wisconsin. But then after the autopsy, we find out it is anything but. Joining me, an all-star panel judge, trial lawyer, anchor, Court TV at AshleyWilcott.com. Ashley Wilcott. 27 years Atlanta Metro Major case SWAT officer, now lawyer, James Shelnut. Karen Smith, forensics expert, founder of Beer Bones Consulting. We're now medical examiner from the state of Florida, Dr. Tim Gallagher, forensic psychiatrist. And boy, do we need a shrink. You can find him on IG, Instagram, Dr. Daniel Bober.

And right now to Crime crime online.com investigative reporter levi page let's just start at the beginning so nancy on the night of june 5th 2018 a fire erupted in the home of kenosha wisconsin and a man was found inside dead, shot in the head twice. Okay, now, I'm always shocked to Dr. Tim Gallagher, medical examiner, state of Florida. EMTs and fire trucks arrive on the scene. You expect the victim to be carried out on a stretcher if you can find the victim in a fire scene, but no one typically knows when the body is totally burned, whether they died of smoke inhalation, whether they were burned to death with a fast-moving accelerant like a Molotov cocktail, were they strangled or asphyxiated, were they shot, were they stabbed.

It's hard to tell when the body is being consumed with flames. If the body was, in fact, shot, then tell me, how do you determine that? Well, every fire victim is x-rayed at the medical examiner's office, at the very least, if they're not put in a CAT scanner. And the bullets, which are metallic, will show up on the CAT scan. And if we determine that there are bullets inside the head or inside any of the vital organs, then we could determine that that was probably the cause of death and that the person was dead before the fire started. We also have to look at the lungs, and if there's smoke and soot within the lungs, then we know that the person was alive. But if there's no sign of smoke or fire damage inside the lungs, then we know that that person was dead before the fire started.

So if a body is totally consumed with fire, do the bones burn as well, doctor? The bones do burn, but they do not burn to becoming unidentifiable. They do char. Sometimes there are fractures in the bones, but for the most part, unless the fire is going on for hours and hours, for instance, eight or nine hours, there will be some bones recognizable that we could use for identification, the bones as well as the teeth. Interesting, because in the Hallback, Teresa Hallback case, where I know you all are familiar with to make a murderer regarding the death of amateur. Well, she's a professional photographer, Teresa Hallback. Her bones were gone.

She had been stirred in a fire pit for hours and hours and hours. But Dr. Gallagher, they did find her teeth. Now, how is it teeth survive, but bones do not? Teeth have a property that are unique to them. It's the type of enamel that surrounds them, and that protects them much longer from fire than a typical bone would. So teeth with good enamel or sometimes teeth that have metallic fillings or restorations do survive a fire much longer than that of regular bones. All the things you never wonder because it's so in-depth suddenly take on major significance at a homicide scene.

To Ashley Wilcott, judge and trial lawyer, Anchor Court TV. Ashley, here's the kicker. So if this guy, 34-year-old Randy Volar, was actually shot twice and Gallagher is telling us you find that out if the body's consumed with flames by a CAT scan or x-rays, you find bullets in what's left of the body, that means that someone not only murdered him, but that they also went to great, great measures to dispose of evidence, Ashley. That matters at trial. Absolutely. Because as you just pointed out, if you have a victim who's been shot, then you have evidence

that you can take from the crime scene, which includes the angle of the shot, what he was shot with, if there's blood spatter or not in the house or wherever the person was shot. When you light a fire and burn not only the body, you burn all of that other evidence that law enforcement uses to tell the story of what really happened. To James Shelnut, 27 years Atlanta Metro Major Case SWAT officer, now lawyer. James Shelnut, how many times have you been to a scene, you think, well, here's a house fire, he died of smoke inhalation, and then you find out, bam, he's got two bullets to the head. Oh, yeah, it happens. As a matter of fact, one of the common ways, as you know, Nancy, is that people do set fires to houses.

They put people in automobiles and set those on fire. And fire does destroy a good bit of evidence sometimes. And it does create a little bit of a roadblock to investigating exactly what occurred. You know, in this case, there was enough evidence to determine a cause of death. But in some cases, it makes it difficult, especially in strangling cases and things of that nature. You know, what we know about Kenosha is it's a Wisconsin city right there on Lake Michigan. They have a beautiful waterfront in Kenosha. People love to go live there.

And a big question, is Kenosha, Wisconsin safe? Here's what we know. The chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime in Kenosha is 1 in 45. Okay, now relative to Wisconsin, it's got a crime rate a little bit higher than most of the state, but in the rest of the world, you compare that to Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Baltimore, D.C. It's heaven on earth. So we know this goes down in Kenosha, Wisconsin. What else do we know about the area, Levi Page? We know, Nancy, that it's about 40 miles away from Milwaukee, which is a big metropolitan area with a pretty big crime rate there. Okay, close to a heavy crime

area. To Karen Smith, let's circle back to the scene. The house set on fire, the body's been set on fire or has been burned. Karen Smith, forensics expert, founder of Bear Bones Consulting. What do you do with a fire scene? I've handled a lot of arson cases, which they are a specialty in themselves, Karen, because first of all, let's pretend he wasn't shot in the head. You come upon an arson. You've got to first prove there was a crime because typically you don't assume a crime has been committed. You have to find evidence a crime occurred, such as an accelerant pattern on the floor, tampering with electrical devices, evidence of a thrown Molotov cocktail, matches even. It's pretty easy to determine where in the home the fire started because that area is visible to the naked.

I've seen it a hundred times, is more burned out. You can see where a fire started. You don't have to be an expert for that. But how do you process a fire scene, Karen Smith? It's very complicated, Nancy. Fire scenes are difficult. Yes, we look for accelerants. There are actually accelerant sniffers that most fire departments have. They're portable devices you can bring in and actually sniff with this device for accelerants in certain areas. Whoa, whoa, whoa. What about a good old fire dog? That too. You can bring in an accelerant sniffing dog. We have all kinds of tools, but once we find an accelerant, if that's present, then we know it's arson. If it's not,

and in this case, I don't know if an accelerant was used guys so we're saying accelerant or saying accelerant we're talking about kerosene gasoline acetone anything that will catch on fire go ahead absolutely and if we don't find that then we start looking for electrical wiring there are specific fire marshals that come in and can look at the wiring they can look at the house that you know clothes dry are notorious. Ovens notorious for that kind of thing. If we don't find those kinds of things, then what we have to do is we have to do a layer pull of every single bit of evidence in there. You start with the top layer. You sift that out. You collect what you think is important. You collect samples from all of that. Pieces of burned wood, pieces of the carpeting, pieces of the wall, all of that has to

be collected in sealed cans, and then those are taken to the laboratory, and there are specific instruments that can measure any accelerants that are present in those areas. The body itself, as the doctor explained, that in itself is a crime scene. So that's done down at the medical examiner's office. The rest of the evidence, if it's just limited to one room in the house, that's fine. You look at other parts of the house for any evidence that may be part of a crime scene, if that's what you're dealing with. You look in bedrooms. You look in bathrooms.

Other places that may have soot damage but are not completely burned. You know, interesting, you said the evidence is taken away in a sealed can. If you go by everything you see on TV, evidence is put in plastic bags or manila bags. Why did you say sealed can? And you're absolutely correct. Because it's basically just an empty paint can. And you put it in a sealed can because that accelerant is going to rise to the top of that can. Accelerants are lighter than air. And they put it in a sealed can because that accelerant is going to rise to the top of that can. Accelerants are lighter than air. And they will use a syringe and extract literally the air from that can, place it into an instrument, and that instrument can measure if there's any gasoline, kerosene. They can even look and see if it's used gasoline, there are certain parts of it that are

placed in that gasoline that can lead to a specific manufacturer, Shell, Mobil, whoever made it, has specific ingredients in their gasoline that are in these databases that can come back and tell you where that gas may have come from. It's pretty incredible. Guys, what she said is significant because in many crime scenes, evidence is taken away in a bag, a paper bag, a plastic bag. But at an arson scene, you can't do that because you need to get, as Karen just told you, fumes, if any, from the articles. For all we know, some of the articles may in some way still be hot, and it would ruin the plastic or the middle of the bag. You'd lose your evidence. But let me bring this home.

Remember in Tottenham Casey Anthony case where air samples were taken out of her trunk and those air samples were analyzed for particles of human decomposition? That was a tactic trial as unproven evidence. but actually that evidence has been around for decades in arson cases. When you go to a gas station, you smell gasoline in the air. That's exactly what happens. That's what Karen Smith was describing. They extract some of the air from their sealed cans, and then they can analyze it and determine, is there accelerant in the air? Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. What's going on there? Fire.

House is burning. I get up in the corner of 78th Street and 14th Avenue is on fire. Yes. Do you see flames? Yes. Everything is now on the flames. Do you know what's in the house? I don't know nothing. I went, I took to knock on the door.

What corner is it? What corner of the street is it? 78th Street and 14th Avenue. And which corner? North, south, east, west? It's west. Under what corner? North, south, east, west? This is the best.

You will see it. It's all houses on the fire. Okay, you said you saw a door open? Just to get it through. Yeah, I went, I was looking through the window, and it looked like flame, and I went to knock on the door. Okay. Oh, my God. But just then, when you think you may have death by an accidental fire, listen to this. She had watched several crime shows and so thought to herself, I better cover my tracks. And so she washed her dishes and she cleaned up the things she thought would be evidence.

Hours later, police say Kaiser boasted about what she'd just done. SHE WAS TAKING A LOOK AT THE CASE AND SHE SAID SHE WAS PUTTING THEM IN THE DISHES AND SHE CLEANED UP THE THINGS SHE THOUGHT WOULD BE EVIDENCE. HOURS LATER POLICE SAY KAISER BOASTED ABOUT WHAT SHE HAD JUST DONE WRITING ON FACEBOOK THIS IS MY MUG SHOT. BRAGGING ON FACEBOOK LIVE THAT

TAKES PLACE IN THIS CASE, THE SORT OF CELEBRATION OF PARTS OF THIS CRIMINAL OFFENSE. TELLING VIEWERS THAT SHE WAS NOT AFRAID TO THE HOSPITAL AND THE VICTIM WAS TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL. THE VICTIM WAS TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL. THE VICTIM WAS TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL. THE VICTIM WAS TAKEN TO THE

HOSPITAL. THE VICTIM WAS TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL. THE VICTIM WAS TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL. THE VICTIM WAS TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL. THE VICTIM WAS TAKEN TO THE

HOSPITAL. THE VICTIM WAS TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL. THE VICTIM WAS TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL. THE VICTIM WAS TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL. THE VICTIM WAS TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL. THE VICTIM WAS TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL. THE VICTIM WAS TAKEN TO THE severe consequences. And police say they're still trying to piece together exactly how Kaiser and

the victim met, what their relationship was. Meantime, we were in touch with one of Vohler's friends who tells us he was an intelligent and caring man. Intelligent and caring man shot twice in the head and then the home burned. You were just hearing our friends at Fox 6. That was Casey Kronis. But now take a listen to WISN 12 News reporter Terry Sater. Just 17 years old, Crystal Kaiser of Milwaukee is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the murder of 34-year-old Randall Villar. Investigators say the victim was shot twice in the head as he sat in a chair in his home. Kenosha police guarded the crime scene today. Kaiser is accused of setting fire to Villar's body and stealing his BMW, the car found later in Milwaukee at 6th and Canal.

The criminal complaint says Kaiser and the victim knew each other, although the relationship is unclear. They need to check into that more. Yolanda Nelson says Kaiser was arrested at her family's boyfriend. Her theory, Kaiser was paid by a woman who knew the victim. I don't know her name, but she uses every month she sent Crystal money. You think she, what are you saying that Crystal was paid to kill this man? I think so, yeah.

We asked police about what Yolanda told us, and they say they're investigating. Okay, that's a far cry from where the defense is turning out to be. To Levi Page, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, how could a then 16-year-old girl pull off a crime like that? Who is Crystal Kaiser? Nancy, she's a 16-year-old girl and she apparently met Randy Valor on Backpage.com, which is a human trafficking website. Okay, stop right there. Backpage.com, a human trafficking website. You know, Ashley Wilcott, judge and trial lawyer at AshleyWilcott.com. Ashley,

we typically think of human trafficking as being a child or a teen abducted off the streets and then kidnapped. They go missing. They're never found again, but they're not dead. They're being sex trafficked. And it happens very often. It's true. It is true. You don't typically think of the trafficking victim meeting up with their pimp on a website. Well, I agree. You don't typically, Nancy, but I have to say this. It was a very, do you remember Backpage and all the media attention that it got? A very common way for that black market and that really, really just horrible way of getting victims. And people knew what words to look for and how to find this market, not only for those consumers of this horrific crime, but also the victims, their kids, so their victims. I don't understand how a child would know how to get onto Backpage.com. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

Levi Page, what can you tell me about Backpage.com? So Nancy, it's part of what they call a part of the dark web. And it's the largest marketplace for buying and selling sex on the internet. And it's pretty big in human trafficking of children. And it was actually seized by the Justice Department late last year. Backpage was a classified advertising website, and it grew to become the largest marketplace for buying and selling sex. So let me explain to Dr. Daniel Bober, forensic psychiatrist. You can find him on Instagram, Dr. Daniel Bober. Dr. Bober, if a child, a teen, say like this girl, 15, 16 years

old, goes on this website, she may not realize that she's actually going to be sold into sex trafficking. I agree, Nancy. But you know, unfortunately, now there are all sorts of other social media sites where this occurs. Backpage is just was just sort of the beginning of it all. So Backpage started the whole trend. So to Karen Smith, forensic expert, Beer Bones consultant, Karen, now that we know he's been shot twice, you got to figure out what actually happened. Because, you know, let me revert back to Levi Page. So, Levi, is that how we think this 15-, 16-year-old girl meets up with Randy Volar? What is he to her? Is he a john or a pimp?

Well, Nancy, he was apparently a regular on Backpage.com, and this is not the only young minor that he had met on there. He actually had other young girls, minors, that he would teach how to advertise their services to other men on Backpage.com. And there's even video that law enforcement found in his home where he's instructing them, and this is sickening, Nancy, warning on how to better pleasure men and advertise themselves on Backpage.com. Well, we know Crystal Kaiser was just 16

when she allegedly shot and killed accused sex trafficker Randy Volar. She says in self-defense, Levi, what type of abuse did she allegedly suffer before the shooting? So apparently, Nancy, she claimed that she had gone over to his home and that they were eating pizza, drinking alcohol, which is illegal for an adult to give a minor alcohol. They were also smoking weed. She said that he started coming on to her and she tried to get away from him. And that is when she says that the gun that her boyfriend gave her to protect herself, it went off.

She heard a pop. She doesn't remember pulling the trigger, though. And she also said she doesn't remember setting the fire as well. And then she remembers leaving in his BMW. girl, Crystal Kaiser, 17 at the time, 16 to 17, met up with the victim, Randy Volar, on Backpage.com. And she says he allegedly sold her to other people and would drive her from one hotel to the next for meetups. And then he would take the cash that she earned. James Shalnot, you're very familiar with this case. What more do we know about the abuse she allegedly suffered? She supposedly was sexually abused for a long period of time by this guy, taken advantage of, manipulated, supposedly was forced to commit sex acts that she was pressured into committing.

And that's the crux of what the manipulation was. forced to commit sex acts that she was pressured into committing. And that's the crux of what the manipulation was. Supposedly, he gave her money, allowed her to drive his car occasionally, and essentially forced her by manipulation into prostituting for him. But that day, Ashley Wilcott, that day, things went differently. Now, she says that she had been drugged and raped. But did that occur the day of the shooting? Because she is saying that that day he gave her a particular drug. She doesn't know what it was.

And they started watching movie. And then the drug started making her feel weird, she says, her word, not mine, that he began to come on to her and touch her leg. And she suddenly jumped and told him she didn't want to do that, that she didn't want to do any of it anymore. She tried to get away, but she tripped, fell on the floor. And he was attempting to rape her again and then suddenly she says she doesn't remember retrieving the pistol but she still can hear the noise when she pulled the trigger she

says she doesn't remember starting the fire neighbors report the fire after she leaves the scene at 5 a.m now the way it got all linked back to her, the teen girl, Crystal Kaiser, is because they found the victim, Volar's missing BMW, in Milwaukee, and they connected items in the car to her and her brother. Now, her story changed several times

after her first interview with the investigators at first, claiming she didn't know Volar. Then she said she saw a woman shoot him. Finally, she confesses she was the one who killed him. What about Ashley Wilcott? Well, so a couple of things. First of all, as you well know, sex traffickers and perpetrators of sexual crimes against children groom them. And so they do build this relationship and they get hold of them and then they groom them and they do sexually abuse them. They're juveniles. So these girls aren't prostitutes, but rather victims. So here this girl is that is alleging,

right, that Randy Bollard did this to her and did assault her more than once, multiple times. But she also states that he filmed it. Now, we would hope if that's the case, some of that evidence is found or exists to help support her case. She snapped. That's my word. Nobody else's. But I think that she got to a point based on the versions of the story that she's given that she said enough, no more. He's been assaulting me. He's been abusing me. I'm not putting it up with it anymore. And she ended up shooting him.

Take a listen to what our friends at WISN 12. This is Hillary Mintz. You believe that she went there with a plan to kill Mr. Villar? That's right. From the start, Kenosha County District Attorney Mike Gravely says he's been pressured to drop all charges, but argues Villar's murder was premeditated and says she bragged about it after on social media. And then during the course of the evening, she texts multiple people talking about how she is planning to do it, that she has Googled and that it's going to create a splatter.

Valar's house here has since been torn down, but the district attorney says the day they found his body was the same day they were about to charge him with child sex crimes. I mean, it's ridiculous that the police knew what was going on with Valar and allowed it to continue. If somebody commits crimes against you, even horrible crimes, that you aren't allowed to go and kill them in response. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

What we haven't told you yet is this guy, when they searched his home, Randy Volar, 34, they find, first of all, he was out on bond for filming himself abusing girls as young as 12 years old. Sex abusing 12-year-old girls. My daughter is 12. Ashley, your daughter is 12. 12 years old. Sex abusing 12 year old girls. My daughter is 12. Ashley, your daughter is 12. 12 years old. Filming it. And there were 20 that we know of, 20 videos that we know of, including this girl, Crystal Kaiser. In some of these videos, he calls himself, quote, escort trainer. Now, you know, I don't support vigilante justice. Let me just say that up front. But if the courts can't deal with him, you think a jury is going to convict her for shooting him when she's in that video being abused? Let's just get real for a minute, James Sheldon. I mean, come on. You know, the defense is going to show this

to the jury. Of course they are. Oh, they're going to wave it around like a red flag. They are going to beat it like a drum, and they're going to beat it all trial long. It's going to be an open statement. It's going to be in a cross-examination. It's going to be in the rent. It's going to be in the closing. They are going to pound this and pound this and pound this the entire trial. You know, another issue is why? Why was Volar released from jail without bail after being arrested on pending charges of sex assault on a child? Why? Levi, please give me an answer on that. He was killed. There was a 15-year-old girl that called police, 911, and she said, Volar's trying to kill me. She said she'd been given drugs, and when police responded, they found this 15-year-old girl near his property, dazed, confused, wandering around in only her underwear, and she told police that he did this to other minor young girls and gave the

name of the defendant in this case. And Nancy, police also seized a bank account during their investigation. I was just gonna say that, Levi Page, because I want Shelnut weighing in on this. James Shelnut, 27 years, Metro major case, now lawyer. $1.5 million in transfers in his bank account? That is consistent with sex trafficking. I mean, what does this guy even do for a living? What's he doing $1.5 million in transfers? Well, he claimed that he got some of it through buying and selling cryptocurrency.

Well, I can guarantee you. Right. I can guarantee you. You mean the fake money? Yeah, the fake internet money. You know, that is so like, call me crazy, call me me old fashioned, but that's just like the emperor's clothes. As soon as somebody says, hey, crypto money is not real, and people get that in their head, I think it's going to crash. But, you know, I'm just going to keep my little checking account with real cash in it. Okay, back to you, Shelnut.

No, you know, from an investigative standpoint, here's what it looks like. The investigator is going to say, okay, that's your story. That's fine. Let's go back and let's start serving subpoenas. They're going to identify these bank accounts. They're going to serve subpoenas. They're going to forensically audit with an accountant this money and see how much of this money actually came from it, if at all. And if not, if there's unsubstantiated money that can't be determined, you know who else is going to get a phone call? An alphabet agency called the IRS, and they're going to get involved. And so I think... You're not kidding on that? No. Don't even say IRS. That's like bringing

Voldemort into the room. Sometimes that's the worst one. You do not mess with the tax man. No, N-O. You know, another big question I don't understand, Ashley Wilcott, judge and trial lawyer, Anchor Court TV. Maybe you can explain it. Why was he, Volar, released from jail without bail after being arrested on police charges? That's not a grand jury indictment. He was released on pending charges of child sex assault. Why? I don't know. You know, I am a judge.

If I were the judge, I wouldn't have released him because this is what I do for a living, and he's a perpetrator, an alleged perpetrator, but enough that he should have been held on bond if there's probable cause, in my opinion. Okay, stop right there. To James Shelnut, 27 years Atlanta Metro Major, K-SWAT officer, now lawyer.

The judge is refusing to allow the defense of affirmative defense and just, in a nutshell, a self-defense. OK, self-defense is a complete defense. If you tell a jury you acted in self-defense, you are and they believe it. You are exonerated. You are not guilty. What message does this send to people fighting back against their attackers? It's it's basically sends the message that the criminal justice system is not going to stand behind you, Nancy. You know, I'll tell you

the reason that I believe the judge is not allowing the affirmative defense. The fact that he, the judge, claims that this was all premeditated, that it was all planned. Take a listen to our friend CBS 58 reporter Jacqueline Abad. The car was recovered and investigators found evidence linking Kaiser to the crime. She was even seen bragging about the crime on Facebook Live. The sort of celebration of parts of this criminal offense that take place in social media, I think shocked the conscience and are again predictive of a person who has absolutely no compunction or willingness to comply with any court orders. But the question is why. The motive is still unclear, but she did tell investigators she had gone upset and she was tired of Mr. Villar touching her.

We do believe that there's more to the story that hasn't been presented yet. We would ask the court to consider a reasonable cash bond. Her bail was set at $1 million. If Kaiser is convicted, she could face a life sentence. Okay, that's what we're learning, that the judge believes that there is evidence of premeditation. If it's premeditated or planned ahead of time, it can't be self-defense. But take a listen to our friends over at WISN 12. This is Hillary Mintz. The $1 million cash fine is appropriate. 12 News was there in court when $1 million bail was set for Crystal Kaiser. The Milwaukee teen is charged with shooting, killing, and setting Randall Villar on fire in his Kenosha home last June. She was just 17 at the time.

And what do you think that people need to know about why he died? That I was on the stage. to know about why he died. The case now making national headlines and in a jailhouse interview with the Washington Post, Kaiser now alleges she killed Villar because he used her for sex trafficking. Supporters of Kaiser say it was self-defense. She had been trying to get out of the whatever arrangement that they had and he was threatening to kill her. In court last week, her attorney, a public defender, argued the murder falls under state law called affirmative defense, which acquits sex trafficking victims of certain crimes. But a judge disagreed, saying it only applies to prostitution or child trafficking cases. Okay, what does that mean that

it only applies to prostitution or child trafficking to judge and trial lawyer Ashley Wilcott? Well, I don't know. And so I do know, I do understand what that means. It applies in cases in which a child is a victim of sex trafficking. They can then claim that affirmative defense. That's my understanding. What I don't understand is in this particular case, I think it fits the bill. I think that she is a victim of sex trafficking with this older man. And so I'm not certain why the judge isn't allowing it. case and lawyer because that addresses a long period of abuse and then a response in an altered state a response you wouldn't normally normally have and often in a battered women's syndrome case or something similar to that you have the victim the battered woman let's just say pick up let's say a knife, walk into the den where the husband's watching TV in the easy chair and stab him. In most cases, that would not

be self-defense because you've got a few moments of premeditation, getting the knife, walking into the den, the TV's going and stabbing your husband. All right. But it's allowed self-defense under the battered women's syndrome after a long period of abuse. Now, the prosecutors say we don't know the whole story. Us on the outside looking in. Is there more? Question to you, Levi Page. How does this parallel with the case of, do you recall Cynthia Brown, who was granted clemency last year? It's the case that the Kardashians became involved with. Yes, that was in Tennessee, Nancy, and she actually shot and killed her pimp as well. She was a child trafficking victim. And what happened? Well, what happened there, Nancy, she was convicted of his murder, spent a lot of time behind bars. A lot of celebrities started bringing her

case to social media. They brought attention to it, and she was granted clemency by the governor, and she's now released. We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.