A IMPORTANT update came on Wednesday about a teen accused of murdering her alleged sexual abuser.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Chrystul Kizer, who allegedly shot and killed Randall Phillip Volar when she was 17.
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Kizer, now 22, met Volar when she was 16 and he was 33.
On June 5, 2018, she was alleged to have shot Volar twice in the head at his home in Kenosha, Wisconsin, before setting his body on fire and fleeing the scene.
Kizer and her lawyers allege that Volar subjected her to a series of attacks and sold her online for sex.
Kizer’s defense team wants a Wisconsin law that offers victims of human trafficking legal protection when they commit crimes.
To use the provision in defense, a defendant must prove that its actions were a direct result of the abuse.
In a 4-3 ruling on Wednesday, the state’s Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision to side with Kizer and allow the case to go to trial with immediate results.
“We believe that a criminal offense has been committed as a direct result of a violation of the statutes of human trafficking if there is a logical, causal link between the offense and the trafficking in human beings, so that the offense is not the result, to a significant extent , of other events, circumstances or considerations besides the violation of human trafficking,” read the advice.
If a jury accepts Kizer’s argument, she can be acquitted.
“Today’s decision brings clarity to the scope of the positive defense for survivors of the despicable crime of human trafficking,” Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, who argued against Kizer, said in a statement to the Washington Post.
Colleen Marion, one of Kizer’s public defenders, told the Post that “the legal process in this matter is far from over”.
“We agree with Chrystul and her family that today’s decision affirms the legal rights afforded by Wisconsin law to victims of human trafficking who face criminal charges,” she said.
According to the court’s ruling, Kizer was charged with first degree murder, driving a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent, arson, possession of a firearm by a felon and bail.
Kizer has said that she met Volar online and that he sold her for sex.
Volar, a white man, had previously been arrested for sexually abusing a black child and was in possession of child pornography, including content he filmed, the Post reported.
In interviews with the PostKizer, who is black, said Volar tried to pull down her jeans, and she panicked and attacked him.
Volar reportedly paid an Uber for Kizer to take her from Milwaukee to his home in Kenosha.
He paid her for sex before, and she lived with him briefly, she claimed.
She told investigators she was tired of Volar’s abuse.
She was jailed for more than two years before supporters paid her $400,000 bail in the summer of 2020.
There was public outcry about the case when Kyle Rittenhuisa white man, who is also from Wisconsin, was acquitted in a trial for murdering people in Kenosha and claimed self-defense.
Kizer’s next court appearance is in September.