Chrystul Kizer is among a dozen underage victims who were sexually abused and filmed by Randy Volar.
A 19-year-old sex trafficking victim is currently
facing life in prison for killing the man who sexually abused her since
she was 16.
According to police, Chrystul Kizer was among at least a
dozen underage victims who were abused and filmed by Randy Volar
without their consent. In fact, these videos were discovered by police
four months before Volar was shot and killed.
Volar was reportedly arrested in early 2018 on charges
of child enticement, using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime,
and second-degree sexual assault of a child. Police recovered photo and
video evidence of him abusing multiple underage girls, including Kizer.
However, for some unknown reason, Volar was released the very next day
without bail, allowing him to continue his abuse.
Months later, on June 5, Kizer shot Volar twice in the
head before setting his body on fire and leaving the scene in his BMW.
She was later found by police in nearby Milwaukee and linked to the
murder through the vehicle. She eventually confessed after giving
officers multiple explanations of her innocence.
District Attorney Michael Graveley, who failed to bring
Volar to justice for his crimes against children, decided to charge
Kizer with first-degree murder, carrying a potential life sentence,
arguing that the killing was premeditated. The district attorney’s
office has even attempted to hide the evidence of abuse from the
defense, arguing that it was not relevant to the case.
Kizer says that she was drugged by Volar on the night
of the incident and that he was attempting to rape her when she shot him
in self-defense. Earlier this month, a judge ruled that she would not
be able to use an “affirmative defense” law which allows victims of sex
trafficking to claim self-defense in situations like this.
According to reports from the Washington Post, Volar
and Kizar met online through an escorting website and began a somewhat
consensual relationship, despite the fact that Kizer was just 16. Volar
was extremely generous at first, giving her expensive gifts as well as
money to take home to her family. However, he quickly became more
controlling of her and eventually began taking over her life and
finances, positioning himself as her pimp.
When Kizer tried to distance herself from Volar, he became more aggressive.
“He had started to talk violent and stuff. I was going
to stop talking to him, and he said if I did that he was going to kill
me,” she told investigators.
A month before the shooting, another man that Kizer was
involved with, Delane Nelson, gave her a handgun to protect herself in
case Volar decided to follow through on his threats.
Then on the week of the shooting, Kizer became
distrustful of Nelson, and with nowhere else to go, ended up back at
Volar’s house. She says at some point during her visit she realized that
she had been drugged, and Volar began touching her. She does not
remember many details about what happened next, but vaguely remembers
the gun going off. She says she does not remember starting the fire,
which is what ended up bringing police to the scene.
A final search of Volar’s home and assets found
computers with a large number of child exploitation videos and photos in
which he can be seen having sex with girls who were as young as 12.
Investigators also found a bank account with $1.5 million in transfers,
which is likely tied to his trafficking and child pornography
activities.
In early 2019, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam granted
clemency to Cyntoia Brown, a woman who spent the last fifteen years in
prison for a murder she has consistently maintained was an act of
self-defense, according to the Media