Chrystul Kizer convicted of killing suspected sex trafficker

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — A Milwaukee woman who argued that she was legally allowed to kill a man because he sexually trafficked her was sentenced to 11 years in prison Monday after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of involuntary manslaughter.

A Kenosha County judge sentenced Chrystul Kizer to 11 years in prison and then to five years of extended probation in connection with the death of 34-year-old Randall Volar in 2018. She was given credit for 570 days of time already served.

Kizer pleaded guilty in May to second-degree manslaughter in connection with Volar's death, avoiding a trial and a possible life sentence.

Prosecutors said Kizer shot Volar in his Kenosha home in 2018 when she was 17. She then burned down his house and stole his BMW. Kizer was charged with several counts, including first-degree premeditated murder, arson, auto theft and illegal possession of a firearm.

Kizer, now 24, claimed she met Volar on a sex trafficking website. He sexually assaulted her and sold her as a prostitute in 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 because a 2008 law prohibits sex trafficking victims from committing “any crime as a direct result” of trafficking. Most states have passed similar laws over the past decade that grant sex trafficking victims at least some degree of criminal immunity.

Prosecutors countered that Wisconsin lawmakers could not possibly have intended the protections to extend to homicides. Anti-violence groups flocked to Kizer's defense, arguing in court briefs that victims of human trafficking feel trapped and sometimes feel they must take matters into their own hands. The state Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that Kizer can present his defense during the trial.

Kizer's lawyers did not immediately respond to phone messages seeking comment on her ruling.