Wisconsin woman who argued she legally killed sex trafficker gets 11 years in prison

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

A Kenosha County judge sentenced Chrystul Kizer to 11 years of initial confinement followed by 5 years of extended supervision in the 2018 death of Randall Volar, 34. She was given credit for 570 days of time served.

Kizer had pleaded guilty in May to second-degree reckless homicide in Volar’s death, allowing her to avoid trial and a possible life sentence.

Prosecutors said Kizer shot Volar at his Kenosha home in 2018, when she was 17, and that she then burned his house down and stole his BMW. Kizer was charged with multiple counts, including first-degree intentional homicide, arson, car theft and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Kizer, now 24, argued that she met Volar on a sex trafficking website. He had been molesting her and selling her as a prostitute over the year leading up to his death, she argued. She told detectives that she shot him after he tried to touch her.

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Her attorneys argued that Kizer couldn’t be held criminally liable for any of it under a 2008 state law that absolves sex trafficking victims of “any offense committed as a direct result” of being trafficked. Most states have passed similar laws over the last 10 years providing sex trafficking victims at least some level of criminal immunity.

Prosecutors countered that Wisconsin legislators couldn’t possibly have intended for protections to extend to homicide. Anti-violence groups flocked to Kizer’s defense, arguing in court briefs that trafficking victims feel trapped and sometimes feel as if they have to take matters into their own hands. The state Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that Kizer could raise the defense during trial.

Kizer’s attorneys did not immediately respond to phone messages seeking comment on her sentence.