Chrystul Kizer : Trafficking Victim accused of Killing abuser wins appeal #53

A Milwaukee woman accused of killing a man who allegedly sexually assaulted her and other underage girls is entitled to an appeal using a certain type of defense strategy, a Wisconsin court ruled this week.

Chrystul Kizer, who was 17 when prosecutors say she killed Randall Volar III and set fire to his home in 2018, may be able to employ a state law adopted in 2008 and known as "affirmative defense," which means what she is accused of doing was a "direct result" of being a human trafficking victim.

Kizer was charged with five felonies, including first-degree intentional homicide. She was underage when she said Volar, 34, sexually assaulted her. Kizer, now 20, came forward publicly in a 2019 Washington Post interview from jail and said she acted in self-defense.

"I didn't intentionally try to do this," she said.

Kizer is awaiting trial following her release from the Kenosha County Jail last June after the case drew interest from community groups and celebrities, and supporters helped raise her $400,000 bail, which was lowered from $1 million. Her situation also drew comparisons to that of Cyntoia Brown, who was convicted as a teenager of murdering a man she said had hired her for sex and was released from prison in 2019 after then-Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam commuted her life sentence.

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