PASSAGE OF THE DAY: " (Bobby) Boyd (one of Joseph Lawson's lawyers) said former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin delivered an edict in 2023 that these cases should be resolved, and Lawson became collateral damage when investigators developed tunnel vision focused only Brooks Houck, Lawson and his father. "He's just another unfortunate victim in this tragedy," Boyd said. Boyd went as far as to call the case "a witch hunt" against Joseph Lawson in which there is no DNA evidence, no witnesses tying him to the case and phone records that clear him. "It's shocking to me," Boyd said. He implored jurors to use their common sense, look at the phone data, the changing witness statements and "send Joey home."
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STORY: Trial Blog: "Crystal Rogers murder trial wrapping up with closing arguments," published by WDRB, on July 7, 2025.
GIST: "The second trial in the murder of Crystal Rogers is now in its third week in Bowling Green 10 years after she disappeared in Bardstown.
The first two weeks of trial, which you can read about here and here, saw testimony from Rogers' friends and family members, the ex-girlfriend of Steve Lawson's, Joseph Lawson's father, Bardstown business owners and forensic experts.
Brooks Houck is charged with complicity to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence and faces up to 25 years to life in prison. Joseph Lawson is charged with conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence, facing up to 25 years behind bars.
Below is a running blog of updates from the courtroom. Check back frequently as we report on testimony throughout the trial:
Prosecution paints Brooks Houck as 'sinister' in closing arguments
5 p.m. July 7 — Jason Riley and Fallon Glick
Prosecutor Shane Young began his closing arguments Monday afternoon by laying out a timeline of Brooks Houck's lies and whereabouts during the days before and after Crystal Rogers disappeared. Specifically, he focused on Rogers and Houck going to the family farm July 3, 2015.
"If she does not come home July 3 or early July 4, this man committed murder," Young said.
Young pointed out that Houck's version of events given to police for what he did that day was a lie. While saying he'd been driving around doing business July 3, he was actually at the Houck farm most of the day, Young said.
After Rogers disappeared, Houck didn't answer multiple texts and phone calls from her family members but did answer a call from his mother, Rosemary Houck.
At the same time, Steve Lawson deleted several calls with Houck and his son, Joseph Lawson, that night.
"It is nefarious," Young said. "It is sinister."
As for the defense's theory that Rogers left on her own, Young pointed out that Rogers had made plans with friends and her car was seen on the Bluegrass Parkway by two people around 10 p.m. July 3, when she was supposedly still at the farm with Houck.
Also, Young told jurors Houck's brother, Nick Houck, had his cellphone turned off between 11 p.m. July 2 and the middle of the afternoon July 4. He was supposed to be helping his wife move July 3 but told her he was going to help his brother instead. She called Nick Houck 15 times over a 24-hour period.
Nick Houck's phone came back on at 1:47 p.m. July 4. He told his wife he was helping Houck, but Rogers' friends testified she told them Brooks Houck was taking her on a kid-free, romantic night July 3.
"The surprise date was her surprise ending," Young said.
Young said when Brooks Houck woke up July 4, he said Rogers was gone, but he didn't call or text her, instead going back to the farm.
"What he's doing, I don't know," Young said.
Houck had told police when he went to bed July 3, Rogers was playing on her phone. But records show her phone battery died at 9:23 p.m. that night, Young said.
"She left with him," he said. "She didn't come home."
However, while accusing Houck earlier of killing Rogers, Young told jurors he "didn't know who killed her. I'm telling you who was involved."
On July 3, Steve and Joseph Lawson talked on the phone repeatedly, Young said, including a three-minute call at 12:03 a.m. July 4. Immediately after that call, Steve Lawson called Houck for 13 seconds.
"It wasn't about an apartment" as defense attorneys have alleged, Young said.
Over the next two days, Houck only called Rogers a few times and texted her once, Young said, meanwhile ignoring calls from her friends and family.
On July 5, Sherry Ballard, Rogers' mother, saw Brooks Houck at a gas station with Eli, the child he shared with Rogers. She asked Houck if he knew where Rogers was and if she should file a missing person's report. He told her she should. Ballard then went to the Nelson County Sheriff's Department, and Houck went home.
"He's done absolutely nothing to help find this woman," Young said. "He knows there's no sense in it."
Defense says witness coercion, a lack of evidence prove Brooks Houck is innocent
3:30 p.m. Monday, July 7 — Jason Riley and Fallon Glick
After lunch, defense attorney Brian Butler focused on what Steve Lawson was doing at the time he was supposedly moving Crystal Rogers' car. Butler claimed in his closing arguments that Lawson was trying to find a car on Boston Road that his ex-girlfriend had taken from him. Boston Road runs parallel to Bluegrass Parkway, where Rogers' car was found.
At 11:50 p.m. July 3, the night Rogers disappeared, Butler said Lawson called Capital One while he was apparently in the middle of covering up a murder. At 11:59 p.m., Butler said Lawson searched "capitalone.com" on Google. At the same time this is going on, Butler said Tammy Lawson, his wife at the time, was also calling Capital One and texting her husband that he needed to get the car back from his ex-girlfriend.
"If you look at the science of it, it's ridiculous," Butler said.
Investigators searched the Houck farm, using hundreds of FBI agents, K-9s, divers and drones and found no evidence a murder had been committed, Butler said.
"If something had happened to her out there, they'd have found it," he said. "They found nothing. If that isn't reasonable doubt, I don't know what is."
Butler noted neither Joseph or Steve Lawson's DNA — not even a fingerprint — was found in Rogers' car. Her DNA was found on the steering wheel, he said. Butler also noted the jury didn't hear from the lead FBI agent in the case because he didn't find any evidence. And jurors didn't hear from the main Kentucky State Police investigators because they threatened and coerced witnesses and violated their training in order to get false statement they needed to try to make the case, he said.
"They want you to guess," Butler said. "They want you to fill in gaps they can't fill in because there's no evidence."
Initially, police even told Houck it's possible Rogers car broke down and was then abducted. But they never looked into that theory any further, Butler said.
"Brooks Houck isn't guilty," Butler said. "The truth is they know it."
It's been 10 years, he said, and the only evidence they have is coerced witnesses, incorrect phone data and speculation, which has always been wrong.
"It's time to move on," Butler said. "It's time to send him home to his son. It's fine to find him not guilty."
The prosecution will begin presenting its closing argument Monday afternoon.
Brooks Houck's attorney tells jury 'the whole case is garbage'
1:30 p.m. Monday, July 7 — Jason Riley, Fallon Glick and Valerie Chinn
In his closing arguments, attorney Brian Butler, who represents Brooks Houck, referred to the prosecutions case as a "convoluted mess" with unreliable witnesses, contradictory testimony and data proving Houck wasn't involved.
"The whole case is garbage," Butler told the jury on the ninth day of the trial. "They are just throwing things against the wall."
Butler, who will continue giving his closing argument after a lunch break, methodically went through evidence put forth in the last two weeks, arguing investigators developed tunnel vision and focused on the Houck family almost immediately and then used speculation, weak circumstantial evidence and leaps of faith to try and prove their theory.
"They start with the assumption he is guilty," Butler said.
For example, cellphone data police said showed Steve Lawson near where Crystal Rogers' vehicle was found after she disappeared proved he was on another road, trying to get a vehicle back from an ex-girlfriend.
"There is no phone evidence at all at that shows Steve Lawson went down the Bluegrass Parkway," he said.
Houck tinted his windows shortly before Rogers disappeared because his son had vision problems and had an eye appointment July 6, 2015, Butler said. Her phone was not shut off while she was at the Houck farm the night of July 3, 2015, but ran out of power.
Butler broke down the testimony of multiple witnesses, explaining how they had either been coerced and threatened by police or provided information that he said couldn't possibly be true given the alleged timeline put forth by prosecutors.
The dog handler whose K-9 hit on the scent of human remains in a vehicle owned by the Houck's grandmother was working with a church in Texas, was found by the lead detective at an National Rifle Association convention in Louisville and had lost the documentation on the training of his dog. No DNA was found inside.
Even prosecutors acknowledged "things could have been done better," Butler said, showing jurors a clip of testimony.
As far as Houck's brother, Nick, selling that white Buick shortly before police came looking for it, Butler acknowledged it was a mistake that looked bad but blamed it on the paranoia the family was facing after a video of a statement Brooks Houck gave to police was leaked to the media.
"The Houck family circled the wagons," Butler said, which he explained was why they recorded interviews with police, grand jury testimony and even a discussion with one of their original attorneys.
In addition, Butler blamed this paranoia for why Brooks Houck lied about where he was the day Rogers' disappeared. He had written in a statement that he went to the Houck farm briefly but in fact was there most of the day. He took Rogers there that night and she was never seen again.
Butler said Brooks Houck was fearful that if he told police he worked on the farm all day, he was be accused of digging a hole to bury Rogers.
"They would suspect him more so he minimized" the time he was at the farm that day, Butler said.
He noted no evidence was found at the farm and prosecutors have never found a body, murder weapon, crime scene or even presented a motive for the murder.
Butler said it was Rogers "who moved the car herself in the middle of the night."
Case against Joseph Lawson is a 'witch hunt,' attorney says in closing arguments
11:15 a.m. Monday, July 7 — Jason Riley, Fallon Glick and Valerie Chinn
Closing arguments in the Crystal Rogers murder trial began Monday morning with one of Joseph Lawson's attorneys, Bobby Boyd, pointing out to the jury they've heard relatively little from his defense team in two weeks.
"His name didn't even come up until the third day of trial," Boyd told the jury. "You probably forgot we were on trial the last couple weeks. I've never been in this situation before."
Boyd used his closing arguments to say only a handful of witnesses even mentioned Lawson and most of those weren't credible, as they were bullied, coerced and threatened by Kentucky State Police investigators. He called two of the witnesses who mentioned Joseph Lawson — Charlie Girdley and Heather Snellen — two of the most untrustworthy witnesses he's ever seen.
More importantly, Boyd said, the most concrete evidence presented was phone records showing Lawson was nowhere near the area where Rogers' car was found on the Bluegrass Parkway.
Lawson is charged with conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence, accused of agreeing to move Rogers' car before it got a flat tire on the Bluegrass Parkway, where he abandoned it. But countering that narrative, the defense has argued Lawson could have been on Boston Road, which runs parallel to Bluegrass Parkway, rather than up on the freeway. The prosecution has already used cellphone data to place his father, Steve Lawson, on the Bluegrass Parkway.
Detective Tim O'Daniel, a digital forensic expert with the Louisville Metro Police Department, testified during the first week of trial he was never given access to Joseph Lawson's phone like he was given for Brooks Houck and Steve Lawson. Butler said Joseph Lawson called his father three times between 11:06 p.m. July 3 and 12:03 a.m. July 4, and not one of those calls showed up in the cellphone tower data.
Boyd said former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin delivered an edict in 2023 that these cases should be resolved, and Lawson became collateral damage when investigators developed tunnel vision focused only Brooks Houck, Lawson and his father.
"He's just another unfortunate victim in this tragedy," Boyd said.
Boyd went as far as to call the case "a witch hunt" against Joseph Lawson in which there is no DNA evidence, no witnesses tying him to the case and phone records that clear him.
"It's shocking to me," Boyd said.
He implored jurors to use their common sense, look at the phone data, the changing witness statements and "send Joey home."
Brian Butler, an attorney for Houck, will begin his closing arguments next.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/crystal/FMfcgzQbgJFLNrCggGXbhqjQGBBwVNPC
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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