Lawyers for Crystal Rogers investigation suspect Steven Lawson told Nelson Circuit Judge Charles Simms III that testing hairs found in the victim’s car is part of Lawson’s due process, while Special Prosecutor Shane Young said testing the hairs does nothing but unnecessarily delay Lawson’s trial.
The two sides were back in Nelson Circuit Court Monday morning to argue the defense’s desire to see the hairs tested despite Young withdrawing his motion during an April 3 hearing after he said analysis from the Kentucky State Police Crime Lab showed the hairs in question could not belong to either Steven Lawson or his son Joseph Lawson, who is also a suspect in the case.
Lawson’s attorneys submitted case examples to argue that Lawson “has a fundamental right to due process, which includes the right to present evidence of an alternative perpetrator.” In a supplemental brief filed with the court April 12, the defense said several identified persons of interest over the course of the case, such as fellow suspect Brooks Houck’s brother Nick Houck, could be identified through testing the hairs, and said “it is not inconceivable that someone could have come along who was involved in the alleged conspiracy to tamper with the automobile after Steven Lawson and co-defendant Joseph Lawson allegedly abandoned the automobile (but prior to law enforcement first locating the automobile).”
Young said Nick Houck’s hair has already been tested and said he could not be the contributor of the hairs in question. Young stated, as he did when he withdrew the motion at the previous hearing, that he did not want to waste money testing the hairs when the hairs could not belong to the Lawsons, and said “the simple fact that someone else’s DNA is in the vehicle is not exculpatory.”
Simms took the matter under submission and asked the prosecution and defense to submit any additional materials within 48 hours as he would like to make a ruling this week.