WQXE NEWS

Crystal Rogers was last seen on July 3, 2015.

10 years and five days later, the last person known to have seen her alive has been found guilty of her murder.

A jury of six men and six women at the Warren County Justice Center on Tuesday found Brooks Houck guilty of Murder – Principal or Accomplice and Tampering with Physical Evidence. That same jury found Joseph Lawson guilty of Conspiracy to Commit Murder and Tampering with Physical Evidence.

When court returned Tuesday morning, the three alternate jurors were selected, and the jury was sent to deliberate at 8:36 a.m. CDT. The jurors requested a whiteboard and something to watch videos on, and they briefly returned to the courtroom in order to watch part of prosecution witness Charlie Girdley’s testimony. The jury returned to the courtroom at 2:39 p.m. and the verdicts were announced. 

During the sentencing phase that followed, Lawson’s attorney Kevin Coleman asked the jury to consider mitigating factors concerning Lawson including the negative influence Steven Lawson had on his life and his substance abuse problems. Houck’s attorney Steve Schroering noted that Houck does not have any prior criminal history, and he asked the jury to consider that there was no evidence in the case that gives a “comfort level” when considering the punishment.

Special Prosecutor Shane Young said the case was an example of pre-meditated murder, with Houck planning a murder that would make it look like Rogers disappeared, then misled investigators for 10 years. Young asked the jury to consider the Ballard family, in particular Rogers’s children, with Young saying “Their kids won’t have a grandma, all because this man decided their mom needed to disappear.” He said Lawson showed no regard for Rogers and participated in the crime in pursuit of a payday.

The jury only needed to deliberate on their recommendations for about five minutes. They recommended Houck serve a sentence of life in prison on the Murder charge, along with a five year sentence on the Tampering charge, with those sentences to be served consecutively. They also recommended a maximum sentence for Lawson: 20 years on the Conspiracy charge, and five years on the Tampering charge, to be served consecutively.

Houck and Lawson were remanded to the custody of the Warren County Sheriff’s Office. They will be formally sentenced at the Nelson County Justice Center on August 21.

Steven Lawson, who was convicted on the same charges as his son in a separate trial on May 30, is due to be sentenced on August 6.

The Louisville Orchestra will be performing a free concert at Freeman Lake Park on Wednesday.

Elizabethtown is the next stop on the orchestra’s “In Harmony” statewide free concert tour.

“We started doing this touring back in November of 2022,” said Louisville Orchestra Tour Manager Elizabeth Etienne. “We received the first appropriation from the state in the summer of 2022, and we’ve been touring ever since, and we really hope to continue to be able to do it for years to come. We all absolutely enjoy doing it.”

The tour has reached 34 counties so far, and provided free concerts to 34,000 Kentuckians.

“This tour really plays to the heart of what the Louisville Orchestra is all about in our mission to really bring a symphony orchestra to every community,” Etienne said. “I think there is this kind of odd misconception that if you’re a symphony orchestra, you play in one concert hall and you ask the people to come to you and you pay a set ticket price, and that is really not what we’re trying to do here. We’re trying to break down that barrier, and meet people where they are.”

The Elizabethtown show will feature Muhlenberg County natives Joe Hudson and Shelly Hudson-Bryant.

“We always try to make sure that we highlight music that is really at the heart of what this state does when it comes to the arts, and that includes bluegrass and country, and this concert is absolutely no exception,” Etienne said. “We will be highlighting a piece called “Paradise” by John Prine that specifically calls out Muhlenberg County, and then we will also be playing a piece called “Cannonball Rag” that really leans into the Merle Travis kind of thumb-picking guitar tradition, which should be really, really fantastic.”

The concert will begin at 7:30 at the bandstand at Freeman Lake Park. Tickets aren’t necessary, but you can register for concert updates and alerts at www.louisvilleorchestra.org.

Closing arguments were delivered in the trial of Crystal Rogers investigation suspects Brooks Houck and Joseph Lawson at the Warren County Justice Center Monday.

Robert Boyd delivered the closing arguments for Lawson. He said that he agreed with a comment made during the prosecution’s opening statement that the jury should use their “God-given common sense,” and reiterated a statement made during the defense’s opening argument that Joseph Lawson is collateral damage in the Commonwealth’s pursuit of Brooks Houck. Boyd said in order to believe the prosecution you have to believe that Houck would include the Lawsons in a conspiracy despite their struggles with substance and alcohol abuse and the difficult relationship the two had. Boyd also said there are concerns with the reliability of witness testimony, particularly from Charlie Girdley and Heather Snellen. Boyd described cell phone data, which both defenses argue shows Steven Lawson was on Boston Road rather than the Bluegrass Parkway, is the jury’s “North Star” in this case. He closed by saying: “Follow your North Star. Send Joey home.”

Houck’s attorney Brian Butler said the prosecution’s case is built on theories and guesses, and referenced Detective Tim O’Daniel’s testimony when he said the “lynch pin” in their case is based on it being “somewhat possible” that Lawson’s phone was on the Bluegrass Parkway. Butler discussed the number of searches and the amount of police resources that went into searches of Houck family properties that did not turn up any evidence, stating “They looked for ten years for a murder weapon. They found nothing.” He said the indictments against the suspects in the case were the result of political pressure that came about as the investigation continued to not turn up evidence. Butler said the time had come to move on, saying “It is time to send him home to his son. It is time to find him not guilty.”

Special Prosecutor Shane Young told the jury “If Crystal Rogers did not come home, then this man is guilty of murder.” as he pointed at Houck. Young said if the prosecution has a “lynch pin” in the case, it is Houck’s written statement to law enforcement on his whereabouts July 3 through July 5, with Young saying only about one and half lines he wrote for July 3 are true. Young walked the jury through the timeline presented by the prosecution, noting Houck’s actions and his lack of a response after Rogers went missing as well as other actions by the Houck family including their secret recordings and Rosemary Houck removing Rogers’s flowers just days after the disappearance. He also said that Joseph Lawson’s involvement is directly tied to Steven Lawson’s phone calls, with Young saying “Whatever Steve Lawson is doing, Joey is a part of it.” 

When the jury returns Tuesday morning, three of the 15 will be randomly selected to serve as alternates, after which the remaining twelve will begin deliberations.