The trial for two men allegedly involved in the 2015 disappearance and presumed death of Bardstown mother Crystal Rogers continued in a packed Warren County courtroom Wednesday morning.
Jury selection for the nearly decade-old case concluded on Tuesday, narrowing the 132 person field to 15 members and three alternates.
Brooks Houck, a former boyfriend of Rogers, and Joseph Lawson are facing that jury at the same time. Houck is charged with Rogers’ murder and Lawson is charged with conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence.
Joseph Lawson’s father, Steve Lawson, was found guilty of the same charges as his son in late May.
Opening statements - The Commonwealth
Wednesday morning, the Commonwealth and defense gave opening statements and gathered testimony from the Commonwealth’s first four witnesses.
In the Commonwealth’s opening statement, prosecutor Jim Lesousky began by acknowledging that much of the case is built on circumstantial evidence that his team believes points to Houck’s guilt.
“One of the most important assets you will bring into this courtroom is your God-given common sense,” Lesousky told jurors.
Lesousky began by alleging that Houck did not work alone in his alleged plot to kill Rogers. He said that Houck’s mother, Rosemary, approached Danny Singleton with a request to look for somebody to get rid of Rogers.
Singleton reportedly said he has, “enough money to get rid of anything.”
Lesousky said that Singleton is listed as a witness and will likely testify in the coming days.
On July 3, Lesousky said Houck called Rogers with plans for a surprise kid-free romantic date night for the couple. Instead, Rogers and Houck, with then two-year-old Eli Houck in tow, visited the Houck family farm owned by Rosemary.
“They get to the farm around 7:30, and you’ll hear that in evidence. Now, they’re at the farm, and what we know about what goes on there comes from several sources, several important sources,” Lesousky said.
The prosecution continuously said Rogers always had her phone with her. However, evidence shows that her phone turned off, and presumably died, at 9:27 p.m.
“What we believe happens is she disappears there and dies,” he continued.
A timeline supported by surveillance video throughout Bardstown places Brooks Houck at the family farm between the hours of 7:30 p.m. on July 3 and just after midnight on July 4.
Lesousky says that cell phone logs recorded a 13-second phone call to Houck from Steve Lawson at 12:07 a.m. Immediately after that call, the prosecution says cell phone towers pinged Lawson’s location driving toward the 14 mile marker on the Bluegrass Parkway - the same location where Rogers’ vehicle would be found on July 5.
“Joey Lawson and Steve Lawson moved that car. Why did they move it? Common sense will tell you they moved it to get rid of Crystal,” Lesousky said.
Surveillance footage shows Houck entering the parking lot of a campsite at My Old Kentucky Home State Park around 12:15 a.m. July 4.
Later that day, Brooks Houck said that he woke to find Crystal missing. He claims it wasn’t abnormal behavior for her to disappear without warning, and did not report her missing despite her not answering her phone.
But prosecutor Jim Lesousky told jurors her family knew something was wrong.
“They’re scared to death. Crystal has her children with her all the time. She has her cell phone with her all the time,” Lesousky said.
Rogers' mother, Sherry Ballard, reported her missing.
The maroon Chevy was discovered with a flat tire, facing in the direction of Elizabethtown on the Bluegrass Parkway. Rogers’ purse, cell phone, and keys were all inside the vehicle.
On July 8, then-Nelson County Sheriff’s Office detective Jon Snow asked Houck about the 13-second phone call from Steve Lawson. Houck claimed not to recognize the phone number, and said the call was regarding questions about rental properties.
Rogers managed all of those properties, and Houck told Lawson he would need to get in touch with Rogers to answer those questions. However, Houck also claimed that Rogers was in the car with him at the time of that phone call.
He also previously claimed that he does not answer the phone late at night.
On July 9, the prosecution says that Rosemary Houck conspired with Nick Houck, then a Bardstown Police officer, and Danny Singleton to get rid of Rogers’ body.
It was later discovered that Nick Houck’s cell phone was turned off in the hours that Rogers and Houck were at the family farm.
A recorded conversation with Rosemary Houck includes her concerns about potential evidence found on a blanket in the back of Nick Houck’s police cruiser. The blanket was later tested and no evidence was found.
In that same recording, Rosemary says, “She won’t be around anymore. We’ll raise him up right,” referring to Houck and Rogers’ son, Eli.
Opening statements - Houck’s defense
The defense team began their statement with the belief that mounting pressure in the early days of the investigation led to undue speculation of Brooks Houck. Steve Schroering, a defense attorney on Houck’s team, argued that independent investigations from Rogers’ family, a group known as “Team Crystal,” various true crime podcasts, social media and “Facebook detectives” brought intense pressure on Houck. With that much scrutiny, the defense said, it’s natural that assumptions would be made.
“This pressure eventually caused the facts and truths we look for in the justice system to be replaced by judgments, suspicions and beliefs,” Schroering said.
He stressed that in the early stages of the investigation, Houck was very cooperative with law enforcement.
Schroering said that cooperation came, “despite knowledge that Brooks Houck was the target and focus of this investigation.”
They maintain that despite more than 70 searches of Houck’s family farm, surrounding properties, lakes and ponds, Houck’s family’s homes, his rental properties, multiple phones, and Rogers’ vehicle, no credible evidence has been located.
“There was no evidence of any kind of cause for her death,” the attorney said.
He claims national pressure caused mistakes to happen in the investigation, including the 2015 leak of Brooks Houck’s initial interview with police, as well as true crime podcasts and a 2018 mini-series on the case released by Oxygen Network.
In 2019, lead detective Jon Snow retired from the Nelson County Sheriff’s Office and the investigation was taken over by the FBI. The defense claims that despite the increased resources, more than six years later, they still have not discovered Rogers’ body, a murder weapon, or a credible witness to any harm inflicted on Rogers. They say that Houck’s status as a suspect is based on assumptions, suspicion, and theories.
The team said that many of the claims made by the Commonwealth stem from statements taken out of context, and throughout the trial, they intend to reveal that context.
They say that many supposed witnesses who were re-interviewed in recent years received thinly-veiled threats from law enforcement to help them close the case. They mentioned Steve Lawson’s girlfriend, who was interviewed by the FBI in 2020.
“You’ll see desperation when they question her further. They tell her, ‘your life is pretty good - it can stay that way if you tell us what you know,’” the defense said.
They say she told a story under pressure, then later backtracked on her story.
They also refuted the claim that Steve and Joseph Lawson moved Rogers’ car after her disappearance.
According to the defense, Steve Lawson's ex-girlfriend stole their co-owned vehicle while Steve was in a bar. She then hid the car along Boston Road, a path that runs parallel to the Bluegrass Parkway where Rogers’ car was found.
They claim that Lawson’s phone pinged at that location because he and Joseph Lawson went to retrieve the car.
They also went after multiple points of forensic evidence found in Rogers’ vehicle, including unidentifiable fingerprints and a palm print on the rear-view mirror that did not match Lawson or Houck.
The defense’s statement ended with the argument that the 13-second phone call was simply to add Steve Lawson to Houck’s contact list, claiming that the prosecution’s “lynchpin” was wrong.
Commonwealth’s witness one - Kyleigh Fenwick.
Following opening statements, the Commonwealth called their first witness to the stand - Crystal Rogers’ oldest daughter, Kyleigh Fenwick.
Fenwick was 14-years-old at the time of Rogers’ disappearance, and remembers that she and her mother were exceptionally close.
“We were really close. She was like my best friend, and I was always with her,” Fenwick said.
She recalled that before her younger brother, Eli, was born, she remembers that Brooks Houck was a kind and stable father figure for her and her siblings. Though none of them were related by blood, she felt that Houck cared for her.
“It was good, he was nice. He taught me how to deal cards, and he even talked about adopting me,” she said.
When her mother became pregnant with her younger brother, Eli, the family moved in with Houck.
She said things changed after Eli was born. Houck wanted Eli to have his own bedroom, and because of that, she and her sister were moved to the home’s unfinished basement. She remembers centipedes crawling on the wall while she laid in bed.
On July 4, 2015, she remembered calling Rogers to check in with her before going to a friend’s house. She said that she talked to her mother all day, every day, and that it was unusual that Rogers didn’t pick up her phone.
When Rogers didn’t answer, she texted Houck, who did not respond to multiple texts and calls from the teenager.
She went to the friend’s house, then remembers going home to pick up a dress for church the next morning. She said the house was dark, and when she went to her mother’s room, Houck jumped out of the bed, appearing startled. He told her that Rogers was out with her friend, Sabrina.
Fenwick learned the next day that her mother was missing.
The defense waived their right to cross-examine Fenwick, and she was dismissed.
Commonwealth’s witness two - Christina Holly
Rogers and Christina Holly were reportedly friends for many years, and Holly testified that she knew Houck as “Uncle Brooks” because he was best friends with her older cousin’s husband.
She recalled having conversations with Houck before Eli was born, asking him what kind of father he wanted to be. She also noted that Houck and Rogers were going through a rough patch, and asked him who would have custody of Eli if the two separated.
She testified saying, “It’s hard to get a child away from a mother.”
She said he replied, “Well, I have enough money to do it.”
The Commonwealth asked Holly if Houck and Rogers ever appeared in public as a couple, and she said that the two did not go out in public together, largely due to Rosemary Houck’s feelings about Rogers.
She said that Rosemary would say cruel things about Rogers’ hair, and that she looked down on her for having four kids before meeting Houck.
She recalls Houck saying, “Mama don’t like that.”
Holly testified she saw Rogers the day she disappeared. The two had planned a play date at Chuck E. Cheese, but Rogers rescheduled when Houck asked her on their romantic kid-free date that evening. Holly said that Rogers was excited for the evening, but that Houck had not given specifics about where their date would be.
In their cross-examination, the defense pointed out that at the time of the conversation, Holly was detoxing from recreational use of pills.
Commonwealth’s witness three - Amanda Greenwell
Greenwell is Rogers’ second cousin and close friend. The two frequently babysat each other’s children, and lived together on several occasions, though Greenwell said that after Eli was born, she only saw him two to three times.
Greenwell saw Rogers at Walmart the day that she disappeared. She recalled Rogers being excited for her romantic date with Houck later that evening, and the two planned for Rogers to help plan Greenwell’s daughter’s upcoming birthday party in August. Rogers planned to make the one-year-old new clothes and help decorate for the party.
The defense cross-examined, asking if any plans were mentioned for childcare during Houck and Rogers’ date. Greenwell said no such plans were made.
Commonwealth’s witness four - Detective Jon Snow
In the final, and most lengthy witness testimony of the day, former Nelson County Sheriff’s Office detective Jon Snow recounted the first days of the investigation that would later consume the remainder of his career.
While Snow retired in 2019, he still works heavily on the case, and was the first of many investigators involved in 2015.
He remembered being called in on his day off on July 5, 2015, for a missing person’s report. Rogers’ disappearance was already logged in NCIC, a nationwide law enforcement database for missing or wanted persons. He went straight to Rogers’ vehicle, where her family was waiting with other law enforcement officials.
The Commonwealth submitted several forms of evidence, including photos of the vehicle on the road and after it had been towed to a storage facility, as well as a video of Snow’s first interview with Houck.
In that video, Houck told Snow that it was Rogers’ idea to go to the farm so that Eli could meet new cows there. There was no mention of a kids-free date.
It was brought up several times throughout the proceedings that on July 3, 2015, it rained all day in Bardstown. Surveillance footage from various times and locations confirmed it, and it was mentioned that it was odd to plan a date on a farm feeding cows in the rain for four hours.
In the video, Houck said that they left the farm around 11:30 p.m. that night. There was no mention of Steve Lawson’s call at 12:07 a.m. Surveillance footage captured Houck’s truck leaving the farm and going toward their home just after midnight.
Houck said that when they got home, he went straight to bed. He said that Rogers always stayed up later than him, and woke up later in the day, and would typically play games on her phone on the couch until she and Eli were ready to go to bed.
Rogers’ phone was dead at that time, and had been since 9:27 p.m.
In the interview, he said he woke up around 6:45 a.m. to find only Eli with him in the bed. They typically shared the bed with the two-year-old.
When he realized that Rogers wasn’t there, he tried to call her phone, but it went straight to voicemail. He said he didn’t report her missing because he said it’s not an abnormal occurrence for Rogers to disappear.
“She’s done this four or five times, just never for this period. She’s usually with Sabrina or her sister, but it’s never been a prolonged period,” Houck said in the interview.
When asked if Rogers’ normally leaves before Houck is awake in those instances, Houck said there isn’t a pattern to her behavior.
Houck then asked Snow, “What have you all found out? I know you found the car, but what can you tell me?”
Snow told Houck that Rogers’ keys, purse, and phone were all found in the car, which concerned them.
“Most women wouldn’t leave their purse in the car, but most women also wouldn’t up and leave her children in the middle of the night,” Snow said.
Snow said he and investigators have no verification that Rogers ever made it home that night.
The Commonwealth introduced several pieces of evidence, including surveillance video showing Houck going to the family farm around 4 p.m., then returning to pick up Rogers, then going back to the farm with her and Eli. Houck’s cell phone location places him at the farm for the majority of the day, something he did not tell Snow in their initial interview.
Nelson Circuit Judge Charles Simms adjourned court before excusing Snow, saying that the next piece of evidence will be a roughly hour and a half video from the Commonwealth.
Jurors will return to the courtroom at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday.
