The fourth day of the trial for Brooks Houck and Joseph Lawson brought new digital forensic evidence and witness testimony of the Lawsons’ alleged plot to get rid of Crystal Rogers body.
Proceedings began with a final witness related to Houck’s statement about where he was on July 3, 2015. Robin Mills is a civil engineer in Bardstown, and Houck’s statement said that he was supposed to meet with her about a subdivision he owned. She said she never met with Houck that day, and that she was at a family weekend at Morehead State University.
Next to take the stand was a builder for Houck, Ashley Nalley. She framed houses for Houck’s construction business and has known Rogers since childhood.
“We didn’t always get along, she just wasn’t my cup of tea,” she said.
However, Nalley also said Rogers was never seen without her son, Eli, and that she was an amazing mother.
Commonwealth’s attorney Shane Young asked if there was ever a time that she saw Rogers angry at Houck.
“There was a time where I asked why Brooks didn’t leave Crystal because of all the fighting and arguing, and he said, ‘Because I don’t want to lose Eli.’”
The defense cross examined Nalley, saying that in a 2021 interview with the FBI, she admitted to having memory problems due to drug use.
They also said that Nalley called Rogers a drunk and a drug addict.
“That doesn’t have any bearing on her ability as a good mother,” Nalley said.
Heather Snellen
Heather Snellen is a former girlfriend of Steve Lawson. In 2014, the two purchased a Chrysler 300 together, and after breaking up, the two were in an ongoing feud over who had ownership. Snellen maintained the vehicle and made regular payments on it. It was in her possession, and she testified that Lawson stole it from her in early 2015.
On July 3, 2015, the same day that Roger’s disappeared, Snellen left work early, around 10 p.m. She saw the Chrysler at the 62 South bar in Bardstown. She had her keys with her and took the vehicle back, then dropped it off at her then-boyfriend’s grandparent’s house along Boston Road, parallel to the Bluegrass Parkway where Rogers’ vehicle was located.
The next day, she cleaned the Chrysler out. She found used needles, tourniquets, soiled clothing, a blanket and a baseball bat.
The car was stolen again soon after.
Snellen’s interviews
Snellen reconnected with Lawson on July 4, 2017, two years after Rogers’ disappearance.
She said at that time, she had been using methamphetamine with Lawson, and they were supplied through his son, Joseph.
She was at their home, in the basement, doing laundry.
“I overheard them talking about moving a body on the Houck farm,” Snellen said during Friday’s testimony.
This was the first time that Joseph Lawson’s name has been brought up in connection to Rogers’ disappearance.
Snellen did not mention that conversation in her first four interviews with law enforcement, including interviews with the FBI and Kentucky State Police.
She said that at the time, she did not want to go to the police because drugs were her main priority.
Defense cross-examines Snellen
Lawson’s defense continued to lean on Houck’s attorneys for an intense cross-examination of Snellen.
They recounted her first interview with FBI agents in 2021, when she only told agents her story about the shared vehicle with Lawson. The same story was told in her second interview with agents in 2022. They pointed out that she, again, withheld the information in her third interview, this time with Kentucky State Police in August, 2023.
“I honestly don’t know anything other than what I’m telling you about my car,” she said in the interview.
At that time, KSP officers told her to call them if she had any more information. On September 20, 2023, she took them up on that offer and voluntarily went in for an interview.
She told Officer Miller about texts that Joseph Lawson had sent her in 2015, where he was supposedly trying to figure out where he had been between July 3-4.
Miller insisted that Snellen knew more than she was saying and threatened her with felony charges for withholding the information to that point.
In a transcript from that interview, Miller said, “Your life is pretty good. It can stay that way if you tell us everything you know.”
Snellen said at the time, she had quit using meth because she wanted to focus on raising her son. In a video of the interview, she can be seen wearing a “Boy Mom” shirt. At the time, she was involved in an investigation from child protective services. Throughout the four hour interview, Miller threatened Snellen with that investigation multiple times.
“You know more. You need to reflect on if you want to be the one to raise your child.”
“I don’t know anything else,” Snellen said, more than an hour into the interview.
She repeatedly told Miller that she did not recall anything related to the case.
“Well when people say they don’t recall anything, that means they’re lying,” Miller said.
He continued, “When you come off of it, then you get to go home to your son.”
The defense claims that Snellen was under intense pressure and coercion from police when she told them that she overheard the Lawsons plotting to get rid of Rogers’ body.
After she told Miller about the conversation, the interview continued for another three hours.
Snellen testified that Miller banged on the table and screamed at her, sending her into a panic attack. When Miller asked her why she didn’t bring up the conversation in earlier interviews, she said that the Lawsons are “always high, drunk, and big bullsh—rs.”
At this point in the interview, another KSP officer named Luckett enters the room.
He told Snellen, “I don’t care if you pulled the trigger to kill Crystal Rogers, you’re not going to jail today.”
“As long as you tell us what we want to hear, nothing is going to happen to you,” she was told.
Miller continued to threaten Snellen throughout the interview.
“You remember that little boy when you’re talking to us. I can hear that little boy, he loves you. Enough little boys are without their moms,” a KSP detective told her.
She was released from the interview after being told, “If we find out anything else, you’re going to be prosecuted.”
On October 27, 2023, Snellen sent a written statement to Kentucky State Police.
“I hope it’s clear within my statement that I don’t know anything. I felt as if I was being pressured to say things that were untruthful,” she wrote in the statement.
On the stand, she maintained that she heard the Lawsons discussing plans to get rid of Rogers’ body on the Houck family farm.
Expert testimony
Tim O’Daniel took the stand as an expert witness on digital forensics and Cell Detail Record (CDR) evidence.
A detective with Louisville Metro Police Department and the founder of the department’s digital forensics unit, he was brought onto the Rogers investigation by Kentucky State Police in 2022.
He presented detailed records that he said likely place both Steve and Joseph Lawson on the Bluegrass Parkway as they allegedly moved Rogers’ vehicle.
The defense argued at length that several cell phone towers in the area placed Steve Lawson on Boston Road, a roadway parallel to the Bluegrass Parkway.
They say that his presence on Boston Road, and a series of phone calls to Capital One just after midnight, show that he was traveling to steal back the Chrysler from Heather Snellen. Capital One was the financier of the Chrysler.
Houck’s defense produced cell tower records obtained through a search warrant from the FBI that show that Joseph Lawson’s phone did not strike any nearby cell towers.
O’Daniel said those records are not definitive based on several factors.
“This search warrant was drafted and executed in 2018. That’s three years after. Data falls off after certain periods of time, typically a year to a year and a half,” O’Daniel said.
The defense maintained that Steve and Joseph Lawson were not on the Bluegrass Parkway the night of July 3.
That’s despite Steve Lawson’s admission to being on the Bluegrass Parkway to move Rogers’ car. That admission of guilt has not been brought up during the trial for Joseph Lawson and Brooks Houck.
Houck’s whereabouts
Using a combination of CDR and Google location records, O’Daniel produced a map of where Houck traveled on July 3, 2015. While CDR records narrow a phone’s location to a general location, he said that Google location services pinpoint that location within a 19 meter margin of error. Google location services could not be used to track the locations of Steve and Joseph Lawson.
According to those records, Houck left his home on Glenview Drive and arrived at the Houck family farm at 9:30 a.m. Records show he stayed there until 4:00 p.m.
When he left the farm, he traveled north to a lumber and home center in Bardstown. At 4:42 p.m., he drove back to his home on Glenview Drive.
Records show he stayed there until 7:05 p.m.
At 7:24 p.m., O’Daniel said Houck went back to the farm, this time with Rogers. Houck’s phone location showed that he briefly left the farm between 7:30 and 8 p.m., then returned. Houck’s defense said earlier in the trial that was when he and Crystal intended to go to Tractor Supply Company, but turned around because they believed it to be closed.
Houck’s phone stayed on the 200-acre property until 11:57 p.m. O’Daniel said there was a larger margin of error there due to how rural the property is, but they examined enough to know that Houck did not travel on the road that he indicated in his statement.
In that same statement, Houck did not say that he was on the farm before 7:30 p.m.
At 11:58 p.m., records show that Houck left the farm and traveled north to a campground at My Old Kentucky Home State Park. At 12:07 a.m., while in the parking lot of the campground, he received the phone call from Steve Lawson.
Following the phone call, Houck left the campground and arrived at his home on Glenview Drive at 12:19 a.m.
He remained there for the rest of the night.
O’Daniel said that from 11:50 p.m. on July 2 to the morning of July 4, Nick Houck’s phone was powered off. In the Commonwealth’s opening statement on Wednesday, they indicated that as a police officer, he was expected to be available for calls at all times.
O’Daniel was excused, but was told he is subject to recall for the remainder of the trial.
A concerned neighbor
Following a brief recess, Mary Beth Mattingly took the stand. She lived across the street from Rogers and Houck, and considered Rogers to be a good friend. They regularly babysat each other’s children and Mattingly said they spoke every day.
She testified that she woke up early on July 4, 2015 and saw that Rogers’ car was missing. She said that Rogers did not normally wake up early, and that she found it suspicious.
Commonwealth’s attorney Shane Young asked Mattingly if she ever saw Nick or Rosemary Houck at the house. She said she had never seen them there before Rogers went missing, but in the days and weeks after July 3, they were there almost every day.
She testified that she witnessed Rosemary Houck pull into the driveway, followed by Nick Houck’s police cruiser. She said she watched as they loaded four large white bags in Rosemary’s car, then quickly drove away.
Final witness
William Gunther, a former Bardstown Lowes employee, was sworn in as the final witness for the day. He testified that he saw Rogers’ vehicle on the side of the Bluegrass Parkway when he left his shift at Lowes just after 10 p.m. on July 3.
“There was a vehicle off of the right hand shoulder as I was coming down the Bluegrass, and it had its flashers on,” Gunther said.
He said there was nobody around the vehicle, so he did not stop to help.
He testified that on July 5, he was traveling on the Bluegrass Parkway again and saw the same vehicle, this time surrounded by law enforcement.
He gave a statement to police on July 16, 2015, after he saw an article about Rogers’ disappearance.
Court will reconvene Monday morning at 8:30 a.m.