11-year sentence for Milwaukee woman who killed her sex trafficker draws outrage

A Milwaukee woman has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for killing a man accused of sex trafficking her, drawing criticism from victim advocates and comparisons to similar cases.

Chrystul Kizer, 24, pleaded guilty in May to reckless homicide in the June 2018 death of 34-year-old Randall Volar in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Kizer was 17 at the time.

In sentencing Kizer on Monday, Kenosha County Judge David Wilk said that "the court is well aware of your circumstances surrounding your relationship with Mr. Volar."

“You are not permitted to be the instrument of his reckoning," he said. "To hold otherwise is to endorse a descent into lawlessness and chaos.”

Before sentencing, Kizer quoted the Book of Genesis and Psalms and asked for mercy.

“I don’t know where to start, but I’m asking for your generosity in my sentence today," she said. "I understand that I committed sins that put the Volar family in a lot of pain."

Here's what you need to know about the case.

What was Chrystul Kizer found guilty of?

Kizer’s defense attorney, Jennifer Bias, said Volar contacted Kizer at the age of 16 after she posted an ad on a forum for prostitution. Kizer had turned to the site because Bias said she needed food to feed her siblings. At the time Kizer and Volar met, he had already been under investigation by the Kenosha Police Department for sexual conduct with underage girls as young as 12.

Police found evidence he was abusing multiple underage Black girls. In February 2018, he was arrested and charged, and released without bail. In June 2018, when Kizer was 17, she shot and killed Volar, set his Kenosha house on fire and fled in his BMW.

The legal case against Kizer began that month and involved a 2022 decision that she could pursue immunity through a sex trafficking defense. A Wisconsin law adopted in 2008 provides an affirmative defense for victims of human and child sex trafficking to “any offense committed as a direct result" of those crimes, even if no one was ever prosecuted for the trafficking.

Volar had filmed himself sexually abusing Kizer multiple times, according to the Washington Post, citing Kenosha County prosecutors and public defenders.

Ultimately, Kizer did not pursue a trial in the case. If she had, she could have faced a possible life sentence. Instead, she pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree reckless homicide.

'Like history was repeating itself.'

Claudine O’Leary, an independent sexual trafficking survivor consultant who worked with Kizer and attended the sentencing hearing, said she was saddened by the judge's decision.

“They’re getting from the court system ... ‘My life doesn’t matter if I defend myself, I have to be prepared to go to prison,’” O'Leary said. “There’s just a profound lack of understanding of the kind of harm that people actually experience.”

Kizer's case echoes that of Cyntoia Brown-Long, who was 16 when she killed 43-year-old Johnny Michael Allen on Aug. 6, 2004, in the parking lot of a Sonic Drive-In in Nashville, Tennessee. Allen had been trafficking Brown-Long, who was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of robbery and murder in his death.

The sentence drew harsh criticism from celebrities including Kim Kardashian and Rihanna and in January 2019, a judge commuted Brown-Long's punishment to 15 years plus 10 years of supervised parole. She was released from prison on Aug. 7, 2019.

In an interview with BuzzFeed News' AM to DM in 2020, Brown-Long detailed the similarities between her and Kizer's cases and said it seemed "like history was repeating itself."

"Here was yet another situation where there was a young girl caught up with some unfortunate circumstances, who reacted out of trauma," Brown-Long told the outlet. "And the justice system wasn't necessarily trying to hear that, trying to see that."

Social media reacts to Chrystul Kizer's sentencing

Reaction to Monday's sentencing of Kizer heavily came down on her side. Here are some of the reactions: