Chrystul Kizer was sentenced to 11 years in a Wisconsin state prison after she pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless homicide in the killing of a man who she said trafficked her as a teenager.
Court records show that Kizer, 24, was sentenced Monday to 11 years followed by five years of supervised release. She must submit a DNA sample to authorities and attend a restitution hearing later.
Kizer pleaded guilty to reckless homicide in May, ensuring she would not have to go to trial and avoiding the risk of a potential life sentence.
One of her public defenders did not immediately respond to a voicemail message seeking comment Monday.
Kizer was 17 years old when she was accused of killing Randall Volar III in 2018 before setting his body on fire. She was initially charged with first-degree intentional homicide, but she argued she was legally allowed to kill him because he was sexually trafficking her.
Kizer was 16 when she met Volar and alleges that he had sexually abused her multiple times. The prosecutor’s office has confirmed it was working on a case against Volar at the time of his death.
But prosecutors also said Kizer didn’t give any indication at the time of the killing that she was trafficked by Volar.
She said in a 2019 interview with The Washington Post that on June 4, 2018, she went to Volar's home with a gun in her purse that she said her boyfriend gave her for protection.
Kizer alleged that while she was there, Volar gave her a drug and the two decided to watch a movie. They began to fight after Volar began touching her and she refused to have sex with her, she alleged.
She alleged in her interview with the Post that he pinned her before she shot him twice. She then set Volar's body on fire and fled in his car.
“I just thought that I didn’t want to do that stuff anymore because I was trying to change,” she said.
Kenosha District Attorney Michael D. Graveley accused Kizer of premeditated murder, alleging she planned to steal Volar's BMW, according to NBC affiliate WTMJ of Milwaukee.
She had a legal victory in 2022 when the state Supreme Court upheld a ruling that she could argue she acted in self-defense under a state law that allows victims of trafficking to present “an affirmative defense for any offense committed as a direct result” of being trafficked.
Kizer was released from prison in February on a $400,000 bond when she fled the state, violating the conditions of her bail. She was caught two weeks later in Louisiana and was returned to Wisconsin.
Graveley told reporters after her sentencing that he was happy in the sense that the case had finally been closed without the unpredictability of a trial, according to WTMJ.
“I guess on some level I’m happy, but you know what I want to have happen is for people who are related to Mr. Volar and the people who care about Chrystul Kizer to all get closure at this point,” he said.