BLOG: Day 2 of Steven Lawson trial wraps up after multiple witness testimonies
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WAVE) - The first trial in the presumed murder of Crystal Rogers is underway in Warren County and officials say it could possibly wrap by the end of the week as the prosecution continues to make their arguments.
WAVE Legal Expert Leland Hulbert said the focus will be on the conspiracy charge. The defense already conceded that Steven Lawson tampered with evidence. The biggest hurdle for the prosecution will be the fact that Crystal Rogers’ body has never been found, despite several searches.
11:00 a.m.
Detective Jon Snow’s testimony continues from the first day. Most of Wednesday’s testimony revolves around the contents of Steven Lawson’s phone and Crystal Rogers’ car.
Snow said Rogers’ car was processed for evidence in a secured storage area and not at the scene. Hairs were collected from the car that were sent to Kentucky State Police. Nelson County opted for comparative analysis instead of DNA testing, because they were told the DNA testing could destroy the evidence.
Not all of the items were removed from the car and it was given back to the Ballard family two months after she was reported missing. The Oxygen Network had someone process the car in 2017 and found Rogers’ hairbrush in the car. Snow was asked if that brush could have been tested for additional evidence, he said yes, but he didn’t have the evidence.
Snow said investigators were looking into Lawson’s phone in 2015, which is the year Rogers disappeared. He also said he believes Lawson knew Rogers was dead when he interviewed him.
Snow was asked if there could be other suspects in the case who haven’t been charged and brought up Nick Houck. Snow said he believes he is still being investigated.
Prosecutors brought up that they believe Nick and Rosemary Houck may have been involved. Nick is the brother of Brooks Houck, another suspect in the case and Rosemary is their mother.
Nick called his brother during a police interview on July 5, 2015 and told him to stop talking to investigators. He also failed a polygraph. He was fired from the Bardstown Police Department for his involvement in the investigation shortly after.
In Oct. 2023, the special prosecutor revealed Nick may have had something to do with the murder of Tommy Ballard, Crystal Rogers’ father.
Other witnesses called include Lauren Hardin, Lawson’s step-daughter and former neighbor and Elizabeth Chesser, who has a child with Steven’s son Joseph and whose mother dated Steven.
Hardin said she never instructed Lawson to call Brooks Houck about renting an apartment, which is why Lawson claims he called on the last night Rogers was seen alive. She admitted she was addicted to painkillers back then, but she maintains her same story.
Chesser’s testimony was paused when she told the jury Steven was planning on leaving her mother because she knew he had committed murder. The defense objected to that and approached the bench. That’s when the trial took a break.
12:00 p.m.
Court resumed with the continuation of Chesser’s testimony.
Chesser said Joseph Lawson admitted to moving the car and said “no evidence, no case,” which she took to mean that there was no body left of Rogers. She said she didn’t tell anyone about that admission, including the police, until the FBI started talking with her in 2019.
Chesser testified that Steven Lawson admitted to her in Aug. 2017 that he had committed murder when talking about leaving his deceased-wife, but he did not specify the victim.
The defense questioned how she came to know Steve Lawson was in question in the investigation was through a documentary that played the call between he and Houck during a police interview.
The defense questioned her motivations in testifying, asking if she felt some sense of loyalty to Sherry Ballard. She said no. She did say that she hugged Sherry in the hallway during a break. Sherry thanked her for her testimony, she replied that she hopes it would bring her some peace. Defense attorney Daren Wolff was taken aback by that comment.
He asked that she be retained under sequester as a witness, which means she is subject to being called back to the stand during trial for further testimony.
12:30 p.m.
Charlie Girdley was the sixth witness called to the stand. He worked for Brooks Houck as a carpenter in 2015 and met Joseph Lawson on a worksite and met Steven shortly thereafter. He also met Rogers on a worksite and Rosemary a few times.
Girdley said that Steven said Brooks wanted Steven to “get rid of his old lady” and Steven told Brooks to talk to Girdley.
Girdley said he, Steven and Joseph went to a bar together and did dope.
Girdley said that Steven told him he needed to work on Rogers’ car brakes and rotors.
Law enforcement talked to Girdley in 2015, but he didn’t talk to them because he said he didn’t want to get involved. In 2023, KSP arrested him for not checking up with his parole officer and he was taken to Hardin County. That’s where he started being asked about the Crystal Rogers case.
Girdley said that Steven never mentioned Crystal by name when talking about getting rid of the old lady. He also admitted to being on cocaine, met and alcohol when the “getting rid of his old lady” statement happened, and through 2023.
Court is now on break until 1:00 p.m. CT.
3:00 p.m.
Tim O’Daniel was the seventh witness called to the stand. He has worked for LMPD’s First Division since 2010, formerly as a missing persons and homicide detective. Now he works in the Digital Forensics Unit he created in 2021.
O’Daniel focuses on cellular analysis, which is described as seeing which cell tower a phone was using during a specific time. He has testified in 20 cases on cellular analysis and said cellphone carriers keep a record of anytime data is used, like with texts and calls, and which tower is used to help give a user’s general location.
O’Daniel started talking about his findings, going through a list of incoming and outgoing calls from Lawson’s phone ranging from July 3 to July 4, 2015. During the early hours of July 4, 2015, O’Daniel said Lawson’s phone was using towers headed towards Bluegrass Parkway and Rogers’ car, with a call from Houck later showing that Lawson was near the Bardstown exit of Bluegrass Parkway.
The calls show Lawson traveling from east to west near Bluegrass Parkway after midnight, then to Thompsonville Road near Rogers’ car.
The defense then began questioning O’Daniel, asking that some data tries to find the best signal and not necessarily the closest tower. O’Daniel agreed that this is true.
The jury asked O’Daniel if Lawson’s phone traveled to Rogers’ car. O’Daniel said that he cannot confirm that, but that the phone was in the general area.
The jury also asked where the phone was in relation to the car because one slide showed areas away from Bluegrass Parkway. O’Daniel said that it was a rural area and the phone could have been bouncing around different towers to find a signal. The Commonwealth then asked if that meant Lawson was not on the parkway, to which O’Daniel answered no.
4:15 p.m.
Melissa Dover was the 9th person called to the stand. She works at the Elizabethtown Police Department as a crime intelligence analyst, taking data to make it easier to understand.
Dover was given data on Lawson and was asked to look at phone records in the stand. She said there were a number of deleted calls between Lawson, his son, Tammy (his deceased wife), and Houck just within the first week of July.
These calls begin around 11 p.m. on July 3, the last day Crystal was seen alive, and end on July 8. Notably, the last call was between Lawson and Houck and was the only call deleted on that day.
5:00 p.m.
The 10th and final witness of the day was Shannon Burba, who works with the Hardin County Commonwealth’s Attorney. She was appointed to Lawson’s grand jury case and had made copies of the grand jury testimonies.
Multiple recordings of Lawson’s grand juries were played back. The recording from May 10, 2023, shows Lawson telling the jury when he had met Rogers before, seeing her with a baby and with Houck. Lawson said Houck was mad at him about a job, but called him to let him know it was fixed. This call happened on July 3. Lawson said he saw Rogers that day.
The grand jury testimony from June 14, 2023, was played next. It shows Lawson confirming that there was a call on July 4 about moving Rogers’ car and that the job was done.
The grand jury testimony from Sept. 2023 shows that Steven, Joseph, Girdley and Houck were at a job site. Brooks had asked Steven if he could help move Rogers’ car. Steven said Joseph and Houck left and Joseph came back with a few hundred dollars. Steven said the relationship between Houck and Rogers was not well when asked to describe it. Lawson also said that there was a conversation where Houck wanted to know if he could help “get rid of a woman.” Lawson said to ask Girdley instead.
The testimony also shows that Steven took Joseph to get Rogers’ car and admitted to pulling the driver’s seat up to make it look like Rogers was driving. He then said he dropped Joseph off and went home. Steven admitted to calling Houck afterward to tell him the car was moved.
Lawson said that Houck had set up a code word, so if he called him, to know to talk about renting a property. Lawson said he didn’t come forward sooner so he wouldn’t be implicated in the crime.
The trial is set to resume Thursday at 8:30 a.m. with a few more witnesses.
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