Wisconsin Woman Awaiting Trial for Killing Her Rapist as Teen Is Arrested in Louisiana

The 2018 murder case – set to go to trial this summer – has already become a landmark case for ever-evolving child sex trafficking legal precedent

When law enforcement arrived at the crime scene, they found a burned male body with two bullet wounds in his head. The man’s BMW had been stolen from the driveway of his Kenosha, Wis., ranch home.

In the early morning hours after the shooting, a 17-year-old girl posted a selfie to Facebook, with the man’s curtains behind her, captioning the photo: “My Mug Shot,” per an expose by The Washington Post that compiled numerous court documents and reported interviews from the years-long case.

As law enforcement’s homicide investigation continued, they learned that the dead man – Randall “Randy” Phillip Volar III, 34 – had been in their custody just three months before, charged with child sexual assault among other crimes, The Post reported. Then, inexplicably, law enforcement had let the man go — without posting bail, according to the paper's reporting.

During Volar’s brief period of freedom, police learned he had been preying on about a dozen underage Black girls, per The Post. Law enforcement’s investigative file on Volar at the time he was alive noted that he had “hundreds” of child sex videos with girls as young as 12, per The Post, which noted that more than 20 “home videos” included Volar, who is White, specifically with underage Black girls.

Related: Wis. Teen Faces Life in Prison for Killing Man Who Allegedly Raped Her and Sold Her for Sex

Still, the Kenosha County District Attorney’s Office did not prosecute him and Volar remained free.

And then on June 5, 2018, Volar allegedly touched the 17-year-old girl’s leg, and that girl – who had allegedly been groomed and sexually abused by him while being filmed and trafficked out to other men for his financial gain – “had gotten upset and she was tired of [him] touching her,” per law enforcement records quoted in a 2021 appeals decision, which was reviewed by PEOPLE.

That victim, Chrystul Kizer, eventually confessed to killing Volar. To date, she does not contest to shooting and killing the man and has said that her idea to set a fire in the home came from an episode of Criminal Minds, per The Associated Press and The Post.

Kizer's defense lawyer argues that the frightened young girl killed her alleged abuser as a “direct result” of the human trafficking to which she was allegedly subjugated, per 2022 appeals documents reviewed by PEOPLE, which holds that Wisconsin's affirmative defense law enables such an argument to be made.

It is the first time the state’s affirmative defense law had been used as a defense in court, The Post reported.

Kizer – who at 17 was charged with the murder case as an adult, per The Post – was charged with first-degree intentional homicide, operating a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent, arson, possession of a firearm by a felon and bail jumping, per the appeals documents. (Kizer had previously been charged in a separate case for driving a stolen car. Volar had paid her $400 bond, per The Post.)

The same district attorney's office that had delayed Volar's prosecution, quickly charged the child with the intentional homicide, which in Wisconsin carries a mandatory life sentence, per The Post.

PEOPLE does not usually name people who identify as victims of sexual assault. However, Kizer came forward with her Post interview, and as news of her case spread, she has become a known figure in child sex trafficking cases with complicated self-defense arguments.

When her case first hit the docket, #MeToo was in its infancy. In years since, landmark cases like R&B singer R. Kelly’s 2021 conviction has shed light on how young women like Kizer can be targeted and groomed– even when from the outside it would appear they have the choice to stay or to go.

“He was a grown-up, and I wasn’t,” Kizer told The Post in a 2019 interview, explaining why she had continued to see Volar as he sold her off to different men and collected her payments. “So I listened.”

In a landmark 2022 opinion, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin ruled that Kizer could potentially be acquitted of all charges because her crimes were a “direct result” of the trafficking crimes committed against her, per The Post.

Kizer is now 23 – and, following her release after posting a $400,000 bail provided by activists – she is now once again back behind bars, accused of violating her bail based on a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct in a domestic violence case this January, the AP reports.

After almost two weeks on the run, Kizer was arrested some 1,000 miles from her Wisconsin home Monday, per her online incarceration records, which note that she was taken into custody at Lafayette Parish Correctional Center in Lafayette, La.

Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Valerie R. Ponseti told PEOPLE in an email Wednesday afternoon that "no local charges" have been filed.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

In her 2019 Post interview, Kizer did not shy away from the complications in her case.

“Both of us,” were victims she said of herself and the alleged abuser she killed. “Because of the stuff that he was doing to me. And, that he should have never died.”

Kizer's murder trial is reportedly set for June 10.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.