Houck trial Day 6: Cadaver dog ‘hits’ on Houck grandmother’s white Buick
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Tuesday, July 1, 2025 — During testimony on Day 6 of the Brooks Houck murder trial, a search and rescue expert testified that his dog — trained in locating live humans and human remains — hit on the rear trunk area of a white Buick LeSabre previously owned by Houck’s grandmother, Anna Whitesides.
The Buick had been located at a Louisville car dealership, seized by investigators in May 2016 and taken to the LMPD forensics lab for processing.
As reported yesterday, the LMPD lab recovered a number of hairs from the trunk of the car, including at least one that microscopically resembled a sample of Crystal Rogers’ hair.
MORE REVELATIONS IN THE TRIAL
BLAME FOR CRYSTAL’S MURDER. Barbara Coulter, Stephen Lawson’s mother, testified Tuesday that in the summer of 2022, Joseph Lawson, her grandson, came to her house on a motorcycle while apparently high on drugs.
Coulter said Joseph Lawson needed to tell her something about his father, Stephen Lawson.
She told jurors that her grandson told her that Stephen Lawson was the person who killed Crystal Rogers.
Coulter was afraid for her grandson’s safety operating a motorcycle high on drugs, and offered to give him a ride. He refused and left her house.
CASH TO MOVE CAR. Rebecca Greer, the ex-wife of Stephen Lawson, testified that in 2019, she overheard Joseph Lawson, her stepson, mention in a conversation about getting paid $50,000 to move a car.
She later asked him about the statement, and he confirmed it was true.
She testifed also that in 2022, Stephen Lawson and Joseph Lawson had an argument that turned into a physical fight. As the two men fought, Joseph Lawson threatened his father that he would “tell everybody about the car,” referring to his father’s role in moving Crystal Rogers’ car.
CRYSTAL’S CELLPHONE EXAMINED. Joshua Higdon, a cellphone forensics analyst, testified that on the evening of July 3, 2015, the night Crystal Rogers disappeared, her phone had been on and in use from 7:39 p.m. until 9:23 p.m., when he said the battery apparently went dead.
He testified the phone was powered on again briefly at 11:57 p.m. that evening before it was purposely shut down.
MOTIONS DENIED. Brooks Houck’s defense team filed a motion for a directed verdict because the prosecutors had failed to provide sufficient evidence to support the charges of murder and tampering with evidence against Brooks Houck.
Defense attorneys argued that the testimony and evidence presented against Houck failed to provide three important things needed for a murder conviction — a body, a crime scene or a confession of a crime.
The defense told Nelson Circuit Judge Charles Simms III that prosecutors can speculate about a crime, but it isn’t proof one was committed.
Special Prosecutor Shane Young responded by pointing to their client, Brooks Houck as a witness that a crime was indeed committed — the murder of Crystal Rogers.
Young ran down a long list of lies that Houck told investigators during every part of the investigation into Rogers’ disappearance. On Houck’s written list of his things he did on July 3, 2019, the prosecutors brought in witnesses who testified they never saw Houck at all that day.
The list was nothing but a list of lies, Young told the judge.
Joseph Lawson’s defense team argued that prosecutors had not yet met the burden of proof on the charges of conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with evidence. They asked the court to acquit Lawson on both counts.
Judge Charles Simms III denied both motions and advised prosecutors will begin to present their case against Joseph Lawson the first thing Wednesday morning.
NEXT UP. The seventh day of the trial begins at 8:30 a.m. Central time Wednesday in Courtroom D on the fourth floor of the Warren County Justice Center.
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