Houck trial Day 9: Closing arguments complete; deliberations begin Tuesday
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Monday, July 7, 2025 — The attorneys defending Brooks Houck and Joseph “Joey” Lawson made their closing arguments today in Warren Circuit Court.
BROOKS HOUCK DEFENSE. Brooks Houck’s defense team made it clear they never believed Houck was guilty of murder.
The Commonwealth is throwing everything they can in an attempt to convict Houck, defense attorney Brian Butlers said, but they have yet to prove him guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
LACK OF EVIDENCE. Despite the numerous search warrants approved in the past 10 years in the Crystal Rogers investigation, none has resulted in evidence to prove a murder was committed. There’s been no murder weapon, no crime scene, no DNA or blood evidence.
The overpowering goal of investigators has soley been “to get Brooks Houck.”
Butler cited some of the Commonweath’s witnesses were coerced during interviews with the Kentucky State Police to reach deals that could help them with legal situations in their personal lives.
The defense team brought in their own paid witnesses to dispute the findings of the Commonwealth’s experts on cell phone forensics and discredit the cadaver dog that detected human remains on a white Buick LeSabre formerly owned by Anna Whitesides, Houck’s grandmother.
“They’re thowing everything at the wall to see what sticks,” Butler said of the prosecutors.
He suggested that perhaps Crystal Rogers placed her own car at the 14 mile marker on the Bluegrass Parkway.
“The truth is that Brooks Houck is not guilty,’ he said. “And they know it.”
LAWSON’S DEFENSE. Joey Lawson’s team argued that unlike his father — who faced the same charges at his own trial in May — Joey did not meet the criteria for conspiracy to commit murder or tampering with evidence.
Defense attorneys said that Lawson had spent more time with Brooks Houck during the trial than he ever did in real life, and that they conspired to result in the murder of Crystal Rogers.
The argued that investigators coerced witnesses into making the statements they wanted them to make in order to charge Lawson with a crime.
The also pointed at the sometimes contradictory cellphone data placed Lawson on Boston Road rather than the Bluegrass Parkway.
PROSECUTORS RESPOND. Special prosecutor Shane Young credited the defense team for their hard work to poke holes in the Commonwealths case against Brooks Houck, citing Houck’s own statements as some of the most damning evidence.
“His version of events is a lie,” he said. “All of it is a lie.”
He noted that the entire Houck family conspired to make certain the stories they told a Nelson County Grand Jury matched. The family purchasd four digital audio recorders so each individual could record their grand jury testimony.
“It wasn’t because the family was paranoid,” Young said. “It was all about making sure they had their stories straight.”
On the night of July 3, 2015, Brooks Houck promised a special date night for Crystal Rogers — just the two of them, with other people watching her children.
“It was a date she never returned from,” Young concluded.
-30-
