Steven Lawson has filed for a new trial less than a week after a Warren County jury found him guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence in connection to the disappearance of Crystal Rogers in 2015.
In the motion, Lawson’s defense team cited eight reasons for requesting a new trial, saying that the court failed to provide jury instructions that accurately reflected Kentucky law in relation to the conspiracy to commit murder charge.
The testimony of witness Elizabeth Chesser was also brought up in the motion. Court took a recess during her testimony after she said that Lawson told her his ex-wife left him because she knew “he committed murder.” The defense called this testimony “inflammatory.”
Upon return from the recess, Chesser was asked if she discussed the case with any witnesses and she said that she had just talked with Rogers’ mother, Sherry Ballard, in the restroom and that Chesser “prayed it would bring Ms. Ballard peace.”
The motion also cited the presence of the “Team Crystal” movement and a number of people in the gallery wearing pink, a color that represents the movement. The defense argued that, regardless of if the jury knew about the significance of the color, or if it swayed them in one direction or the other, it was a violation of the court’s order to not wear any clothing expressing a message related to the case.
The motion also argues that the less than a year the defense had was not adequate time to prepare for the trial. That was a claim they argued prior to the start of the trial, citing the 400,000 pages of written documents and the hundreds of hours of audio and video recording that was included in discovery.
The defense also mentioned the exclusion of testing additional hairs found in Rogers’ car violated Lawson’s rights.
Source: WBKO
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