LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Steve Lawson said in a jail phone conversation that he and his son, Joseph, picked up Crystal Rogers' vehicle in the Woodlawn subdivision when she disappeared in 2015, the same place investigators searched for her body in recent years, according to court records.
A motion filed Tuesday by Brian Butler, an attorney for Brooks Houck, revealed the information came from a jail phone call to his mother and contradicts what Lawson told investigators about his involvement in the Rogers murder case.
At the time, Lawson told investigators, Houck was working on construction of a house in the Woodlawn subdivision. In 2021, the FBI was in Bardstown in the subdivision digging up a driveway. Nothing was found.
Lawson also told a Nelson County grand jury last year that he called Houck at 12:07 a.m. July 4, 2015, and told him "that the job of moving Crystal Rogers' car was done." That also contradicts what Lawson had previously told investigators about that phone call.
In addition, Lawson told the grand jury that Houck told him he "wanted his wife gone." Lawson responded, according to the motion, that Houck was "looking at the wrong person."
Houck then asked if Lawson could "point him in the direction" of someone who could kill Rogers.
These details came out in a motion filed Tuesday by Butler arguing against trying the Lawsons and Houck together instead of separately. Butler argued that Steve Lawson "fabricated the entire story" of what happened after Rogers disappeared in 2015 after being threatened, coerced and promised immunity by investigators.
Rogers was last seen with her boyfriend, Houck, during the Fourth of July weekend in 2015. Her car was left running on the side of Bluegrass Parkway with her purse still inside. She's presumed dead, but her body was never found.
Steve Lawson has told police he dropped his son off at Bluegrass Feed & Seed to pick up Rogers' vehicle. His attorney, Ted Lavit, has said his only involvement was to pick up his son where the vehicle broke down on the interstate and remove a miniature Louisville slugger bat that was inside.
Asked about the jail phone call, Lavit said it conflicts with what his client told police and he doesn't know how much validity the call has and in what context it was said.
"I don't know if that's what he meant or whether it needs explanation, I have no idea," Lavit said in an interview. "My client has always maintained that he had nothing to do with moving that car."
Lavit does acknowledge that Steve Lawson told the grand jury that Houck said to him that he wanted his wife gone "or words to that affect."
Butler is arguing that prosecutors want jurors to hear statements to the grand jury from Steve Lawson and the jail phone call without knowing that he was threatened, promised immunity and fed information by investigators.
If all three men are tried together, Butler argues, it is doubtful Steve Lawson will testify, meaning Houck's defense will be unable to question him about the multiple contradictions in his statements.
"Brooks loses the opportunity to cross-examine (Steve Lawson) and expose the lies he was coerced into telling law enforcement," Butler wrote, arguing it is a violation of his Sixth Amendment right to confront the witnesses against him.
If Houck is tried separately, none of the statements provided to investigators by the Lawsons would be able to be used, Butler noted.
What jurors will not hear if they are tried together, Butler argues, are the hours of interrogation of Steve Lawson, including when investigators suggested they "take a smoke break so S. Lawson can 'jog his memory.'" The smoke break with investigators lasted more than an hour and wasn't recorded, Butler said.
After the smoke break, Butler claims, is when Steve Lawson gave the "clearest version" of the conversation he had with Houck about wanting Rogers killed. Before that, his story was filled with inconsistencies, Butler said.
They jury also wouldn't hear that Lawson initially told investigation the purpose of his phone call to Houck was work related, about rental property.
He later told police he thought his son was just going to steal Rogers' car and that's what he meant when he said "the job is done," according to a transcript of a 2023 interview in the motion filed Tuesday.
"In sum, a joint trial absolutely confuses the issues about what evidence is admissible against whom, misleads the jury about what it can properly consider as evidence of guilt, and will inevitably make this trial substantially longer," Butler wrote.
Butler declined to comment on Tuesday.
Prosecutors have argued the men should stand trial together because they are facing the same charges and allegedly worked with each other.
Prosecutor Shane Young previously asked a judge to join the cases into one trial given they are alleged to have "acted in concert to accomplish the murder of Crystal Rodgers and to dispose of evidence which would conceal the murder."
Young said the facts and evidence in each case will be the same, and trying them together will give a jury the "full picture" of what happened to Rogers.
Young declined to comment for this story.
Lavit, Steve Lawson's attorney, has said he will be objecting as well, saying it is prejudicial to his client to use evidence that pertains to Houck or his son, Joseph. He also said his client was promised immunity and threatened by investigators.
Joseph Lawson, 32, pleaded not guilty in September to criminal conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence in the Rogers case. He is not charged with Rogers' murder, but prosecutors instead charged him with conspiracy, meaning they believe he was involved in some fashion with whoever killed Rogers.
The maximum sentence for the conspiracy charge is 10-20 years in prison.
Steve Lawson, according to a Dec. 6 Nelson County indictment, agreed to "aid one or more persons in the planning or commission" of the death of another and then "destroyed, mutilated, concealed, removed" or altered physical evidence on July 3 or July 4, 2015, when Rogers disappeared.
Houck's indictment accused him of "acting alone or in complicity with another" committing the offense of murder of Rogers. He's also charged with tampering when he "destroyed, mutilated, concealed, removed or altered" physical evidence, according to the indictment.
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