LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The three suspects charged in the death of Crystal Rogers appeared in court on Thursday.
The Bardstown mother of five vanished in 2015 and has been presumed dead for the last eight years.
At the end of 2023, Brooks Houck, Rogers' former boyfriend, was charged with murder and tampering with physical evidence in connection to her disappearance. Father and son Steve and Joseph Lawson were charged with conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence.
All three men are currently expected to have their trials begin Feb. 10, although that could change depending on several factors. Houck's attorney has also made it clear he does not want his client tried with the Lawsons.
In an interview with WHAS11, Louisville attorney Nick Mudd said he doubts that the case will start next February.
"You think there's an end in sight, but I'm going to tell you there's probably not. A, you have a complex case. B, you have three co-defendants. You have three men charged, multiple sets of attorneys," Mudd said. "You have 1.1 terabytes of data. That is a huge amount of evidence."
Mudd said the largest homicide case he's had a try was "maybe" 0.2 terabytes.
"This is over five times that," he explained. "It's going to take months and hundreds of hours to go through all that information."
Mudd said Houck's attorney's will "absolutely" file an objection to the trial date.
"There are going to be motions filed on the evidence. Any good lawyer like Brian Butler is going to file those motions to exclude evidence, suppress evidence, keep certain things out and keep certain things from getting in front of a jury. As that develops, strategy will change and trial dates will change."
Mudd said usually prosecutors and judges like to try defendants together and the primary reason for that is judicial economy.
"You don't want to have witnesses get on the stand three different times," he said. "They may possibly say three different things. Maybe not intentionally, but things happen. You're going to have a prosecutor and three sets of attorneys asking questions. So if there is a trial and it doesn't get severed, we're in for a long trial."
Mudd said the trial will certainly be a lengthy affair.
"You get one witness up and that attorney goes for an hour. The next attorney goes for an hour," he said. "You can see where this is going."
Another status hearing will take place on March 21 at 1 p.m.
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