Grandma's car in the woods leads to Facebook post, odd sale
Day five of the Brooks House and Joey Lawson trial
Much of the testimony in day five of the trial of Brooks Houck and Joey Lawson for the conspiracy and murder of Crystal Rogers focused on a white car that coon hunters happened across on a rainy night on July 3, 2015. A former employee of Houck’s was also called to the stand and claimed the family had mentioned murdering Crystal.
In the witness box
Among those who testified Monday were:
Amber Bowman, the ex-girlfriend of Nick Houck, Brooks’ brother who is a former Bardstown Police officer and named unindicted co-conspirator
Charlie Girdley, a construction worker who had worked for Brooks as a framer and who was allegedly recommended to Brooks as someone who might kill Rogers for him.
Melissa Dover, an Elizabethtown Police crime intelligence analyst who testified about calls placed between the Houck family on July 3 and 4 of 2015.
Detective Jamie Brooks, who started assisting with the case in 2016 while he was with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office a part of an IRS task force.
Two coon hunters who were on a farm bordering the Houck family farm and happened upon a white Buick in the middle of the woods.
Two people who testified they saw Rogers’ car on the side of the Bluegrass Parkway with other vehicles around it. One said she saw a Chevy Silverado with a trailer and another mentioned seeing a white car.
A Louisville car dealership sales manager who recounted Nick with his grandmother selling the car and acting odd.
Car in the woods rouses hunters’ curiosity
Daniel Donahue and Ryan Cecil were part of a trio coon hunting on a farm that borders the Houck family farm the night of July 3, 2015, when they came upon a white Buick.
It was sometime around 10 p.m. on a “rainy, nasty, disgusting night,” as Cecil described it, when they saw the car on a primitive road in the woods, which “seemed odd” to them, he said.
After news of Rogers’ disappearance broke, one of the men told Casey Ballard about it and the tip was passed along to police. Police were dealing with hundreds of tips at the time, and the Buick tip went largely unexplored until Detective Jamie Brooks, who was helping out with the case, came across it while reviewing some files and mentioned it to Tommy Ballard, Rogers’s dad.
Here’s what happened next:
April 28, 2016: Tommy posts to Facebook asking the community if anyone has information about a white Buick that might have been in the area the night of July 3, 2015.
May 1: Detective Brooks receives a call from Tommy that he has information that Anna Whitesides, Brooks’ and Nick’s grandmother, owns a white Buick
May 2: Nick takes his grandma to Louisville and sells her white Buick LeSabre.
May 4: Police execute a search warrant on Whitesides’ home. Detective Brooks notices a car in her garage with temporary plates. The plates list the dealership where it was purchased.
Detective Brooks immediately drives to the dealership, where he locates the Buick and evidence that Nick and his grandma sold the car.
Police learn Nick tried to sell the car to another dealership earlier. The same manager at that dealership testified Monday that he refused the trade-in because Nick would not allow him to inspect the trunk.
Police seize the vehicle and take it to Louisville Metro Police, where it is processed by forensic technicians.
The car produced little in the way of evidence. Several hairs were recovered, including one in the trunk that the police lab determined microscopically similar to Rogers, but it was not suitable for DNA testing.
Girdley relates comments about Rogers, details of July 3
Charlie Girdley, the former Brooks Houck employee who also testified at last month’s trial of Steve Lawson, took the stand again on Monday. Girdley told police he was approached by Steve Lawson to “get rid” of Rogers, and that he had declined.
Girdley testified he was with the Lawsons on July 3, and had witnessed Brooks give Rogers’ keys to Joey. He also detailed the day of “drinking and drugging” as he moved around town getting paid, buying dope and going to a party.
At one point Girdley said Joey told him about Rogers:
“He said he would pull her teeth and the hogs would do the rest.”
Defense attorneys pulled much of Girdley’s previous statements apart in front of the jury.
Girdley was interviewed several times as part of the investigation. But it wasn’t until he was picked up for absconding on his parole in June 2023 that he gave many of the details that he testified to on Monday.
The defense painted a portrait for the jury of a man facing two years in prison who was pulled into a four-hour interrogation and gave an evolving and at times conflicting story. Girdley said he had been up for four or five days on meth before the interrogation.
During the recorded interrogation, a Kentucky State Police detective told Girdley: “We need you to be on our team.”
Girdley also, during the interrogation, cast doubt on Joey Lawson’s credibility as to his previous alleged statements of involvement with Rogers’ murder.
“Joey’s known for making shit up,’ Girdley told investigators. “If Joey’s lips are moving, he is lying.”
On the stand, Girdley grew visibly irritated with the defense attorneys, who goaded him further.
“He always wanted to make himself look like he was some kind of bad ass,” Girdley said Monday.
“He wasn’t though, was he?” the defense lawyer asked.
“No.” Girdley replied.