Nineteen year old Chrystul Kizer was released from prison on Monday after a Chicago-based aid organization raised $400,000 to post her bond. Kizer had served two years of a life sentence for killing the man who was sexually abusing her and forcing her into trafficking. 

The man she killed, Randall Volar, was under investigation by police in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, for child trafficking and possession of child pornography at the time of his death. 

Kizer maintains that she killed Volar in self defense. When Kizer first met Volar, she was 17. She posted an ad on Backpage.com because she needed money for school supplies and snacks. 

For over a year, Volar, who was 33 at the time, would give her gifts and money in exchange for sexual acts.

It escalated from there when Volar told her to have sex with older men in hotels and hand the money over to him. 

He was arrested in February of 2018 but was released without bail, even though authorities discovered he’d abused at least a dozen other girls and many of them were on video. 

Kizer told The Post that her current boyfriend was suspicious of Volar, so he bought her a gun and encouraged her to keep it with her at all times. 

One night, she came over to Volar's house and drugged her before trying to engage her by touching her leg.. When she resisted, Volar told her she owed him.

Volar continued to pin her down and Kizer said she doesn’t remember grabbing the pistol, but shot him twice in the head. In a panic, she set his house on fire and fled in his car. 

A few days later she turned herself in, and despite Volar’s previous charges, District Attorney Michael Graveley charged Kizer and argued that it was a premeditated act to steal Volar’s BMW.

Chicago Community Bail Fund wrote on their bail fund, 

“Far too often, survivors of violence—especially Black women and girls—are punished for defending themselves. Instead of being given care and support from the beginning, she has been wrongfully incarcerated for nearly two years now for choosing to survive,” wrote the Chicago Community Bail Fund on their support page for Kizer.