Ten years after Crystal Rogers went missing, her daughter, Tori Rogers, spoke for the family about the impact of her disappearance and the faint hopes they hold out for her.

“I still hope we find her, maybe not the way we want to, but we will,” 21-year-old Tori Rogers said Friday while testifying during the sentencing phase of Steven Lawson’s trial in Warren County Justice Center.

A jury of nine women and three men found Lawson, 54, guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence, recommending a 17-year prison sentence.

The jury deliberated for a bit more than two hours before returning its verdict Friday afternoon.

This was the first conviction obtained by prosecutors in connection with the disappearance of Crystal Rogers, a Bardstown mother of five who was 35 when she was last seen July 3, 2015.

Her car was found abandoned on the Bluegrass Parkway two days later.

She has not been seen since and is presumed dead.

Lawson admitted to taking his son, Joseph Lawson, to where the car was located in Nelson County so Joseph could move it late on the night of July 3, 2015, and to picking up his son along the parkway when the car broke down.

Steven Lawson also conceded to moving the driver’s seat forward, which prosecutors said was done to make it appear as though Rogers was the last person to drive the car.

Tori Rogers said that in the time since her mother disappeared, it has not gotten easier for her family to weather the loss and contend with unanswered questions.

At the trial, Tori Rogers lamented that her mother would not be there for her upcoming wedding or for other significant milestones she and her siblings will experience.

“She was the kind of person when she smiled, everyone else smiled,” Tori Rogers said of her mother.

The crimes were charged in Nelson County, but significant pretrial publicity forced the jury trial to take place in Warren County.

Over the span of four days, jurors heard evidence that Lawson was approached by Brooks Houck, Crystal Rogers’ then-boyfriend who employed Lawson in the construction of rental properties, at a job site and that Houck told Lawson he wanted Rogers “gone.”

Lawson testified that, while he interpreted that to mean that Houck wanted Rogers dead, he laughed off the statement.

Rogers’ disappearance was investigated by the Nelson County Sheriff’s Department, who learned that Houck received a phone call from Lawson shortly after midnight on July 4, 2015.

Evidence showed that Lawson called Houck less than 10 minutes after receiving a call from his son asking him to pick him up from the parkway.

Lawson gave conflicting stories to authorities over the years about the phone call with Houck, initially denying it took place and then claiming that the call had to do with finding a house for his stepdaughter to rent.

After being indicted in 2023, Lawson testified to a special grand jury that he phoned Houck to tell him “the job was done,” meaning that the car had been moved.

Lawson’s defense team of attorneys Darren Wolff and Zach Buckler attempted to make the case that the evidence was not sufficient to prove a conspiracy to commit murder, namely that with no evidence of Rogers’ whereabouts there could be no proof a murder actually took place.

During the penalty phase of the trial, Wolff argued for mercy and asked the jury to impose a 10-year sentence, the minimum allowed under the law for Lawson.

Lawson’s mother, Barbara Colter, testified during both the proof and penalty phases of the trial.

Colter said during the first phase of the trial that if she confronted her son and suspected him of lying, he would get irritable and would attempt to change the subject when questioned.

Jurors this week heard a portion of a recorded phone call from last year in which Colter told an incarcerated Lawson that he should have gone to law enforcement with what he knew.

During the penalty phase, Colter spoke of having sympathy for Rogers’ mother, Sherry Ballard, and of having mixed emotions about her son’s circumstances.

“Sherry has had to dig, scratch and pull to try to find answers and if I was (Crystal Rogers’) mom I’d do the same thing. I empathize with her and she has my compassion,” Colter said. “I look at Steven and I question him because I didn’t raise my son to be involved in anything like that.”

A team of special prosecutors, including attorneys Shane Young and Jim Lesousky, argued the case against Lawson.

Lesousky said during his closing argument Friday that cell phone records and trial testimony proved Lawson’s guilt.

“All the evidence for the motives and actions of Steve Lawson point in one single direction and that is he participated intentionally and at the request of Brooks Houck in that evil undertaking,” Lesousky said.

During the penalty phase, Young gave a fiery speech calling for the jury to recommend a 25-year sentence, the maximum allowed for Lawson.

“He let this family suffer, he stuck a knife in them and he twisted it over and over, he was going to let the family sit out here in agony for years,” Young said Friday. “Don’t buy into sympathy for him. Give him everything you can, because he did not give a diddle about them.”

Lawson will be formally sentenced Aug. 6 in Nelson County.

Joseph Lawson and Houck are scheduled to be tried together in Warren County beginning June 27.

Houck is charged with complicity to murder and tampering with physical evidence, while Joseph Lawson is charged with conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence.