Judge Denies Laurel Five Killer's Guilty Plea Appeal

By Mike Perleberg David Ison was convicted of the Laurel Five murders in 2012 and sentenced to life in prison without parole. File photo. (Franklin County, Ind.) – The wish of southeast Indiana’s most notorious killer to have his guilty plea overturned won’t be granted. David Ison was the gunman in the Laurel Five murders. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 2012 after pleading guilty to the shootings of Roy and Angela Napier, their two adult children Melissa and Jake Napier, and neighbor Henry X. Smith in a disagreement with Roy Napier over the price of prescription pills. Ison had motioned for post-conviction relief in a civil lawsuit against the State of Indiana filed in Franklin County Circuit Court in 2014. On Friday, Judge J. Steven Cox denied the murder convict’s petition. Although he was accompanied by attorney Mark Jones, Ison acted as his own attorney during a June 27 court hearing which lasted three hours, the Brookville American-Democrat reports. Cox denied multiple motions by Jones to withdraw as Ison’s attorney. Ison tried to convince the judge that his guilty plea was invalid on three grounds. The first was that he had been illegally charged because the traffic stop in which he was arrested a few days after the murder was illegal and his constitutional rights were violated. Second, Ison stated he was threatened with the death penalty when it wasn’t a possibility and made an invalid guilty plea due to mental illness. Lastly, he objected to aggravating factors used in rendering his life without parole sentence. In Cox’s order of denial, the judge stated that Ison never raised issues with the legality of the evidence against him and that statements that he was mentally ill were inconsistent with the record of the criminal case. Cox said the state could have sought the death penalty against Ison because the murders were committed in the course of committing other crimes, namely robbery. The judge declined to address any of Ison’s other arguments regarding ineffective counsel, the definition of “infamous”, and whether his charges should have been heard by a grand jury. According to the American-Democrat, Cox warned Ison that if his plea were to be overturned, he could eventually take his case to trial, but there would be the possibility of receiving the death penalty if convicted Ison had appealed his guilty plea conviction to the Indiana Court of Appeals in 2015. However, he motioned last February to have the appeal dismissed and remanded to the county court. The appellate court granted Ison’s request on March 4. RELATED STORIES: “Laurel Five” Killer’s Girlfriend Sentenced To 20 Years “Life Over Death”: Ison Receives Life In Prison