Woman Connected To Laurel Five Slayings Arrested

By Mike Perleberg

Amanda Napier

file photo

(Brookville, Ind.) - A woman associated with one of southeast Indiana’s worst criminal cases ever is back behind bars.

In September of 2011, David Ison committed the “Laurel Five” murders in western Franklin County. The slayings of Roy Napier, wife Angela Napier, daughter Melissa Napier, son Jacob Napier, and family friend Henry Smith garnered national media attention.

Ison was sentenced in 2012 to life in prison without parole after pleading guilty to the murder charges.

With Ison on the day of the murders was his girlfriend, Amanda Napier. She waited in a car parked up the road when Ison went to buy the drugs from Roy Napier. Ison gunned down the five victims when he found out that the price of the pills had been raised from $10 a piece to $12.

Amanda Napier, 36, shared a last name with the victims, but was not related to them.

Napier was arrested along with Ison in the days following the murders. She was driving a car as the two were on their way to allegedly commit a robbery at a drug store in Batesville.

It wasn’t her first time associated with Ison in crimes he committed. Ison told Indiana State Police investigators that Amanda Napier had been the getaway driver in robberies he committed at drug stores in Osgood and Greensburg, as well as a bank in Oxford, Ohio.

Napier was charged October 16, 2012 in Franklin County with Conspiracy to Commit Armed Robbery (Class B felony) and Conspiracy to Deal in a Schedule II Controlled Substance (Class B felony).

The Brookville American-Democrat newspaper reports Napier was arrested in Butler County, Ohio on September 17. She was brought to Franklin County and booked into jail there on September 18, according to jail records.

Napier has entered a plea of not guilty, court records show. An omnibus hearing is set for October 23 and a pretrial conference for November 21.

Napier is also wanted in Ripley County. She was sentenced to probation after pleading to a charge of Conspiracy to Commit Robbery (Class C felony) in Ripley County in June 2012. The charge stemmed from the robbery at the drug store in Osgood. An outstanding warrant was issued for a probation violation charge this past January.

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