Shootout suspect's girlfriend charged

BROOKVILLE, Ind. (AP) - A woman sent a text message to set up a drug deal that resulted in five people being fatally shot in southeastern Indiana, prosecutors say.

Franklin County Prosecutor Mel Wilhelm said Thursday that a charge of conspiracy to deal a controlled substance filed last week against Amanda Napier was related to the September 2011 slayings in Laurel. Her boyfriend, David Ison, was convicted on murder charges in the case.

• SPECIAL SECTION | Track ongoing coverage of the killings in Laurel

Documents filed last week in the circuit court in Brookville allege the 35-year-old Napier borrowed a cellphone belonging to Ison's mother to arrange an oxycodone purchase for her boyfriend. Ison allegedly told investigators that Napier sent the text because he wasn't very good at texting.

Ison, 47, pleaded guilty in February to murdering Roy Napier, 50; Napier's estranged wife, Angela, 47; their children Melissa Napier, 23, and Jacob Napier, 18; and neighbor Henry X. Smith, 43. The victims' bodies were found in or around Roy Napier's home in Laurel, a rural community about 50 miles southeast of Indianapolis.

Ison is serving a prison sentence of life without parole.

Prosecutors say Ison was upset that Roy Napier had raised the price of oxycodone pills he was selling because Medicaid was no longer going to pay for Napier's prescription.

Amanda Napier also faces charges of conspiracy to commit armed robbery related to the couple's alleged plan to rob a Batesville drugstore. She could face six to 20 years in prison on each count.

Wilhelm said Napier did not have an attorney. Her whereabouts Thursday were not immediately clear. A Franklin County jail officer said she was not being held in the jail in Brookville, and she was not listed as an inmate on the Indiana Department of Corrections website.