Pal-Item: Death penalty not sought against accused Laurel murderer

A Glenwood man charged with five counts of murder will not face the death penalty.

David Ison, 46, could spend his life in prison without parole if he’s found guilty in the Sept. 25 shooting deaths of four members of the Napier family and their Laurel neighbor, Henry X. Smith.

Franklin County Prosecutor Melvin Wilhelm today filed the life-in-prison-without-parole charge in Franklin Circuit Court as the sixth charge against Ison.

Wilhelm had considered filing death penalty charges against Ison and presented the case in October to the Capital Litigation Committee of the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council for its evaluation.

A decision also is expected today from Franklin Circuit Court Judge Steven Cox on the location of Ison’s trial. Cox granted a change of venue motion in November for the trial because of the amount of publicity the quintuple murder case had received.

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