Background: The Breathitt County Justice Center in Jackson, Ky. (Google Maps). Inset (left): Fairley Napier (Kentucky River Regional Jail). Inset (right): Joanie Campbell-Smith (Deaton Funeral Home).
A Kentucky man murdered the mother of his children and told one of them he got tired of "looking at her."
Fairley Napier, 49, was found guilty by a jury on April 1 of murder, abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence, and criminal mischief in connection with the January 2024 death of 45-year-old Joanie Campbell-Smith, his former common-law wife. Campbell-Smith was reported missing on Jan. 4, 2024, and Napier was the last person to see her alive. The former couple shared two children, including a daughter, who told Kentucky State Police troopers that her father told her he killed her mother because "he had gotten tired of seeing her lying in the log yard and looking at her."
Campbell-Smith's charred remains were found two days later inside a burned vehicle that matched the description of a vehicle she was known to drive. The vehicle was found on property that belonged to Napier, who turned himself in to police on Jan. 7, 2024.
According to courtroom reporting by The Jackson-Breathitt County Times Voice, Napier testified that he "grew up" with Campbell-Smith, and they were in an on-again, off-again relationship from 1994 to 2022. He told the court that he and Campbell-Smith met at a Jiffy Mart to have a conversation before heading to another parking lot. According to Napier, Campbell-Smith purportedly asked him to break a window in her vehicle so she had an excuse to drive a Chevy Tahoe that she bought with her new husband.
Napier testified that the last time he saw Campbell-Smith was at the Jiffy Mart.
Prosecutors, however, had evidence that pointed to a different story. The Commonwealth's Attorney General Miranda King told the court that Napier shot Campbell-Smith at the second location, the parking lot. He bought a mattock — a sharp tool used to loosen up soil — to break into the vehicle after the doors became locked.
Napier then drove the vehicle to its final location, where he dismembered and mutilated Campbell-Smith's body with the mattock inside the vehicle before setting it on fire. Investigators said they found body tissue belonging to Campbell-Smith all around the scene, including on logging equipment known to belong to Napier.
After the former couple's daughter told Napier that she could not get hold of her mother, Napier offered to help find her.
King told the court that Napier's motive to kill Campbell-Smith was jealousy that she remarried, even though Napier was also seeing someone new. According to courtroom testimony, Napier's new girlfriend showed him pictures of Campbell-Smith with her new husband. King said Campbell-Smith and her husband tried to keep the marriage a secret from Napier because they knew it would make him angry.
In the days after Campbell-Smith went missing, Napier changed vehicles four times and purchased a burner phone. Napier, who told people he was "in a bad frame of mind" after being accused of a crime, eventually admitted to killing Campbell-Smith to a friend and then to his daughter.
In the phone call to his daughter, Napier confessed to burning the dead body of his former common-law wife after saying "he had gotten tired of seeing her lying in the log yard and looking at her."
Napier and his defense attorney rejected a plea deal in February. On April 1, he was convicted of murder, abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence, and criminal mischief. The jury recommended concurrent sentences that added up to a total of 45 years in prison.
The sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 8.
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