NATHANIEL KNOX - 4 yo (2009) - Stanford (SSW of Lexington) KY

The murder trial of Jason Napier set to begin next week in Lincoln
Circuit Court has been postponed after scheduling conflicts prevented
attorneys from attending a hearing Tuesday.
Judge David Tapp will set a new trial date on April 8.
Napier has pleaded not guilty in the July 2009 beating death of 4-year-old
Nathaniel Knox. Nathaniel’s mother, Jessica Noble, already has pleaded
guilty and is expected to be the key prosecution witness at Napier’s trial.
Several earlier defense motions were to be discussed Tuesday in
preparation for the trial, which was to begin Monday.
Napier’s attorneys have asked that Noble’s psychiatric, medical and social
services records pertaining to her children be allowed during the trial
in order to impeach her testimony.
They also requested access to the
personnel file of former Lincoln County Deputy Rob Oney, who was the
lead investigator on Nathaniel’s death.
Oney is being investigated by
Kentucky State Police concerning the disappearance of funds from a
Waynesburg youth basketball program of which Oney was president. He was
dismissed by Sheriff Curt Folger last month.
Tapp has not yet ruled on those motions.

http://www.centralkynews.com/amnews/news/local/amn-murder-trial-postponed-in-childs-death-20110323,0,6319943.story

Lincoln County Mother Sentenced In Death Of Four-Year-Old Son



Posted: Aug 13, 2010


A Lincoln County mother who pleaded guilty in connection to the death of her son was sentenced to 15 years in prison in the case Friday.

Jessica Noble pleaded guilty back in July to second-degree criminal abuse and second-degree manslaughter in the death of her four-year-old son, Nathaniel Knox. Investigators say Noble took the boy to the UK Hospital emergency room after the coroner says he suffered blunt force trauma to the head. Nathaniel died five days later.

Noble's boyfriend, Jason Napier, is also facing charges in the case. He's due in court next February.

http://www.lex18.com/news/lincoln-county-mother-sentenced-in-death-of-four-year-old-son

10-CR-00001-002 LINCOLN

COMMONWEALTH VS. NAPIER, JASON Scheduled Events JURY TRIAL 8/29/2011 09:00 AM C

http://apps.courts.ky.gov/CourtRecords/Results.aspx

COMMONWEALTH VS. NAPIER, JASON
Scheduled Events
JURY TRIAL 9/6/2011 09:00 AM C

http://apps.courts.ky.gov/CourtRecords/Results.aspx

Murder trial begins in child's death

11:30 a.m. EDT, September 7, 2011

STANFORD — In his opening statements Tuesday, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney David Dalton made it clear he faces a difficult challenge in trying to convince jurors that Jason Napier beat 4-year-old Nathaniel Knox to death in 2009.
“We’re wearing our faults on our sleeve,” Dalton told jurors in Lincoln Circuit Court.
The prosecution’s “faults” are its two key witnesses: former Lincoln County Deputy Sheriff Rob Oney, the lead investigator into Nathaniel’s murder who was fired for stealing funds from a youth basketball league, and Jessica Noble, the boy’s drug-addicted mother, who already has pleaded guilty in the case and is serving 15 years in prison.
Dalton spent much of his opening statements tearing down his own witnesses before defense attorney Steve Romines had a chance. Dalton called Oney “a disgrace to the uniform.” Of Noble, he said “I wouldn’t let her watch my dog.”
The prosecutor asked jurors to look beyond the flawed witnesses and “focus in on the facts,” which he said will show Napier is responsible for the brutal end to Nathaniel’s short life.
“This was not a household accident, this was a baby boy’s skull being beaten in,” Dalton said. “The child’s wound was so severe he stayed where he laid. He got hit so hard he was down and out.”
Romines used his opening statement to pin the blame squarely on Noble. He linked the case to the recent high-profile Casey Anthony trial in Florida, where “a mother kills her kid and blames it on someone else.”
The defense attorney from Louisville painted a portrait of Noble as a mother who always cared more about drugs than her own son, saying she tested positive for cocaine while pregnant and Nathaniel was taken away from her the day he was born because he had cocaine in his system as well.
“Nathaniel Knox had a tough life and it started before he was even born. Almost from the moment he was conceived, he had no chance,” Romines said. “He was born to an abusive mother who was abused herself, and we all know how that cycle goes.”
Noble lied to police throughout their investigation, first saying Nathaniel fell down the stairs and hit his head on concrete at the Rice Lane trailer she shared with Napier on July 25, 2009.
Noble took the boy to Fort Logan Hospital, where child abuse was quickly suspected and the boy was airlifted to the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington, where he died five days later.
When police discovered there was no concrete at the base of the stairs, Noble said she left her son alone with the sleeping Napier while she went to Walmart and the boy was unresponsive when she returned. Romines said Noble added a new twist to her story as her murder trial was approaching and she was negotiating a plea bargain. She signed a statement drawn up by prosecutors in which Napier tells her “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt him” right before he tries to commit suicide.
“Why does she lie?” Romines asks jurors. “Because she did it.”
As testimony began, Oney was called as the second witness. Under Dalton’s questioning, the former deputy admitted he stole money from the Waynesburg youth basketball league and that Judge David Tapp, who is presiding over the Napier trial, once found Oney’s testimony in a methamphetamine case to be so unbelievable that it was thrown out.
Dalton’s main purpose in bringing Oney to the stand was to introduce into evidence several photographs he took in and around the trailer on Rice Lane.
Romines planned to cross examine Oney when the trial resumed this morning. Noble also was expected to testify today.

http://www.centralkynews.com/amnews/news/amn-murder-trial-begins-in-childs-death-20110907,0,2883547.story

Boy's mother testifies in Lincoln County murder trial
Jessica Noble says she and murder suspect Jason Napier were using drugs and drinking the day 4-year-old was critically injured

1:24 p.m. EDT, September 8, 2011

STANFORD — Jessica Noble’s tears began almost as soon she took the witness stand, when Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney David Dalton handed her a picture of her 4-year-old son, Nathaniel Knox, sitting on a riding lawn mower. They would continue throughout her testimony Wednesday morning.

Noble told jurors her often conflicted version of the events surrounding her son’s death from a blunt force blow that fractured his skull on July 25, 2009. She sparred with defense attorney Steve Romines and shot icy glares toward her former boyfriend, Jason Napier, who is on trial in Lincoln Circuit Court for Nathaniel’s murder.

Noble testified that she and Napier were using drugs and drinking that Saturday when she left Nathaniel — whom she called Nay Nay — and Napier alone at the trailer on Rice Lane they shared so she could run to Walmart to get some ice cream for her son. The boy was screaming and crying to go with her, but Noble left him.

“I’m not going to take him when he’s throwing such a fit. I¿can’t handle him when he’s like that,” Noble said under questioning from Romines.

As Nathaniel followed her out the door, he fell down a single step onto the landing of a deck and bounced right back up and went back inside, Noble told jurors Wednesday. When she returned home, her son was unresponsive, and she and Napier drove him to the hospital, she said.

That account of Nathaniel’s fall did not match the one Noble gave to police and medical personnel in the aftermath of his injuries. Former Lincoln County Deputy Sheriff Rob Oney and three nurses and an emergency room doctor at Fort Logan Hospital all testified that Noble told them Nathaniel had fallen down four stairs and hit his head on concrete at the bottom.

Noble maintained that version of the fall a year after the incident, when she signed a proffer drawn up by prosecutors and presented to Judge David Tapp as part of Noble’s deal in which she pleaded guilty to facilitation to commit second-degree manslaughter and agreed to testify against Napier in exchange for a 15-year prison sentence. A proffer is an offer presented for acceptance.

“You swore to Judge Tapp that this was true,” Romines told her.

Noble shot back, “He fell coming out the door. You can twist the truth however you want to, but I’m telling you the way it is.”

Romines responded, “I don’t want to twist anything. Let’s get your exact words.” He then handed Noble the proffer she had signed in August 2010 and asked her to read it aloud.

“I remember Nathaniel falling down the stairs as I was trying to leave,” Noble repeated.

Romines also brought out that, in the proffer, Noble maintains that Napier confessed that he had hurt her son and attempted suicide, something she failed to mention to police and social workers investigating her son’s death.

“You weren’t offered 15 years until August 2010, and then you snatched it up, didn’t you?” Romines said. “That statement when you got that 15 years, that is when you told the story of Jason’s confession for the first time.”

Noble agreed.

As he was finishing his cross examination, Romines honed in.

“Why take 15 years for going to Walmart? You pled guilty to killing your son,” he told Noble.

“I’m guilty of facilitation to manslaughter second,” she responded. “I’m guilty of that because I left him in the hands of a murderer, Jason Napier.”

Napier’s friend, Jason Sparks, testified he went to Napier’s trailer to buy pain pills that day and arrived there while Noble was gone. Napier answered the door carrying Nathaniel over his shoulder. The boy was naked, and Napier was only in his boxers. Both were dripping wet, Sparks said.

The boy was breathing but appeared lifeless. “His eyes were barely open. There was white

spittle in the corner of his mouth,” Sparks testified.

http://www.centralkynews.com/amnews/news/local/amn-boys-mother-testifies-in-murder-trial-20110908,0,5210493.story

Breaking News: Napier guilty of manslaughter in boy's death

8:56 p.m. EDT, September 8, 2011

STANFORD — Jason Napier was led from the Lincoln County Judicial Center in handcuffs and leg irons Thursday night after a jury found him guilty of second-degree manslaughter and second-degree criminal abuse in the 2009 beating death of 4-year-old Nathaniel Knox.

Jurors then quickly recommended that Napier serve a total of 15 years in prison, the maximun penaly allowed. Lincoln Circuit Judge David Tapp will formally sentence Napier on Oct. 14.

"We're really pleased the jury held him accountable for his actions," Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney David Dalton said afterward.

Napier's sentence equaled that given to Jessica Noble, Nathaniel's mother, who pleaded guilty last year to complicity to second-degree manslaughter and second-degree criminal abuse in exchange for a 15-year prison sentence. Noble testified against Napier at his trial.

Read more about the verdict in Friday's newspaper.

http://www.centralkynews.com/amnews/news/local/amn-breaking-news-napier-guilty-of-manslaughter-in-boys-death-20110908,0,3129621.story

COMMONWEALTH VS. NAPIER, JASON
Scheduled Events
SENTENCING 11/10/2011 10:00 AM C

http://apps.kycourts.net/CourtRecords/Results.aspx

Napier gets 15 years for boy's death


By TODD KLEFFMAN
tkleffman@amnews.com
11:05 a.m. EST, November 11, 2011

STANFORD — Just as the jury that convicted him recommended, Jason Napier was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison for the 2009 beating death of 4-year-old Nathaniel Knox.


“I have no hesitation in imposing the sentence the jury recommended,” Lincoln Circuit Judge David Tapp said. “I think it’s appropriate under these circumstances.”


After a three-day trial in September, Napier was convicted of second-degree manslaughter and second-degree criminal abuse. Medical testimony established that Nathaniel died as a result of a powerful blow to the back of the head, but there was no proof presented as to how he received the fatal injury.

Prosecutors contended that Napier struck the boy because he wouldn’t stop crying after his mother, Jessica Noble, left him in Napier’s care while she went to Walmart. Napier’s attorneys tried to pin the blame on Noble, who initially told police her son hit his head on concrete after he fell down some stairs as he was trying to follow her to the car.


Both Napier and Noble were charged with murder. Noble pleaded guilty last year to complicity to second-degree manslaughter and second-degree criminal abuse in exchange for a 15-year prison sentence. She testified against Napier during his trial, calling him a murderer from the witness stand.


After finding Napier guilty of manslaughter and criminal abuse, jurors took only 10 minutes to recommend he serve the maximum prison sentence. That sentence equalled the time Noble received in her plea bargain with prosecutors.


Under the law, Napier will only have to serve 20 percent of his sentence — roughly three years — before being eligible for his first parole hearing. He has already served nearly two years in jail, which means he could have a parole hearing in about a year, defense attorney Ted Shouse said Thursday.


Shouse told Tapp he plans to file notice of his plans to appeal the case next week.


“We think there are at least two issues that warrant review that denied Mr. Napier his right to a fair trial,” Shouse said afterward, declining to elaborate other than say the issues pertained to “judicial error.”

http://www.centralkynews.com/amnews/news/lincolnnews/amn-napier-gets-15-years-for-boys-death-20111111,0,6127778.story