Napier Murder Trial Underway

Security was especially tight as the trial of Fairley Napier, accused of uxoricide, got underway on Tuesday, March 24.

The much-anticipated trial started in Breathitt Circuit Court following a full day of jury selection on Monday.

Breathitt County Circuit Court Clerk James E. Turner, II, summoned the entire District and Circuit jury pool in an effort to seat a fair and unbiased jury despite widespread media coverage about the murder case.

Both Commonwealth Attorney Miranda Stevens King and Defense Attorney Darrell A. Herald used their “strikes” to eliminate some jurors, and others were eliminated due to knowledge of the case and relationships to interested parties or individuals on the witness list.

The final selection was made about 3:00 p.m. on Monday, and fourteen jurors, twelve regular jurors and two alternates, were identified and seated.

Fairley Napier, 49, of Clayhole, was indicted by the Breathitt County Grand Jury on March 5, following the discovery of his ex-wife Joanie Campbell Smith’s dismembered body inside a burned-out vehicle at a logging site on South Fork on the evening of January 6, 2024.  She had been missing and was last seen near Jiffy Mart on January 4, 2024.

Napier was ordered held under a $1,000,000 bond.

The trial comes after a year of legal efforts by the prosecution and the defense. 

A mediation conference on February 5, 2026, failed to reach an agreement, and the case was set for trial on March 23.

Officials with the Commonwealth’s Attorney Miranda King’s office have slated up to two weeks for the trial, and it is expected that numerous witnesses will provide details and chronicle evidence related to the case.