A 59-year-old Nikiski woman was arrested Thursday on charges of manslaughter for the August 2023 death of 62-year-old Nikiski resident Michael Rodgers, Alaska State Troopers said Friday.
According to a trooper dispatch, Lawana Barker was arrested after “a thorough investigation” into the death of Rodgers and was charged with two counts of domestic violence manslaughter, a count each of third-, fourth- and fifth-degree misconduct involving controlled substances, a count of tampering with physical evidence and a count of third-degree theft against Barker.
Investigator Kevin Gill writes in an affidavit included with charging documents that troopers were called around 7 a.m. on Aug. 11, 2023, by Barker, reporting that Rodgers had been found dead in his home. Per the affidavit, Barker at different times described her relationship to Rodgers, generally saying that they had known one another for only a couple of days, and that they had used methamphetamine together.
Barker told responding troopers that she had found Rodgers dead before 6 a.m., roughly 90 minutes before calling troopers.
“She couldn’t provide a coherent and detailed account of what she did” in that time, the affidavit reads, though it says she made coffee, walked with her dog and made several calls and texts using Rodgers’ phone — also deleting an uncertain amount of information from the phone because “I didn’t want anybody knowing my business.”
Barker told troopers that she had purchased methamphetamine the day before Rodgers’ death and that she’d taught him how to use it. Per the affidavit, Barker told troopers that Rodgers said he “felt” the drug and that he was feeling hot, but she had gone to sleep while he was still awake and only found him dead after waking up.
The affidavit says that the State Medical Examiner’s Office found that the death was caused by the “acute toxic effects of methamphetamine” with a preexisting heart condition — that Rodgers was medicated for — as a contributing factor. That finding was on Aug. 15, 2023, and the death was classified an accident.
The affidavit describes a search warrant served on Sept. 7, 2023, where morphine, methamphetamine and heroin were seized from a home in Nikiski, then describes no further developments until Jan. 14, 2024, when a methamphetamine pipe taken from Barker on Aug. 11, 2023, was analyzed during investigation of a separate overdose death at the same home searched on Sept. 7, 2023.
Results of that test weren’t received until Nov. 7, 2024, the affidavit says, showing evidence that the pipe had been used by Rodgers, but not by Barker.
Barker was interviewed on Dec. 12, when she again said that Rodgers had used methamphetamine using her pipe and that she was unaware of his cardiac issues. She said during that conversation that she had loaded $100 of the drug into her pipe, rather than $20 as she had previously told officers. Barker told Gill that she had taken money and a raincoat from Rodgers’ home after he died, and that she agreed that the statutory definition of manslaughter applied.
Per the charges described in the affidavit, the first manslaughter charge describes the alleged crime of knowingly delivering a controlled substance in violation of Alaska Statute that then causes the death of a person as a direct result of ingestion. The second is the alleged crime of “intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly” causing the death of another person in circumstances that don’t amount to murder in the first or second degree.
Conditions of release filed Friday say that bail was set at a $1 million appearance bond — with 10% presented in cash — and $100,000 cash performance bond. Barker was arraigned Friday morning, where she submitted a not guilty plea, and is next scheduled to appear at the Kenai Courthouse on Dec. 23.
This story was corrected on Sunday, Dec. 15. A previous version inaccurately identified Edwin Anderson as the investigator who penned the affidavit, rather than Kevin Gill.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
