A Nikiski woman was arrested on Thursday, Dec. 12, and charged with manslaughter for the death of 62-year-old Michael Rodgers, who died of a methamphetamine overdose in Aug. 2023.
The case began on the morning of Aug. 11, 2023, when Alaska State Troopers received a call from Lawana Barker, 59, of Nikiski, who reported a deceased man at a residence in the Island Lake area. Investigators arrived to find Barker at the home and the body of Rodgers in the bathroom, according to the sworn affidavit of Investigator Kevin Gill. The affidavit also states that Barker waited approximately 90 minutes after discovering Rodgers’s body before calling the police.
Gill’s report indicates Rodgers seemed to have been dead for several hours and that his death appeared to have occurred rapidly, as though he had “experienced a cardiac event.”
At the scene, Gill questioned Barker, who she claimed she had met Rodgers a few days prior at the Hunger Hut and that the two had been living at his residence since then. She admitted to purchasing methamphetamine using money Rodgers had given her and that they had later smoked it together, with her “teaching” him how to do so. She told investigators it was “very unlikely” he would have used the methamphetamine without her, the affidavit states.
An investigation of the residence revealed cardiac-related medical paperwork and heart medication. Investigators learned Rodgers had a medical history of cardiac issues, including a prior heart attack.
According to Gill’s affidavit, Barker indicated she had an association with another man named Jack Lyons Sr. She stated that she had taken Rodgers’s vehicle to Lyons’s residence at one point and later said that she “planned on going to Lyons’s residence now that Rodgers was deceased.”
During the investigation, Barker produced a methamphetamine pipe used by both her and Rodgers the night before.
The State Medical Examiner later determined Rodgers’s death to be the result of “acute toxic effects of methamphetamine” with a contributing condition of “hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease with remote myocardial infarction/early chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.” Given the history of cardiac issues, Rodgers’s death was ruled an accident.
Then, on Jan. 14, 2024, Troopers responded to a report of another deceased man in Nikiski, who turned out to be Lyons Sr. At the scene, the pipe Barker had produced for investigators in Aug. 2023 was discovered. It was sent to the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (SCDL) for analysis, Gill’s affidavit says.
According to the affidavit, the SCDL analysis results were returned on Nov. 7, 2024, and indicated the presence of Rodgers’s DNA.
Gill states he brought Barker in for questioning again on Dec. 12, 2024, during which she admitted to knowledge of Rodgers’s “bad heart” and that by being in a relationship with him, “it was incumbent on her to act in his best interest ‘in an ideal, right mind,’ but that her mind was not right because she wanted to do drugs and wanted his approval.” Further, the affidavit states that Barker acknowledged she had supplied the drugs to Rodgers and knew he was taking a “significant risk” by consuming the methamphetamine due to his heart condition.
Barker told Investigator Gill that she felt she “should be put in jail.” Additionally, she wrote an apology to Rodgers’s family, stating, “Words seemingly don’t convey the reality by my actions his death occurred” and asked for their forgiveness.
Barker was arrested and charged with domestic violence Manslaughter, Misconduct Involving Controlled Substances, Tampering with Physical Evidence, and Theft.
