Two Decatur County residents are facing murder charges for their involvement in an alleged conspiracy to rob a man, which police say led to the shooting death. “The Greensburg Daily News” is reporting that police arrested 29-year-old Rachael M. Smith and 36-year-old Matthew R. Carroll, both of Greensburg, Thursday on charges of Murder and Conspiracy to Commit Armed Robbery in the Aug. 15th shooting death of 32-year-old Jason G. Owens.

The report states that police allege that Smith, Carroll and Owens concocted a plan to rob 37-year-old George L. “Bo” Griffith Jr., in an attempt to retrieve property Smith said belonged to her and money Carroll said Griffith owed him. According to a probable cause affidavit, Smith attempted to set up a drug deal at Vista Village Mobile Home Park, where Carroll and Owens planned to confront Griffith.

Greensburg Police told the paper that Carroll, armed with a handgun, and Owens, who carried a baseball bat, approached Griffith’s car as he arrived at the mobile home park. Smith reportedly told police that Griffith got out of his car and warned them to stop approaching or he would shoot.

Smith said Owens dropped the bat and stopped, but Carroll continued to move toward Griffith. Police say that Griffith fired two shots at the men, one of which struck Owens in the chest. Owens died approximately two hours later at Decatur County Memorial Hospital.

The paper says that police arrested Griffith and charged him with a felony count of Carrying a Handgun without a License. Griffith reportedly admitted to shooting Owens, but he claimed that it was in self-defense. According to the report, Griffith told police that Carroll had attacked one of his relatives less than a day before the shooting and left voicemails warning Griffith was “a dead man.”

Police told the newspaper that Smith, Carroll and Owens were aware that Griffith, a convicted felon, was known to carry a handgun. Nonetheless, the two men armed themselves and approached him, “exposing all of the participants to the danger of death,” police said in court documents. Police say that act constitutes murder, even though neither Carroll nor Smith pulled the trigger of the gun that killed Owens.

Greensburg Police told the paper that the investigation into Owens’ death is ongoing.

For more on this story, visit greensburgdailynews.com.