Co-defendant in neighborhood slaying case gets new lawyers

By Ken Ritter, Associated Press

Published Thursday, May 21, 2015 | 1:29 p.m.

Updated Thursday, May 21, 2015 | 2 p.m.

One co-defendant was represented Thursday by new lawyers, and a judge gave him and a 19-year-old accused of shooting a Las Vegas mother to death a hearing date for pretrial arguments.

Attorneys Joshua Tomsheck and Roy Nelson took over Derrick Andrews' defense from attorney Martin Hart, and Clark County District Judge Michael Villani scheduled a June 18 hearing on issues including a defense effort to suppress a statement to police by the accused shooter, Erich Milton Nowsch Jr.

Nowsch and Andrews have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, attempted murder, firing a weapon from a vehicle and conspiracy in the slaying of Tammy Meyers, 44. They are jailed without bail and could each get life in prison without parole if convicted.

Nowsch is accused of shooting from a car with Andrews driving.

Trial has been postponed until at least August. Villani didn't set a new date Thursday.

Police say Nowsch shot at a vehicle with Tammy Meyers and her adult son inside a few blocks from the Meyers home before firing another 24 shots at them outside their home. The son, Brandon Meyers, 22, wasn't wounded. Tammy Meyers was shot in the head. She died two days later.

Police say Brandon Meyers returned fire with three shots in the neighborhood cul-de-sac several miles west of downtown Las Vegas.

Prosecutor David Stanton says the shooting appears to have resulted from a series of misunderstandings and coincidences, including Tammy Meyers' mistaken belief that the car with Nowsch and Andrews in it was the same one driven by a man who threatened her and her daughter earlier. That man has never been found.

Nowsch told friends and police that he feared the people in the car driven by Tammy Meyers were following him and meant to do him harm.