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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Talk about whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty dominated the first court appearance Thursday by a man suspected of driving the getaway car in the fatal shooting of a Las Vegas mother of four in a residential cul-de-sac.
Derrick Andrews, 26, stood in shackles holding a copy of a grand jury indictment filed March 20 charging him and 19-year-old Erich Milton Nowsch Jr. with murder, attempted murder, firing a weapon from a vehicle and conspiracy.
Andrews wasn't asked to enter a plea. Clark County District Court Judge Michael Villani scheduled a hearing Tuesday to name a lawyer for him.
Prosecutors allege that Nowsch mortally wounded Tammy Meyers on Feb. 12 in a spray of .45-caliber gunfire from a vehicle with Andrews at the wheel in what police initially suspected was a road rage incident.
Andrews, who was arrested last week, faces the same charges as Nowsch because he is accused of aiding and abetting Nowsch to commit a crime.
Nowsch pleaded not guilty Thursday to the conspiracy charge in the updated indictment that named Andrews. Nowsch previously pleaded not guilty to the other three charges.
Nowsch's lawyer, Augustus Claus, declined to comment outside court.
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson is expected to meet Wednesday with a team of prosecutors to decide whether to seek the death penalty against Nowsch.
Claus said he'll argue against capital punishment.
A decision whether to seek the death penalty against Andrews could come at that time or up to two weeks later. Trial is scheduled May 26.
"All options are on the table," Wolfson said Thursday.
The case was initially described as a road rage incident: A mother of four gunned down outside her home after encountering an angry motorist on the way home from a late-night driving lesson with her 15-year-old daughter in a school parking lot.
Days later, investigators revealed that Meyers sent her daughter inside their home and got her 22-year-old son, Brandon Meyers, and his gun to go back out with her on neighborhood streets to confront the driver of a silver sedan who threatened her earlier.
In one of several apparently tragic coincidences, she instead found Nowsch and Andrews in Andrews' silver Audi sedan, prosecutor David Stanton said.
Nowsch, a neighborhood marijuana and anxiety medication dealer who knew the Meyers family, apparently didn't recognize their green Buick Park Avenue with tinted windows, Stanton said.
He's accused of phoning Andrews to come get him because he believed the people in the green car cruising slowly through the school parking lot were after him.
Meyers found and followed Andrews' car, according to police reports, until at least five shots were fired at her car.
Meyers sped back to the cul-de-sac outside her home where Andrews is accused of following and positioning his car so Nowsch could unload what Stanton said may have been as many as 24 shots at Tammy and Brandon Meyers.
Police say Brandon Meyers fired three shots with his 9mm handgun at the silver Audi.
One .45-caliber bullet struck Tammy Meyers in the head. She died two days later, on Valentine's Day.
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