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LAS VEGAS (AP) — A 19-year-old man was indicted Friday on murder and other charges in the shooting death of a mother of four in a neighborhood gunbattle.
The grand jury indictment accuses defendant Erich Milton Nowsch Jr. of murder, attempted murder and firing a weapon from a vehicle in the shooting that was initially characterized as road rage but was later found to be more complicated.
The indictment doesn't name the getaway driver in the Feb. 12 shooting of 44-year-old Tammy Meyers. She died two days later on Valentine's Day. The getaway driver remains at large and the investigation is ongoing.
Robert Meyers, the husband of the victim, said she took their daughter home after a late-night driving lesson and fetched her 22-year-old son, Brandon Meyers, with his gun to find a driver who frightened her earlier.
Police said the son fired several shots at Nowsch during the fatal shootout in a cul-de-sac outside the Meyers home.
The indictment supersedes previous charges filed by prosecutors and allows the case to proceed without a preliminary hearing being held.
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson has said he'll decide in coming weeks whether to seek the death penalty against Nowsch, whose arraignment was reset for Thursday.
Chief Deputy District Attorney David Stanton said Friday that Nowsch could face a minimum sentence of 20 to 50 years in prison or a maximum of life without parole if the death penalty isn't sought.
Prosecutors will consider records showing that Nowsch suffered a fractured skull as a 7-week-old infant at the hands of his father, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor child abuse charge, and that his father committed suicide when the boy was 15.
The filing leaves many questions unanswered about the case that took dramatic turns following the revelation that Tammy Meyers, along with her son, sought out the angry driver who frightened her earlier.
Police have said the mother and son found Nowsch in a silver Audi sedan driven by another person. They have not said if it was the same silver sedan with an angry driver that the mother and daughter encountered earlier.
Nowsch is accused of firing several shots at the Meyers' green Buick Park Avenue sedan in one confrontation several blocks from the Meyers home.
Police say he bragged to friends that he reloaded his .45-caliber handgun and fired 22 more shots in the cul-de-sac near the Meyers home.
Nowsch told his friends he thought the people in the green car were after him, but he got them first, authorities said.
Brandon Meyers fired several return shots with a 9mm handgun during the fatal shootout, police said.
Robert Meyers has said his wife knew Nowsch, at least in passing, and that Nowsch had been to the Meyers family home several times in the past.
School records show that Nowsch attended a nearby high school with two of Meyers' sons.
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Associated Press writer Kimberly Pierceall contributed to this report
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