Bonds set in the millions for suspects in attempted murder of Judge Meyer
Four of five people charged in the Jan. 18 shooting were court for the first time Wednesday.
Three men charged with attempted murder in the plot to attack Tippecanoe County Superior Court 2 Judge Steve Meyer and his wife, Kim Meyer, at their Lafayette home Jan. 18 were ordered to be held on multi-million dollar bonds during a series of initial hearings Wednesday before a special judge in Cass County.
Cass Superior Court 2 Judge Lisa Swaim didn’t go for a prosecutor’s suggestion, calling a proposed $20 million surety and $5 million cash bond “excessive,” even with the charges as serious as a conspiracy to try to kill a judge filed last week against Raylen Ferguson, Thomas Moss and Blake Smith.
Instead, Swaim set bond at $4 million in cash and $2 million surety for Ferguson, a 38-year-old man from Lexington, Kentucky, accused of firing rounds from a short-barrel shotgun through the Meyers’ front door in what investigators say was an attempt to derail a criminal trial for Moss set to start two days later.
Moss, 43, of Lafayette, and Smith, 32, of Dayton, each would need to post $3 million cash and $2 million surety bonds to get out of jail before a trial.
Ferguson, who asked the judge to make the prosecutor’s eight-figure amount “a lot lower,” slumped in his chair when Swaim announced his bond.
The three also were ordered to be held so they had no communications, inside or outside the jail, beyond contact with their lawyers.
Amanda Milsap, 45, of Lafayette, will be held with a $500,000 cash and $1 million surety bonds, Swaim ruled, on charges of bribery and obstruction of justice that prosecutors say played a role in a larger plot to shut down witness testimony in Moss’ trial.
A fifth person charged in the case, Zenada Greer, a 61-year-old from Lexington, Kentucky, is still waiting her initial hearing. Greer was arrested in Kentucky and charged with assisting a criminal and obstruction of justice and was, as of Wednesday, awaiting extradition to Tippecanoe County.
Swaim set May 6 trail dates for Ferguson, Moss, Smith and Milsap. They were scheduled for their next hearings March 5.
Swaim, appointed by the Indiana Supreme Court as a special judge on Monday, said she was still weighing whether the hearings would continue to be held in her home courtroom, 45 minutes away from Lafayette in Logansport, or in the Tippecanoe County Courthouse.
According to the probable cause affidavit filed last week with charges, Ferguson is accused of going in disguise to the Meyers’ front door on the afternoon of Jan. 18. Investigators say he knocked, telling Steve Meyer that he was looking for a lost dog before firing a shotgun through the closed front door, hitting the judge in the arm and Kim Meyer in the hip. Both are recovering from their injuries, with Steve Meyer expected to face a long rehab.
Investigators say the plot revolved around Moss, identified as a high-ranking, “outlaw” member of the Phantom Motorcycle Club who had been scheduled to face a trial on Jan. 20, on 2024 charges of intimation, domestic battery and unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon. He also faced charges of being an habitual offender. According to court documents, Meyer had rejected an attempt filed earlier in January to postpone that trial, lining up more than 50 jurors to report that Tuesday morning. That trial was postponed after the shooting. In court documents filed in the attempted murder case, investigators say the victim in Moss’ scheduled trial had been approached weeks earlier and offered $10,000 to not show up and testify.
After the Jan. 18 shooting, police found items seen on the man who fired the shots in neighbors’ property on Windy Hill Drive, around the corner from the Meyers’ Mill Pond Lane home. That included a black and gray flannel, a scarf, earmuffs, a knitted beanie, black sunglasses, a retractable dog leash and a silicone mask. Police also say they found a short-barreled shotgun with an obliterated model and serial number, which contained a discarded shotgun round in the chamber.
Court documents say an Indiana State Police lab confirmed that DNA found on the discarded mask matched that of Ferguson.
In court documents filed with the charges, investigators outlined how the same man seen in surveillance camera footage day of the shooting had come to the Meyers’ Lafayette home two nights earlier, knocking late at night and claiming to have a food delivery. That night, according to court documents, Steve Meyer never opened the door, instead telling the man that he had the wrong address and that they hadn’t ordered food. The man left their home in the Saw Mill Run subdivision, shown in video footage from doorbell camera carrying a bag from a local restaurant chain off Indiana 26 and a two-liter bottle of soda and walking with a distinct gait.
In court documents, investigators say the fake food delivery on Jan. 16, DNA from a discarded mask and other evidence helped lead to Ferguson and the others.
For more on the alleged plot and charges
Here’s how things played out Wednesday in Cass County Superior Court 2, when charges were read to four of the five accused.
Raylen Ferguson: Investigators noted several times in the charges that the alleged shooter’s gait was distinctive but didn’t specify how. Ferguson entered the courtroom Wednesday with a noticeable hitch in his stride, even considering the shackles on his ankles and wrists.
Ferguson faces 10 charges, including attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, battery and intimidation. He requested a public defender.
Thomas Moss: Moss appeared without an attorney and told Swaim he planned to represent himself – though he confirmed with the judge that if he changed his mind and wanted to hire a lawyer, he could. During his initial hearing Wednesday, Moss asked the judge how he could file to dismiss the nine felony counts, including those for attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, battery and intimidation.
“As far as the probable cause affidavit,” Moss said, “none of the things that were alleged that happened directly actually tied me to any of these incidents that occurred here, as far as anything pertaining to collusion, me knowing about what was going on and the intentions of anybody after that.”
Swaim told him he’d need to do that in writing and not during Wednesday’s hearing.
After running through a series of questions dealing with whether Moss was prepared to defend himself, Swaim asked whether he’d received threats if he hired an attorney or asked for a public defender.
“Has anyone said that if you have an attorney, it’s going to be bad for you in some way?” Swaim asked.
Moss paused for nearly a minute. After he told her that he hadn’t, Moss wiped his eyes several times and his hands began to shake as he was asked to sign that he’d been advised before he waived his right to counsel.
Blake Smith: Smith also faces nine charges. Investigators say an Indiana State Police lab was able to recover enough of the serial number from the gun found in the Meyers’ neighborhood to link it to a sale to Smith at a local gun shop on Jan. 5. Police say Smith also that day bought the same brand of ammunition found chambered in the gun and in spent cartridges at the Meyers’ home. Police say surveillance footage of Smith buying the gun show him in a black and gray flannel hooded sweatshirt, similar to one they say Ferguson was wearing on the Meyers’ porch and shed as he fled the scene.
Smith also requested a public defender.
Amanda Milsap: Milsap, who is a mental health therapist who was once married to Moss, is accused of relaying the offer of $10,000 to the victim in in Moss’ trial if they wouldn’t testify.
Earl McCoy, Milsap’s attorney, argued that the probable cause affidavit laying out the broader plot to attack Judge Meyer contended that Milsap “informed” the witness about how Moss and the Vice Lords wanted to pay $10,000 to keep her quiet. McCoy argued that the vague charge wasn’t enough to hold her before a trial.
“Informing somebody that somebody else may want to bribe them is not bribery,” McCoy argued. “I can’t even tell whether this was the right jurisdiction or not. …There is absolutely no other connection to my client and the horrendous acts that were taken against Judge Meyer and his wife. None.”
Swaim denied McCoy’s motion, saying she disagreed with his interpretation and that the allegation fit in the definition of bribery.
McCoy also argued for a bond lower than the prosecutor’s recommendation, saying “it just blows my mind” to have a request for $1 million cash and $10 million surety bonds.
Milsap testified that she’d had an offer to take a job in Georgia but was blocked by a court order after Moss – the father of her grade-school aged son – argued to keep him in Indiana. She said that order and her therapy practice would keep her close ahead of a trial.
Swaim said the prosecutor’s recommendation was too high, “but I also understand that it’s a very serious allegation.”
McCoy said later, outside the courtroom, that the $500,000 cash and $1 million surety bonds was “akin to no bond.”
“She will not be able to, under any circumstances, come up with $1 million,” McCoy said.
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Wow.
“Has anyone said that if you have an attorney, it’s going to be bad for you in some way?” Swaim asked.
Moss paused for nearly a minute. After he told her that he hadn’t, Moss wiped his eyes several times and his hands began to shake as he was asked to sign that he’d been advised before he waived his right to counsel."
Wow.
That's terrifying and sad. I know Moss (allegedly) 'made his own bed' and all that - but just thinking about anyone being effectively threatened into not getting a lawyer - on a murder charge - wow.