Fifth suspect tied to Judge Meyer's shooting: ‘I don’t know anything’ about charges
Zenada Greer, extradited from Kentucky, made her first appearance in court Wednesday, telling a judge: ‘I have no idea who these people are.’ Bond set in the millions.
Zenada Greer, a 61-year-old Lexington, Kentucky, woman charged with two felony counts connected to the Jan. 18 shooting of Judge Steve Meyer and Kim Meyer at their Lafayette home, repeatedly told a judge Wednesday that she didn’t know why she was tied to the case.
Greer, one of five people charged in the case, was arrested in Lexington, Kentucky, several days after the shooting and was extradited and brought to the Tippecanoe County Jail Tuesday afternoon, according to jail records.
Greer was charged with two felony counts of assisting a criminal in an attempted murder and obstruction of justice. Her first appearance in court was Wednesday afternoon, a week after appearances by the other four on Jan. 28.
In court documents unsealed Jan. 23, Greer was listed as sharing a residential address with Raylen Ferguson, a Lexington, Kentucky, man accused of firing the shotgun rounds through the front door of the Meyers’ Lafayette home.
A Hyundai Kona registered to Greer factored into several parts of the alleged plot that led up to the shooting of the Meyers on Jan. 18 and what followed.
“All these charges against me, I don’t know anything about any of these,” Greer told Cass County Superior 2 Judge Lisa Swaim, who was assigned last week as special judge in the cases of all five accused of having roles in shooting.
When Swaim had Greer sign a no contact order that included the Meyers and another witness named in the prosecutor’s probable cause affidavit, Greer said, “I have no idea who these people are.”
“Then you won’t have a problem not having contact with them, correct?” Swaim said.
“No, I won’t,” Greer said.
Swaim said a public defender would be assigned to Greer. The judge set a combination of $1 million cash and $1 million surety bonds Greer would need to pay to be released from jail leading up to her trial. Swaim noted as she set bond amounts higher than normal that Greer didn’t seem to have connections to Lafayette and might be tempted to leave if she was released from jail.
“I don’t even understand how I’m connected with the Lafayette community at all,” Greer said during her initial hearing.
Greer’s next date in court was scheduled for March 5 with a jury trial date initially set for May 6 – the same as for the other four defendants.
Ferguson, 38, was charged with 10 felony counts, including attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Swaim set bond at $4 million in cash and $2 million surety for Ferguson, along with conditions that he could have no communication with anyone beyond his attorney while awaiting trial.
Thomas Moss, 43, of Lafayette, and Blake Smith, 32, of Dayton, were charged with an array of felony counts, including attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Each were being held on $3 million cash and $2 million surety bond, with the same conditions as Ferguson, keeping them isolated while in jail.
Amanda Milsap, 45, of Lafayette, is being held with a $500,000 cash and $1 million surety bonds on charges of bribery and obstruction of justice.
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.
Part of the case includes the Meyers telling investigators about a suspicious incident that happened two nights before the shooting. Court documents outline 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.
Court documents tied the vehicle registered to Greer to the case at several points.
According to charging documents, the Hyundai Kona with license plates registered to Greer was seen Jan. 11 and 12 and again Jan. 15 in the Pennsylvania city where a witness in Moss’ trial lived. That witness, listed as the victim in Moss’ case scheduled for trial in Meyer’s court, told police she’d been offered money in the weeks prior to not testify.
Investigators say the Hyundai Kona was seen driving toward Lafayette between 3:53 p.m. and 5:16 p.m. on Jan. 16.
Prosecutors say surveillance footage at a chain restaurant along Indiana 26 in Lafayette showed the same car on Jan. 16, when a person they believe was Ferguson ordered food and left with a sack that matched one carried to the Meyers’ door that night.
In video footage of police responding to the scene at the Meyers’ home also shows a Hyundai Kona “parked suspiciously behind trees, on the side of the road” on Windy Hill Drive, charging documents said. Police say the car had a stolen license plate, taken Jan. 16 from a business parking lot on Indiana 26.
And the car was identified driving toward Smith’s residence east of Dayton at 3:58 p.m. Jan. 18, shortly after Steve and Kim Meyer were shot, according to charging documents.
Court records also say a Mitsubishi, with Alabama plates and seen at Smith’s residence the day after the shooting, had been rented by Greer in Lexington, Kentucky.
If convicted, Greer would face one to six years for one charge and six months to 2½ years for the second one.
For more on the alleged plot and charges
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