Man charged in conspiracy to shoot Judge Meyer asks for special prosecutor, eased jail restrictions
Prosecutors push back on Blake Smith’s attempt to have contact outside his cell, three months after arrest in attempted murder of judge. Plus, TSC teachers of the year, IU Health’s WL hospital, more.
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MAN CHARGED IN CONSPIRACY TO SHOOT JUDGE MEYER ASKS FOR SPECIAL PROSECUTOR, EASED JAIL RESTRICTIONS
Blake Smith, a Dayton man who is among four people accused in an alleged conspiracy that led to the attempted murders of Tippecanoe County Judge Steve Meyer and two others, became the second to ask for a special prosecutor his case.
In a court filing Tuesday, attorneys for Smith argued that Meyer and Tippecanoe County Prosecutor Pat Harrington have a professional relationship that “is unavoidable, ongoing and deeply intertwined,” calling into question “a number of discretionary decisions the prosecutor can make,” including any possible plea agreements, regarding the 12 felony charges in his case.
Smith, they argued, “is entitled to a prosecutor whose plea evaluation is driven solely by the interests of justice – not by a desire to satisfy a colleague’s expectations or to avoid the appearance of leniency toward an attacker of a judge.”
As of Thursday, the prosecutor had not responded, according to the court docket. And the motion did not come during a Thursday morning hearing for Smith before Cass County Superior Court 2 Judge Lisa Swaim, who was appointed to oversee five case tied in some way to an alleged conspiracy that led to the Jan. 18 shooting of Steve and Kim Meyer at their Lafayette home.
But the prosecutor had pushed back against a similar request in the case of Thomas Moss, considered by investigators to be at the center of a scheme meant to derail a criminal case set to go to a jury trial in Meyer’s Tippecanoe County Superior Court 2 two days after the judge was shot.
With Smith in a Cass County courtroom Thursday, Swaim set a May 20 hearing to consider several matters in his case, including additional arguments started that day over his motion to address the amount and conditions tied to his bond.
Smith has been held in the Warren County Jail since late January, when he and three others suspected of attempted murder and other charges – Moss, Nevaeh Bell and Raylen Ferguson – were arrested.
Smith is being held on $3 million cash and $2 million surety bond, along with conditions that he could have no communication with anyone inside or outside the jail, beyond his attorney, while awaiting trial. Moss and Bell have similar bonds and conditions. Ferguson, accused of firing a short-barrel shotgun through the Meyers’ front door, is being held on $4 million in cash and $2 million surety bonds.
During testimony Thursday, Smith said he’d been kept isolated in his cell 23 hours a day, without contact with his parents and his children since his arrest. Turner argued that Smith had no criminal history.
“The way the restrictions are, it amounts to punishment,” Denise Turner, Smith’s attorney, said. “And given the fact that he’s presumed innocent, the punishment is simply inappropriate.”
Deputy prosecutor Elyse Madigan argued that the nature of the case justified the restrictions. She argued that Smith’s alleged role in the crime – including purchasing the gun used, getting rid of the firearm’s markings and providing the disguise investigators say Ferguson wore at the crime scene, later burning what was left – indicated the lengths he was willing to go in a conspiracy that still threatened witnesses, judicial officers and potential jurors.
“The restrictions are imperative in this case,” Madigan argued.
Prosecutors put Moss at the center of an alleged, extended scheme to somehow stymie a trial that had been approaching on Jan. 20, on 2024 charges of intimation, domestic battery and unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon. The plot included trying to bribe a witness not to testify against Moss, followed by an alleged plan to kill her. When those didn’t work, prosecutors say, Moss, Smith, Bell and Ferguson took part in a plan to shoot Meyer. Madigan said that those charged are tied to the Phantom Motorcycle Club and the Vice Lords, a pair of gangs with national reach. Keeping Smith others out of contact with others was a condition that should continue, Madigan argued.
Swaim said she would hear more testimony on the matter on May 20.
In other cases tied to the attempted murder
Moss, 43, of Lafayette, initially asked for a speedy trial set to start in May, though that was pushed to September at his attorneys’ request two weeks ago. Moss also has asked for a special prosecutor and loosened conditions on his bond. He’s scheduled to be back in Swaim’s courtroom May 8.
Raylen Ferguson, 38, of Lexington, Kentucky, has a trial date scheduled for Aug. 25. He was charged with a dozen felony counts, including attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. 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’ 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.
Nevaeh Bell, 23, of Lafayette, was arrested nearly a week after the others and was charged on suspicion of 12 felony counts, including attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, aggravated battery and intimidation. Bell, Moss’ girlfriend and partner in a trucking company, was accused by investigators of being part of the planning that targeted the witness in Moss’ pending trial and helping Ferguson find and map out the unlisted address of Judge Meyer. She was scheduled for a court hearing Thursday on motions dealing with conditions with her bond, including restrictions on who she may see or communicate with as she waits for trial. But that was postponed at the request of her attorney. Bell’s trial is scheduled to start July 14.
In a related case
Amanda Milsap, 45, of Lafayette, is scheduled to be sentenced Monday, April 27, after she was convicted by a Tippecanoe County jury earlier in April on three charges, including bribery. Milsap’s charges were tied to a phone call to offer a victim in a domestic violence case against Moss, her ex-husband, $10,000 to not testify in his trial. The bribery conviction could bring as much as six years in prison. The other counts – a felony charge of obstruction of justice and a misdemeanor charge of invasion of privacy – have penalties of up to 2½ years and one year of incarceration, respectively.
THIS AND THAT/OTHER READS …
TSC NAMES TEACHERS OF THE YEAR: Andrea Bornino, a physical education teacher at Klondike Elementary School, and Diane Beaudoin, a chemistry teacher at Harrison High School, were named teachers of the year at the elementary and secondary levels across Tippecanoe School Corp., the district announced Thursday.
They were selected from among 19 building-level winners. They will represent TSC in the Indiana Teacher of the Year program.
The teachers of the year selected from each TSC school included:
Battle Ground Elementary: Bethany Ditto, first grade
Burnett Creek Elementary: Carmen Trapp, third grade
Cole Elementary: Staci Elam, kindergarten
Dayton Elementary: Brandy Cain, special education
Hershey Elementary: Sarah Ferguson, fourth grade
Klondike Elementary: Andrea Bornino, PE/health
Mayflower Mill Elementary: Claire Miller, fourth grade
Mintonye Elementary: Jill Stanis, fourth grade
Wea Ridge Elementary: Jessica Hiatt, Title 1
Woodland Elementary: Joanne Sprunger, second grade
Wyandotte Elementary: Kelly Garrett, second/third grade high ability
Battle Ground Middle: Chad Dunwoody, social studies
East Tipp Middle: Drew Rhoda, band
Klondike Middle: Jason Caudill, band
Southwestern Middle: Scott Schulz, mathematics
Wainwright Middle: Leslie Skaggs, special education
Wea Ridge Middle: Samantha Snowberger, special education
Harrison High School: Diane Beaudoin, science
McCutcheon High School: Elizabeth Boener, special education
ABOUT IU HEALTH’S NEW WEST SIDE PLANS: IU Health will host a community meeting May 12 to discuss plans and construction of its new hospital just north of West Lafayette.
IU Health Arnett, which has a hospital on the east side of Lafayette, announced plans in 2025 for a hospital on 21 acres at the southwest corner of Yeager Road and County Road 500 North. IU Health’s plans were for a hospital that would offer a 24/7 emergency department, inpatient care, multiple operating rooms, a helipad for emergency transportation and advanced imaging and laboratory services.
The $127 million project is expected to open in 2028.
IU Health’s plans come as Fort Wayne-based Parkview Health is developing a 26-acre site about a mile south along Yeager Road for a $200 million hospital with 40 in-patient beds and a 24-hour emergency department
IU Health says there will be no formal presentation during the session, but instead will include a series of informational stations and opportunities for one-on-one conversations with hospital representatives throughout the evening.
The community meeting will be 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, May 12, at the John Dennis Wellness Center, 1101 Kalberer Road in West Lafayette.
SCHEDULE FOR HEARINGS ON WEST LAFAYETTE’S UPDATED DOWNTOWN PLAN: A proposed update to West Lafayette’s downtown land use plan, requested by the city council in 2025, will go through a series of public hearings in May and June, according to a schedule released by the Area Plan Commission.
The city asked APC to update a to add 82 acres to the block-by-block, 262-acre downtown land use document, adopted in 2020. The new area includes what the city dubbed the Oakwood Village Neighborhood, which is largely south and west of the Village and Levee areas in the current downtown plan and is seeing increased interest for development. The plan also includes adjustments in the initial map, including development projects started or completed since 2020 and a street grid concept in and around the Levee area that has come into better focus in the past five years.
Here’s a look at the updated plan, as proposed.
The plan will be discussed and considered in three hearings:
APC Ordinance Committee, 4:30 p.m. May 6 at the County Office Building, 20 N. Third St. in Lafayette.
Area Plan Commission, 6 p.m. May 20 at the County Office Building.
West Lafayette City Council, 6:30 p.m. June 1 at city hall, 222 N. Chauncey Ave.
McCUTCHEON, LAFAYETTE JEFF ROBOTICS TEAMS HEAD TO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Good luck to teams from McCutcheon and Lafayette Jefferson high school as they go to the FIRST World Championships next week in Houston, where they’ll face 600 robotics teams.
McCutcheon’s Maverick Robotics team won the FIRST Indiana State Championship, topping 70 teams from Indiana in a competition that had high school teams designing and operating robots to perform various tasks. Maverick Robotics returns to the World Championship after being part of an alliance of teams the won in 2025.
Lafayette Jeff’s team finished 25th out of 70 teams at the state championships, earning the State Engineering Inspiration Award, which qualified the team to compete in the World Championship.
The event in Houston runs from April 29 to May 2.
GLC’S LATINO BUSINESS EXPO: Greater Lafayette Commerce will host its third annual Latino Business Expo from 3-7 p.m. Friday, April 24, at the Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds, 1406 Teal Road in Lafayette. More than 60 businesses are scheduled to be on hand, along with food trucks and kids activities. Admission is free. For more, check here.
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The West Lafayette downtown plan currently includes the apartment complexes off River Road north of the Harrison bridge? Huh.