Vegas ‘Road Rage’ Suspects Plead Guilty in Mother of Four’s Shooting Death
Tammy Meyers, 44, died last year after taking her daughter for a driving lesson.
-- Update: A month after Eric Nowsch pleaded guilty, he was back in court, telling the judge that “he was never fully consulted about available defenses” and asking the judge to allow him to withdraw his guilty plea. Nowsch recently obtained new attorneys and a judge will decide in August whether to throw out his plea deal and set a date for a new trial.
Two men charged with killing a mother of four in a suspected Las Vegas "road rage" incident last year have entered guilty pleas today.
Tammy Meyers, 44, died on Valentine's Day, Feb. 14, 2015, two days after she was shot in her driveway after taking her daughter Kristal Meyers, then 15, for her first driving lesson.
Erich Nowsch Jr., 20, who lived a block away from the Meyers family, was charged with conspiracy to commit murder, murder with use of a deadly weapon, attempted murder with a deadly weapon and discharge of a firearm from or within a structure or vehicle, in the death of Tammy Meyers. A second suspect, Derrick Andrews, 26, who prosecutors allege drove Nowsch to the cul-de-sac where Tammy Meyers lived, also faced the same charges.
The two men pleaded guilty at a hearing on Friday as part of a plea deal with prosecutors. They are expected to be sentenced on April 21.
Nowsch pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon. He faces a possible sentence of 10 years to life in prison.
Andrews, who is accused of driving the getaway car that fateful evening, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, which carries a possible sentence of 1 to 10 years in prison, and one count of accessory to murder, which carries a possible sentence of up to 5 years in prison.
"I admit that I was present and that I drove him to the scene and drove him out of the scene," Andrews told the judge at the hearing.
Meyers' husband Bob Meyers sat quietly in the courtroom with his face in his hands while the men accepted the plea agreement.
"One, I'm happy it's over and that after sentencing we'll be able to start our healing. After sentencing I'll be able to bury my wife," Bob Meyers told ABC News' "20/20" afterwards. "I'm very confident that the judge will give both defendants the max due to the gravity and seriousness of the crime."
Kristal Meyers told "20/20" in an exclusive interview that aired last month that she still replays the night her mother was shot and killed.
"I just think about looking out the window mostly and seeing her fall," Kristal Meyers, now 16, told "20/20." "I just wonder, like, why it all happened. Just why would somebody want to kill somebody?"
The night Tammy Meyers was killed, Kristal Meyers said she and her mother went out for a driving lesson around 10 p.m. They were on their way home when Kristal said they were side-swiped by a silver car and a man got out and threatened them. When they got home, her brother Brandon Meyers told "20/20" that he grabbed his gun and went back out with his mother to look for the unknown man, leaving Kristal at home. After driving around, Brandon said his mother spotted a silver car that she thought was the one who had hit her earlier. They followed the car and someone inside, who police believe was Nowsch, started shooting at them. Brandon said they fled back home, where police say Nowsch followed them and shot and killed Tammy Meyers in her drive way.
Brandon Meyers said he didn't think there was going to be a shootout, "until they started shooting. And then it was just -- I blacked out. Like, at that point when I saw them coming down, like, my heart just stopped. All this adrenaline built up, and that's where it all went down."
Khatelyn Krizstian, 23, told ABC News' "20/20" in an exclusive interview that aired last month that her friend Nowsch called her in the middle of the night and said, "'There's something important. I have to talk to you. I need to talk to you now.'"
Krisztian said Nowsch showed up at her apartment at 4 a.m. on Feb 13, 2015, confessing to shooting at someone in his neighborhood.
"And the first words out of his mouth [were], 'I got them,'" Krisztian said.
An aspiring rapper and alleged neighborhood drug dealer, Nowsch had previously told Krisztian that he had been receiving anonymous death threats for months from whom he thought were rival drug dealers.
Days laters Krisztian said her then-boyfriend showed her a local TV news article online detailing how a mother was gunned down in front of her house next to her car. Krisztian said she immediately realized Nowsch hadn't shot at rival drug dealers, but he may have shot Meyers. Krisztian said she didn't even finish reading the story and called police right away.
"I told them what had happened. I felt that this was more of, like, [a] moral obligation. Out of all the names in the world, Tammy was also my mom's name, so I just feel like heaven puts people where they should be," Krisztian said. "It was more of a moral responsibility rather than anything else."
Tammy Meyers' husband Bob Meyers and their four children have moved out of their neighborhood because it is a constant reminder of what happened to her, the family said.
"I catch myself all the time calling her. I'll sit in my chair out in the living room, and I'll go, 'Hey, baby.' Nothing comes back no more," Bob Meyers told "20/20."
Kristal, the youngest Meyers child, is still dealing with feelings of guilt.
"I ask myself, 'What if we didn't go?' or 'What if I didn't want to go?' or 'What if I never honked horn?'" Kristal Meyers said. "It probably would have been different."