Grand jury report tells story about night of Tammy Meyers’ death

Erich Nowsch thought he was being followed by people who had threatened him and his family.

Tammy Meyers wanted to track down a man who said he would kill her and her daughter.

And when the worlds of Nowsch and Meyers collided on Feb. 12, she wound up dead after a shootout in front of her home, according to transcripts from grand jury testimony released this the weekend.

Nowsch, 19, faces charges of first-degree murder, attempted murder and discharging a gun into a vehicle in connection with the slaying of 44-year-old Meyers, a mother of four who died two days later.

Family members told the grand jury that Meyers was teaching her 15-year-old daughter, Kristal, to parallel park at Johnson Junior High School the night she was shot.

Four people — Brandon Meyers, Kristal Meyers, Khatelyn Krisztain and homicide detective Clifford Mogg — testified earlier this month before the grand jury.

Defense lawyers Conrad Claus and Augustus Claus have questioned the Meyers family account of what happened the night of the shooting. The Meyers family initially described a road rage incident after a crash — police do not believe there was ever a collision — and negelected to say that Tammy Meyers and her son had gone out hunting for the other car.

“We’re really not trying to say anything prejudicial right now,” Augustus Claus said of the grand jury transcripts.

Kristal Meyers testified that after her mother gave her a 50-minute driving lesson in a green Buick, another driver swerved around their car, got out of his silver sedan and threatened them.

“I’m going to kill you and your daughter,” the man said.

But that man was not Nowsch, she said, describing a man who was 6 feet tall and 180 pounds. That person has not been identified, and it is not clear whether authorities are searching for him. Nowsch is 5-foot, 4-inches tall and weighs about 120 pounds.

“I’m screaming ‘mommy, mommy, mommy, go,’” she testified.

Tammy Meyers had sped home on Mount Shasta Circle, where she called for her son, Brandon Meyers. He said he tried to convince her to stay home.

“Let’s go inside,” he recalled saying. “Let’s call the police.”

But she said she would leave without him, so, he grabbed his 9mm Beretta and hopped in the car. They went searching for the vehicle, the Beretta in his lap.

Between 10:30 and 11 p.m., they spotted a four-door gray sedan with tinted windows near Alta and Villa Monterey drives. Kristal Meyers testified that the windows were not tinted on the vehicle at the school.

Tammy and Brandon Meyers followed the car until it stopped at a light about two blocks away.

Nowsch told investigators that he was waving his gun out of the passenger window, “and he couldn’t believe that the car that was behind him didn’t see that and stop and just go away,” Mogg testified.

That’s when Brandon Meyers reported “seeing a bunch of flashes and loud sounds as a gun being shot towards us.”

He hunkered down in the passenger seat as his mother sped back home. He had his cell phone with him, but he said he didn’t call police because he was “basically in shock. Just complete shock. I’ve never been shot at. I’ve never gone through something like that. I think about it to this day. I don’t know why I didn’t. I was just in complete shock.”

When they arrived home, Tammy Meyers was trying to get out of her car but didn’t have time to make it inside the house, her son testified.

“As I was pulling her out, I saw headlights coming down Carmel Peak, so I pushed her inside,” Brandon Meyers said. “For safety.”

He said he ran toward the house but was about 20 feet from the door when he heard gunshots.

“I relayed fire,” he said.

The gray sedan car sped away, and he ran toward the driver’s side door of his mother’s car where she was “standing up, and then she fell right there.”

Interviewed by Mogg a week after the shooting, Nowsch initially denied his involvement. But when investigators told him that his story did not match with others, he said “OK. I’m going to tell you what happened. I’ll tell you the truth. You don’t have to ask me all these questions. I’ll tell you.”

He said he had a Ruger .45-caliber handgun because he had been threatened, Mogg testified. Some people had threatened to skin his cat, his little sister and his mother, he said, though he didn’t elaborate on what the threat was about, never reported it to police and didn’t give names to detectives after the incident. He said someone else, named Stan, also threatened him, but the detective could not further identify him.

Nowsch told the detective he was standing in the park across the street from the middle school when he noticed the green car that seemed to be following him.

“So he thought for sure these were the people that were after him,” Mogg told the grand jury.

Nowsch called two friends he refused to identify and asked for their help, Mogg testified. Then Nowsch climbed into a silver Audi with another man he refused to identify, and who is still sought by police. The green car drove up behind them and followed as they drove away, he said.

Nowsch did not break away after his initial shots at the car.

“He goes to the Mount Shasta location and follows the green car and comes in relatively closely behind it,” prosecutor David Stanton said.

Nowsch said he fired at Brandon Meyers as he tried to run away.

“I can’t let this motherf—-er get away from me,” the detective quoted Nowsch as saying.

Nowsch told investigators that he learned only later that the victim was someone he knew, Tammy Meyers. They lived within a block of each other. He had been to her house for dinner, and knew Kristal.

Police have not found Nowsch’s gun, but his friend Khatelyn Krisztian told the grand jury that he showed up at her house early the morning after the shooting, carrying a backpack, the gun and a knife.

“I got them,” he told her.

Contact reporter David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker