Prosecutors alleged members of a motorcycle club with ties to the Vice Lords street gang tried to kill Indiana Judge Steven Meyer and his wife, Kimberly Meyer, in an attack at the Meyers’ home in Lafayette, according to court documents unsealed Friday. Prosecutors said the attempt was aimed at derailing a domestic abuse case that Steven Meyer was presiding over, and that the case involved Thomas Gregory Moss, who was set to stand trial Tuesday.
Authorities said Steven Meyer and his wife were injured Sunday afternoon in the attack. Prosecutors alleged that Moss’ case—arising from a prior domestic abuse charge—helped set the backdrop for the investigation that followed the shooting, with investigators later tracing the case through surveillance video, discarded clothing, and a tip involving a restaurant.
The documents describe Moss, 43, as a high-ranking member of Phantom MC, a Detroit-based motorcycle club with ties to the Vice Lords. Court records show Moss was charged in 2024 with beating his ex-girlfriend and firing a gun in her home, and that he was scheduled to appear before Meyer in that domestic abuse case when the shooting occurred, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors also alleged that Amanda Milsap approached Moss’ ex-girlfriend at her home in Pennsylvania several weeks earlier. Prosecutors said Milsap told the woman that Moss and the Vice Lords wanted to pay her $10,000 not to testify, and prosecutors said the offer was rejected.
According to prosecutors, Raylen Ferguson, an affiliate of the Almighty Vice Lord Nation gang, and Ferguson’s partner, Zenada Greer, traveled to Lafayette from Lexington, Kentucky, several days before the shooting. Prosecutors said Ferguson traveled to the Meyers’ home on Jan. 16 and knocked, telling them he had a food delivery, then left. Investigators later alleged Ferguson returned on Sunday afternoon, wearing a mask and carrying a shotgun, and authorities said surveillance footage shows the masked man approaching the home.
Prosecutors said Ferguson knocked on the door and told Steven Meyer he was looking for his dog; when the judge told him the dog was not there, prosecutors alleged Ferguson fired through the door. Investigators, using a search dog, later found the shotgun and Ferguson’s mask and clothes discarded near the home, and prosecutors said analysts matched DNA from the mask to Ferguson.
Prosecutors said investigators used the Jan. 16 surveillance footage and other video to identify a food item Ferguson brought to the home and to trace it to a restaurant. Prosecutors said restaurant surveillance video showed a person dressed and moving like Ferguson leaving the establishment.
Police from Indiana, Pennsylvania and Kentucky, along with U.S. marshals and the FBI, worked on the case before the Lafayette Police Department announced late Thursday that Ferguson, Moss, Blake Smith, Milsap and Greer had been arrested, prosecutors said. Prosecutors listed charges including attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, battery and intimidation against Moss, Ferguson and Smith; prosecutors said Milsap faces bribery and obstruction counts, and that Greer was charged with helping a criminal and obstruction.
Steven Meyer issued a statement thanking police and saying it’s important to allow the judicial process to move forward. Indiana Chief Justice Loretta Rush also released a statement saying a special judge appointment is expected Monday.
Rush’s news release noted that threats against judges have risen in recent years. She said more than 150 of 214 judges who responded to a 2023 security survey reported they had been threatened. The release also cited that the Wisconsin Supreme Court recorded 188 threats against judges in 2024, compared with 232 in 2023 and 74 in 2022, and referenced that retired Wisconsin state Judge John Roemer was shot and killed in 2022.