Police have arrested five people as part of a multi-state investigation into the shooting of an Indiana judge and his wife while they were at home on Sunday.
Lafayette Police said in a statement Thursday that the five were arrested following an extensive investigation into the shooting of Judge Steven Meyer and his wife, Kimberly, in the city on Jan. 18.
Both victims were in a stable condition following the attack, which happened around 2:17 p.m. The judge was injured on his arm, his wife on her hip.
Raylen Ferguson, 38, from Lexington, Kentucky; Thomas Moss, 43, from Lafayette; and Blake Smith, 32, also from Lafayette, were all arrested on charges of attempted murder — a level one felony in Indiana — and conspiracy to commit murder, among other charges related to the attack.
Those three suspects were arrested on additional charges of gang enhancement and firearm enhancement, which prosecutors can use to call for a longer prison sentence in the event of a conviction. Moss and Smith were also listed as “habitual offenders.”
Police also arrested Amanda Milsap, 45, from Lafayette, on charges of bribery and obstruction of justice, and Zenada Greer, 61, from Lexington, Kentucky, on charges of assisting a criminal and obstruction of justice.
While police did not say what the motive behind the attack may have been, one of the suspects charged with attempted murder had been set to go before the judge in a separate trial that was scheduled to start days after the shooting.
Court records show that Moss was charged in 2024 with a range of felonies, including domestic battery and unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon. He had also been charged with shooting a firearm into a building. His trial had been postponed several times and was supposed to start on Jan. 20.
A receptionist who answered the phone for Benjamin Jaffe, an Indianapolis attorney listed for Moss, said Jaffe’s office had no comment on the case.
It was not immediately clear whether the other suspects in the judge’s shooting had legal representation.
LPD said the arrests were made in collaboration between a long list of agencies across multiple states, including police in Lexington and Allentown, Pennsylvania, the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Steven Meyer said in a statement issued by the Indiana Judicial Branch on Tuesday that he was grateful for the “support from friends, the community, court colleagues, and law enforcement” and the medical team that treated him and his wife.
“I want the community to know that I have strong faith in our judicial system. This horrific violence will not shake my belief in the importance of peacefully resolving disputes. I remain confident we have the best judicial system in the world, and I am proud to be a part of it,” he said.
Loretta H. Rush, the chief justice of Indiana, said in a statement on Sunday that she worried “about the safety of all our judges.”
“As you work to peacefully resolve more than 1 million cases a year, you must not only feel safe, you must also be safe. Any violence against a judge or a judge’s family is completely unacceptable. As public servants, you are dedicated to the rule of law,” she said.
Steven Meyer, who was elected to the state bench in 2014, had recently said he would not seek re-election in November and planned to retire. He practiced law in the Lafayette area for 30 years and is a former president of Lafayette City Council.
Lafayette is located about an hour outside of Indianapolis.
CORRECTION (Jan. 23, 2026, 11:00 a.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated the name of the body that issued a statement from Steven Meyer. It is the Indiana Judicial Branch, not the Indiana Judicial Bench. The story has also been updated to reflect that the charges of attempted murder are a level-one felony, rather than a charge in the first degree.
News
A Close Friend Speaks Out After Kouri Richins Is Convicted — An 8-Word Statement That’s Sending Shockwaves Across the U.S
Ali Staking talks about how she and her family reacted to Eric Richins’ sudden death and Kouri Richins’ subsequent murder trial. (ABC News) (NEW YORK) — After Kouri Richins was charged with murder for fatally poisoning her husband with fentanyl, a friend of the Utah mother of three had a difficult time reconciling that. In an exclusive […]
Unexpected Evidence: Kouri Richins’ book is now at the center of the case, allegedly pointing toward her involvement in her husband’s death
A year after her husband’s sudden 2022 death, Utah mother-of-three Kouri Richins self-published a children’s book about coping with grief, called Are You With Me? In promotional interviews with local media, Richins said she had written the book with her kids, the oldest of whom was 10. She told NPR member station KPCW in April 2023 that the […]
New Defense Argument: “A mother who truly loves her children wouldn’t do this,” says Kouri Richins’ lawyer, alongside the release of more than 200 pages of evidence
Prosecutors say Kouri Richins slipped five times the lethal dose of the synthetic opioid into a cocktail that he drank A Utah woman was convicted on Monday of aggravated murder after poisoning her husband with fentanyl and then self-publishing a children’s book about coping with grief. Prosecutors said Kouri Richins slipped five times the lethal dose of the synthetic […]
Shocking Court Evidence: A 1,000+ page dossier presented by a jury member is now revealing how Kouri Richins allegedly carried out the crime — with the first 10 pages said to expose everything
A juror in the murder trial of Utah children’s book author Kouri Richins is speaking out for the first time, describing how the panel went from early sympathy to a unanimous guilty verdict in the fentanyl poisoning death of her husband. Richins, 35, now faces the possibility of spending the rest of her life in […]
A Massive 1,000+ Page Case File Presented in Court Is Now Shedding Light on Kouri Richins’ Alleged Actions — And the First 10 Pages Already Reveal Key Details
A juror in the murder trial of Utah children’s book author Kouri Richins is speaking out for the first time, describing how the panel went from early sympathy to a unanimous guilty verdict in the fentanyl poisoning death of her husband. Richins, 35, now faces the possibility of spending the rest of her life in […]
Unexpected Background: The missing U.S. college student in Barcelona is now revealed to have a famous grandfather back home
James “Jimmy” GraceyGia đình Gracey The body of 20-year-old James “Jimmy” Gracey, nephew of CNN senior producer David Gracey, has been found along a Barcelona beach, CNN is reporting. CNN was informed of the identification by a police spokesperson. The news network says that police don’t suspect foul play, and that the Gracey family has […]
End of content
No more pages to load
