Book aims to set record straight in Tammy Meyers’ slaying

It’s been nearly eight months since Tammy Meyers, a 44-year-old mother of four, was gunned down in front of the family’s northwest valley driveway.

“I don’t think I’ve gotten her name cleared yet,” he said. “In my mind, how can she rest in peace, when I’m upset over what people are saying, and there’s still skepticism over what happened that night?”

He has struggled with seeing the memory of his wife tarnished in erroneous tabloid newspaper reports, TV news stories and comments on news websites. False reports that her death was the result of a drug deal gone bad spilled into the coverage and were followed by rumors that her family lied about what she was doing the night she was killed.

“An innocent woman got murdered, and then she got murdered again in the media,” Meyers said. “I find it crazy that I have to defend her name.”

He wants his memory of her to be the one that lasts, which is how public relations specialist Mark Fierro entered the picture.

A Book Deal

Not long after the homicide, the husband and the public relations professional started talking and the idea for a book developed “organically,” Fierro said.

Meyers and Fierro said they hope that “Road Rage in Las Vegas: The Senseless Murder of Tammy Meyers,” the first of at least two books (the case against a pair of defendants has yet to be resolved), paints a picture of a “good woman,” who loved her family and helped those in need.

Fierro declined to say how much he was paid to write the 71-page downloadable text, which was published on the couple’s 25th anniversary last week as Meyers’ gift to his late wife and a message to those who have followed the story of her slaying.

Fierro, a former television news reporter, runs Fierro Communications, “a strategic publicity machine,” according to the firm’s website. The company boasts of crafting a “favorable image” and “swaying public opinion to the success of our clients.”

International media pounced on the Feb. 12 shooting of Tammy Meyers almost immediately because initial reports described a road rage incident that led to her death two days later. When the story unfolded, through Bob Meyers accounts and Las Vegas police reports, reporters and readers began to question the circumstances of Tammy Meyers’ death. And in some cases, the news reports turned out inaccurate.

Prosecutors have said she was the victim of mistaken identity. Authorities claim Erich Nowsch fired a shot from a .45-caliber Colt handgun that struck Tammy Meyers in the head. Nowsch confessed to the killing during a police interrogation about a week after Meyers died. Nowsch told a homicide detective he thought he was shooting at people who had threatened him and his family.

As the months dragged on and details of the shooting emerged, international and national media pulled away from the story, though local reporters still attend almost every court appearance for Nowsch and his alleged getaway driver, Derrick Andrews, both of whom face murder charges.

Media Criticism

The book about Tammy Meyers begins with her husband learning of the shooting. Fierro spends the first seven pages having Bob Meyers describe his frantic drive from Kernville, Calif., where he had been stationed for work, to Las Vegas.

When he arrived at University Medical Center, reporters pounced on him.

While the title of the book plays on the element of the story that attracted reporters in the first place, Fierro vehemently attacks the media. At the halfway point of the book, Fierro writes “Chapter 6: Blaming the Victim.”

“The drumbeat of uninformed social media posts, devoid of firsthand knowledge, filled with ignorance and self loathing, whipped each other into a frenzied pace that only served to further confuse the public,” Fierro writes.

Fierro points to the “blistering heat of a community that would savage Tammy’s memory and accuse her of nearly every nefarious act imaginable.” He calls the public response “one of the city’s darkest hours.”

Fierro pointedly attacks British tabloid media for erroneously reporting that Tammy Meyers was buying drugs from Nowsch.

“Las Vegas is a city with some history when it comes to nefarious criminals,” Fierro writes. “Few were ever painted in such a horrible light and Tammy was the victim.”

Fierro’s work is an attempt to polish an image of Tammy Meyers that he said was “tarnished beyond recognition.”

“Chapter 8: A Media Environment Gone Mad” consists of a page and a half of quotes from Nowsch’s defense lawyer Conrad Claus, the U.K Daily Mail, Facebook and the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s online comments section.

In a press release announcing the publication, Fierro claimed that it was based “on exclusive, in-depth interviews with the family as well as legal and law enforcement sources.”

But everything in the book regarding the killing and Nowsch has been previously reported.

Fierro declined to name his sources with the police or in the legal community, saying he had not spoken with anyone directly tied to the case.

Fierro is no stranger to high-profile cases. He worked as a spokesman for defense lawyers representing Conrad Murray, the personal physician found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the 2009 death of pop star Michael Jackson.

He’s also familiar with controversy.

He was hired by construction defects lawyer Nancy Quon when she was targeted in a federal investigation of homeowners associations. She later committed suicide.

In 2012, Las Vegas police raided his office during an investigation of an alleged extortion plot against County Commissioner Steve Sisolak. Fierro, who represented Sisolak’s ex-girlfriend, was not charged.

Trial Impact

In a request last week to postpone the upcoming trial, Nowsch’s lawyers cited the book as one reason they needed more time to work on their defense.

“The family of Tammy Meyers has published a ‘tell-all’ book describing the murder and seeking to prejudice the jury pool,” attorney Augustus Claus said.

Prosecutors argued in a response that the book would be irrelevant at trial.

If she were still alive, Bob and Tammy Meyers would have spent their anniversary at Pismo Beach, Calif., one of their favorite getaway spots. They would have shared a few glasses of wine and relished in their humble, quiet life.

“We had all these plans,” Bob Meyers said. “And it was going to be just me and her.”

Once Meyers sees justice in the courtroom and his wife’s reputation cleared, he plans to place her remains in a family plot.

In the meantime, Meyers keeps his wife’s ashes close at home.

“She’s right here with us.”

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