No bond for woman charged in two Douglas County homicides, attempted assault of third man
OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - The woman authorities say is connected to three shootings, two of them fatal, was formally charged — and denied bond — in Douglas County Court on Tuesday.
Erika Mims, 41, is charged with 11 felony counts on Tuesday, including two counts of first-degree murder, and one count of attempted assault.
No bond was allowed, and her affidavit remains sealed. Her preliminary hearing was scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 22.
Mims stands charged in the murders of Lamar Nedd, found dead near 72nd Street and Rainwood Road in August 2022; and Laron Hodges, whose body was found concealed in his own vehicle at a private impound lot in March.
Those two killings happened just six months apart.
She is also charged with the attempted murder of Ronald Townsend on March 30, 2022. 6 News typically does not name surviving victims of crime but an exception was made in this case, given the nature of the investigation in this case and the plea from authorities for more information about potentially related cases.
Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson said at Monday’s news conference that if Townsend had died, Mims would have “easily met” the FBI definition of a serial killer. But authorities are still investigating the possibility that there may be more victims out there, and asked that anyone with any further information about any of these incidents to contact the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office tip line at 402-444-6000.
Investigators said they believe the motive for the shootings was money. While they didn’t elaborate on the subject, they did say at the news conference that they believed it was over money the men had on their person.
Authorities also said Mims knew all the victims; they weren’t random killings — and they believe Mims had help.
Erykha Wilson, 26, was arrested in June and Kenneth Smith, 42, are both in custody. Each were held on a $5 million bond on charges of being an accessory to Hodges’ murder.
Mims was already in custody when Hanson announced the most recent charges; she had been arrested in March and held since then on a stand-alone gun charge, though she had been grated a $250,000 bond on that charge.