LAS VEGAS – Defense attorneys say Las Vegas police were aware a suspect in a neighborhood woman's killing was smoking marijuana before he surrendered, and they questioned him while he was high.
Erich Milton Nowsch Jr.'s lawyer, Augustus Claus, said Tuesday that police were talking by telephone with Nowsch while he smoked pot during a brief standoff last week.
Claus says that casts doubt on anything the 19-year-old Nowsch told investigators following his arrest.
Police and prosecutors aren't commenting.
Nowsch's lawyers and the slain woman's husband say they don't believe the case involved road rage, like everyone originally believed.
Nowsch's other lawyer, Conrad Claus, says Nowsch might claim self-defense because Tammy Meyers and her armed 22-year-old son went looking for Nowsch before the fatal Feb. 12 shooting.
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