Henderson DA to decide on charges in shooting

Jen Lawson

Friday, Nov. 5, 2004 | 9:50 a.m.

Henderson Police will ask the district attorney's office to determine what criminal charges, if any, should be filed in the shooting Monday of a man who broke into a home looking for his wife.

Police sent the case to the district attorney's office to decide whether to charge the man who shot Mark Raymond Tabat, 44, because the shooting may have been in self-defense, a Henderson Police spokesman said.

Metro Police had responded to reports about 8:40 p.m. Monday that Tabat had battered his wife of one month at their home in Las Vegas, but he fled before officers arrived, police said.

His wife told Metro officers that Tabat was drunk and had beaten her and thrown her clothes in a trash bin. Police noticed she had facial injuries, police said.

After filing a report with police, Tabat's wife went to the home of a male friend who lives in the 3100 block of White Rose Way in Henderson.

Tabat found her there about 10:30 p.m., police said, and forced his way into the house. She called 911, and her friend shot Tabat once in the chest inside the house, police said. Tabat staggered outside, where he was found dead at the curb, police said.

The fact that Tabat broke into the house complicates matters, Rasmussen said, so the district attorney's office will be asked to decide if the homeowner's actions were criminal.

Court records show Tabat has been convicted of three previous felonies in Las Vegas, Metro Police spokesman Sgt. Chris Jones said. Tabat was convicted of burglary three times between 1994 and 1998.