71°F
weather icon Cloudy

Man arrested in wife’s death in south Las Vegas

Updated July 30, 2019 - 2:50 pm

A Las Vegas man accused of killing his wife and then reporting her death as a suicide Monday night is facing a murder charge.

Las Vegas police said 46-year-old Sebastian Lord called 911 shortly before 9 p.m. to say that his wife had shot herself inside a home on the 10000 block of Casselman Court, near East Cactus Avenue and South Maryland Parkway. Officers arrived to find a woman dead inside the house.

“Based on some suspicious aspects about the male’s story and the scene, homicide detectives responded and assumed charge of the investigation,” Metropolitan Police Department Lt. David Gordon said.

Lord told police he was home with his wife the previous night and had gone to bed about 10 p.m., a news release later said. She was dead when he awoke, he told them.

Lord and his teenage son went to California and returned later that evening, at which time Lord called police about his wife. Detectives interviewed him and his son and then jailed Lord in the Clark County Detention Center on a murder charge.

At Lord’s initial court hearing Tuesday, prosecutors said he told his son that he planned to shoot his wife before her death.

Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Ann Zimmerman ordered that he be held without bail.

“If you can afford an attorney, I would suggest you start working on it,” Zimmerman told him.

The Clark County coroner’s office will identify the woman after relatives have been notified of her death. The death is the 81st homicide in Clark County this year and the 60th investigated by Metro, according to records maintained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Lord is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Thursday.

Contact Marvin Clemons at mclemons@reviewjournal.com or at 702-383-0217. Review-Journal staff writers Max Michor, Rio Lacanlale and Mike Shoro contributed to this report.

Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook.
THE LATEST