Victim hoping ex-boyfriend sees prison time in shooting case

Four months after a Las Vegas woman was shot, she hopes the criminal justice system will help her stop living in fear by putting her assailant in jail.

Rayven Thomas remembers sprinting through her apartment complex July 9 after her ex-boyfriend, Leroy Mack, showed up to argue with Thomas. The argument got physical, and Thomas took off running. Mack chased her and fired a shot, which struck Thomas in the back, according to a police report from the Metropolitan Police Department.

She kept running, unsure if he was still chasing her. She ran to her sister’s apartment in the same complex and called for help. She was taken to University Medical Center where she was treated for a gunshot wound to the back, according to the police report.

“As I laid in the hospital bed I was just in disbelief how a person you think you know, you really don’t know,” she said. “It’s hard to really believe that someone is capable of shooting you if they say that they love you.”

Thomas took about a month to physically recover from the shooting, she said, but Mack continued to harass her. She filed a temporary protection order, but Thomas said Mack showed up at her job, left things outside her front door, sent texts and called her from 10 different phone numbers.

“I found myself sleeping on the floor under the curtain with my pistol,” she said. “I don’t think it’s fair that I have to live like this and he gets to live worry free.”

On Aug. 23, Thomas told police that Mack kicked down her front door because he thought she was hanging out with another man, according to the report. She told police at the time that she asked him multiple times to leave before he kicked in the door.

Mack declined to speak to police in both cases, according to the police reports.

Mack was arrested and on a home invasion charge. He was released on $50,000 bail the next day, and the case was combined with the shooting case, where he was booked on charges of attempted murder and domestic battery, according to Las Vegas Justice Court records.

“I can’t walk around comfortably because I know he’s out on the street,” Thomas said in light of Mack posting bail.

The case was moved to the Clark County District Court, where Mack accepted a plea deal and faces one charge of battery resulting in substantial bodily harm. The charge carries a sentence of up to five years in prison.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Hagar Trippiedi said she plans to ask for the maximum sentence during the hearing, which is scheduled for Dec. 1.

Mack pleaded guilty to one count of felony drug trafficking in 1992 and one count of attempted murder in 1996, according to court records.

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.