A Las Vegas woman was awarded more than $34 million after being wrongfully convicted twice for the brutal murder of a homeless man.
Kristin Lobato, 41, who now uses the name Blaise, was arrested at the age of 18 and accused of killing and maiming homeless man Duran Bailey, 44, in Las Vegas in July 2001.
Even though Lobato was 150 miles from the scene in Penaca, Nevada, and with no physical evidence linking her to the murder, she was charged because of a “confession” she made.
The alleged confession was that Lobato told numerous friends months before Bailey’s murder that a black man had tried to rape her in May 2001, claiming she defended the attacker by cutting off his penis with a razor.
After Durán’s death made headlines when he was found mutilated with a broken skull and severed penis, one of Lobato’s friends informed the police of her story and she was taken in for questioning.
Although he admitted to stabbing a man in the groin, he denied police insistence that this constituted a confession to Bailey’s murder and maintained that he was not even in Las Vegas at the time, according to a report. Las Vegas Review Magazine article of the time.
A jury found her guilty of murder based solely on the ‘confession’ when she was 19, until that verdict was thrown out in 2004, as a judge was found to have limited key testimony and not allowed Lobato’s lawyers to cross-examine a witness. .
Lobato was retried in 2006 and found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, mutilation and weapons charges, and sentenced to 13 to 45 years in prison, all while maintaining her innocence.
Kristin Lobato, 41, was awarded more than $34 million after being wrongly convicted twice for the brutal murder of a homeless man in 2001.
Despite no evidence linking her to the scene, Lobato was convicted of the brutal murder of homeless man Juran Bailey (pictured), who was found beaten and mutilated in a parking lot.
Lobato was eventually exonerated and released from prison in late 2017 after the Innocence Project reviewed her case and took it to the Supreme Court.
Attention focused on two Las Vegas detectives, Thomas Thowsen and James LaRochelle, who are now retired, and a civil trial jury found that they fabricated evidence during their investigation.
The defense also cited bloody footprints at the crime scene that were three sizes larger than Lobato’s, and a complete lack of DNA evidence proving he had ever encountered Bailey.
His conviction was overturned after it was discovered that prosecutors relied on a jailhouse “confession” that a witness claimed to have heard, but which Lobato’s lawyers were not allowed to cross-examine.
Even after her murder conviction was thrown out in 2004, Lobato was later sentenced to 13 to 45 years in prison when she was retried.
Upon her release in 2017, at the age of 35, Lobato told reporters: “I feel overwhelmed. I feel excited. I feel grateful. I am very happy and ready to go.”
Prosecutors and the judge involved in his case were condemned when Lobato was released, including accusations that prosecutors ignored “strong alibi evidence” that would have shown Lobato was not in Las Vegas at the time of the murder.
Lobato, seen testifying in her own defense at her trial in 2002, maintained that she was 150 miles from Las Vegas at the time of the murder, and said that the supposed “confessions” were actually her description of how to defend herself from a sexual attack that It happened months before.
When asked if the $34 million award makes up for decades of wrongful conviction, Lobato responded: “I have no idea what the rest of my life is going to be like.”
As Lobato’s long legal saga concluded this week, he was awarded enormous damages: $34 million in compensatory damages from the police department and $10,000 in punitive damages from each former detective, as they were found to have “inflicted anguish upon him.” intentionally”.
Leaving the courthouse, Lobato told reporters: “It’s been an uphill battle with many, many obstacles, and I’m happy it’s finally over.”
When asked if becoming a billionaire would make up for the decades she spent wrongfully convicted, Lobato said she didn’t know and had “no idea what the rest of my life is going to be like.”
Detectives Thomas Thowsen and James LaRochelle, and their attorney, Craig Anderson, declined to comment outside of court.
Anderson told U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware that he planned to file additional court documents after the verdict. Anderson said Friday that an appeal was “likely.”
The department previously agreed to pay damages if the jury ruled in Lobato’s favor.
Last October, a state court judge in Las Vegas issued a certificate declaring Lobato not guilty of Bailey’s murder.