By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-12-14 18:21:54 | Updated at 2024-12-14 20:52:40
2 hours ago
A Las Vegas woman has been awarded over $34 million after she was wrongly convicted twice over the brutal murder of a homeless man.
Kristin Lobato, 41, who now uses the name Blaise, was arrested at the age of 18 and charged with killing and mutilating homeless man Duran Bailey, 44, in Las Vegas in July 2001.
Despite Lobato being 150 miles away from the scene in Penaca, Nevada, and with no physical evidence tying her to the killing, she was charged because of a 'confession' she made.
The so-called confession was Lobato telling numerous friends in months before Bailey's murder that a black man had attempted to rape her in May 2001, claiming she fended the attacker off by slashing at his penis with a pocketknife.
After Duran's death captured headlines as he was found mutilated with a cracked skull and a severed penis, one of Lobato's friends informed the police of her story and she was brought in for questioning.
Although she admitted to stabbing a man in the groin, she denied police's insistence that this constituted a confession of Bailey's murder, and maintained she was not even in Las Vegas at the time, according to a Las Vegas Review Journal article from the time.
A jury found her guilty of murder based solely off the 'confession' when she was 19, until that verdict was thrown out in 2004, as it was found a judge limited key testimony and didn't allow Lobato's lawyers to cross-examine a witness.
Lobato was tried again in 2006 and convicted of manslaughter, mutilation and weapon charges, and sentenced to 13 to 45 years in prison, all while maintaining her innocence.
Kristin Lobato, 41, has been awarded over $34 million after she was wrongly convicted twice over the brutal murder of a homeless man in 2001
Despite no evidence tying her to the scene, Lobato was convicted over the brutal murder of homeless man Juran Bailey (pictured), who was found beaten and mutilated in a parking lot
Lobato was finally exonerated and freed from prison in late 2017 after the Innocence Project examined her case and took it to the Supreme Court.
The focus fell on two Las Vegas detectives, Thomas Thowsen and James LaRochelle, who are now retired, and a civil trial jury found 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 she had ever even encountered Bailey.
Her conviction was overturned after it was found prosecutors relied on a jailhouse 'confession' that a witness claimed to have heard, but that Lobato's attorneys were not allowed to cross examine.
Even after her murder conviction was thrown out in 2004, Lobato was subsequently sentenced to 13 to 45 years in prison when she was retried.
Upon her release in 2017 aged 35, Lobato told reporters: 'I feel overwhelmed. I feel excited. I feel grateful. I’m just so happy and I’m ready to go.'
Prosecutors and the judge involved in her case were condemned when Lobato was freed, including claims the prosecutors ignored 'strong alibi evidence' that would have proved 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 away from Las Vegas at the time of the murder, and said alleged 'confessions' were actually her describing fending off a sex attack that happened months before
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 doing to look like'
At the conclusion of Lobato's long legal saga this week, she was awarded the huge damages - $34 million in compensatory damages from the police department and $10,000 in punitive damages from each former detective - as it was found they 'intentionally inflicted distress' on her.
As she left the courthouse, Lobato told reporters: 'It's been an uphill battle with many, many obstacles, and I’m happy that it’s all finally finished.'
Asked if becoming a multi-millionaire 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 doing to look like.'
The detectives, Thomas Thowsen and James LaRochelle, and their attorney, Craig Anderson, declined to comment outside court.
Anderson told U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware he planned to file additional court documents following the verdict. Anderson said Friday 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 innocent of Bailey’s killing.
