- Kerstin Lobato was arrested at age 18, wrongly convicted twice, and served nearly 16 years in a Nevada state prison for a 2001 murder she didn't commit.
- A jury in a civil trial found that the Las Vegas Police Department and two now-retired detectives fabricated evidence during the investigation and intentionally caused Lobato emotional distress, awarding her more than $34 million. compensation was paid.
- After the Innocence Project, Lobato was acquitted and released in 2017, and her Las Vegas lawyer filed the case again in state Supreme Court, presenting evidence that Lobato was about 250 miles away from Las Vegas at the time of the crime. .
A federal jury in Nevada has awarded more than $34 million to a woman who was arrested at age 18, wrongly convicted twice and served nearly 16 years in a Nevada prison for a 2001 murder she didn't commit. .
Kirsten Lobato, 41, who now goes by the name Blaze, cried and hugged her lawyers after a judge read the verdict in her case in U.S. District Court on Thursday, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. .
“It's been an uphill battle with so many obstacles,” she told reporters. “And I'm glad it's all finally over.”
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Lobato said he didn't know if becoming a millionaire would make up for his years in prison, adding: “I have no idea what the rest of my life will be like.”
A jury in the civil trial found that the Las Vegas Police Department and two now-retired detectives fabricated evidence during the investigation and intentionally caused Lobato emotional distress. The committee determined that Mr. Lobato should receive $34 million in compensatory damages from the department and $10,000 in punitive damages from each former detective.
Detectives Thomas Thorsen and James LaRochelle and their attorney Craig Anderson declined to comment outside the courtroom. Anderson told U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware that he plans to file additional court documents after sentencing. Anderson said Friday that an appeal is “likely.”
Kirstin Lobato smiles with attorneys Elizabeth Wang and David Owens outside the Lloyd George U.S. Courthouse in Las Vegas on December 12, 2024. (KM Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal, via AP)
The department had previously agreed to pay damages if a jury ruled in Lobato's favor.
Lobato was 18 years old when she was interviewed by police without a lawyer and was arrested and charged with the July 2001 murder of Duran Bailey in Las Vegas. Mr Bailey, who was homeless, was found dead with a decapitated head and a cracked skull near a trash can, and he was reported missing. genital.
There was no physical evidence or witnesses linking Lobato to the murder, and Lobato claimed he had never met Bailey. But police claimed she confessed in prison to killing the man who tried to rape her during a three-day methamphetamine overdose.
Lobato was 19 years old when she was convicted of murder in 2002. The Nevada Supreme Court threw out that verdict and Lobato's prison sentence in 2004 because his attorneys were unable to cross-examine a prosecution witness who testified that Lobato had confessed in prison.
Lobato was tried again in 2006, found guilty of manslaughter, mutilation, and weapons charges, and sentenced to 13 to 45 years in prison.
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She was exonerated and released in late 2017 after the Innocence Project and Las Vegas lawyers took her case again to state Supreme Court. The judges said evidence showed Lovato was in her hometown of Panaca, Nevada, about 240 miles from Las Vegas, when Bailey was killed.
Last October, a state court judge in Las Vegas issued a certificate declaring Lobato innocent of Bailey's murder.
In response to the lawsuit, Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill and Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson asked State Attorney General Aaron Ford to explain how and why Lobato's lawyers obtained the certificate of innocence. They raised their objections in a letter asking for an investigation.
