Exonerated woman awarded $34M after jury finds Las Vegas police fabricated evidence in 2001 killing
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 state prison for a 2001 killing she did not commit.
Kirstin Lobato, who is now 41 and uses the name Blaise, cried and hugged her attorneys after a judge read the trial verdict Thursday in U.S. District Court, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
"It’s been an uphill battle with many, many obstacles," she told reporters. "And I’m happy that it’s all finally finished."
Lobato said she didn't know if becoming a millionaire would make up for years in prison, adding that she had "no idea what the rest of my life is going to look like."
The civil trial jury found Las Vegas police and two detectives, now retired, fabricated evidence during their investigation and intentionally inflicted emotional distress upon Lobato. The panel determined that Lobato should receive $34 million in compensatory damages from the department and $10,000 in punitive damages from each former detective.
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.
Lobato was 18 when she was interviewed by police without an attorney, arrested and charged with killing Duran Bailey in Las Vegas in July 2001. Bailey, who had been homeless, was found dead near a trash bin with a slashed neck, cracked skull and missing genitals.
No physical evidence or witnesses connected Lobato to the killing, and she maintained she never met Bailey. But police maintained she confessed in jail that she had killed a man who tried to rape her during a three-day methamphetamine binge.
Lobato was 19 when she was convicted of murder in 2002. The Nevada Supreme Court threw out that verdict and Lobato’s prison sentence in 2004 because her lawyers weren’t able to cross-examine a prosecution witness who testified that Lobato made the jailhouse confession.
Lobato was tried again in 2006, convicted of manslaughter, mutilation and weapon charges, and sentenced to 13 to 45 years in prison.
She was exonerated and freed from prison in late 2017 after the Innocence Project and attorneys in Las Vegas again took her case to the state Supreme Court. Justices said evidence showed that Lobato was in her hometown of Panaca, Nevada, some 150 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 killing.
That action was challenged by Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill and Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson in a letter asking state Attorney General Aaron Ford to investigate how and why attorneys for Lobato acquired the certificate of innocence.