Jury finds Las Vegas police fabricated evidence in 2001 murder, awards $34M to convicted woman.

• Kirstin Lobato was arrested at age 18, wrongfully convicted twice, and served nearly 16 years in a Nevada state prison for a 2001 murder she did not commit.
• Lobato was awarded more than $34 million after a civil trial jury found Las Vegas police and two detectives, now retired, fabricated evidence during their investigation and intentionally inflicted emotional distress on Lobato.
• Lobato was released from prison in 2017 after the Innocence Project and Las Vegas attorneys took his case back to the state Supreme Court, showing evidence that Lobato was 150 miles away from Las Vegas when the crime was committed.

A federal judge in Nevada has awarded more than $34 million to a woman who was arrested at age 18, wrongfully convicted twice, and served nearly 16 years in a Nevada state prison for a 2001 murder she did not commit.

Kirstin Lobato, 41, who goes by the name Blaise, cried and hugged her lawyers after the judge read the verdict Thursday in US District Court, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

“It was a difficult battle with many obstacles,” he told reporters. “And I'm glad it's all over at last.”

A PHILLY MAN WAS CONVICTED AFTER SERVING 24 YEARS FOR MURDER.

Lobato said he doesn't know if being a millionaire will make up for the years in prison, adding that “he doesn't know what the rest of my life will be like.”

A civil trial judge found Las Vegas police and two detectives, now retired, fabricated evidence during their investigation and intentionally inflicted emotional distress on Lobato. The panel ruled that Lobato should receive $34 million in compensatory damages from the department and $10,000 in punitive damages from each of the former investigators.

The detectives, Thomas Thowsen and James LaRochelle, and their attorney, Craig Anderson, declined to comment outside of court. Anderson told US District Judge Richard Boulware that he plans to file additional lawsuits following the ruling. Anderson said Friday that an appeal is “possible.”

Earlier, the department agreed to pay damages if the judge ruled in favor of Lobato.

Lobato was 18 when he was interviewed by police without a lawyer, arrested and charged with the murder of Duran Bailey in Las Vegas in July 2001. Bailey, who was homeless, was found dead next to a trash can with a severed neck, a fractured skull and missing. private parts.

No physical evidence or witnesses linked Lobato to the murder, and he maintained that he had never met Bailey. But the police insisted that he confessed in prison that he killed a man who tried to rape him while he was high on methamphetamine for three days.

Lobato was 19 when he was convicted of murder in 2002. The Nevada Supreme Court overturned that conviction and Lobato's prison sentence in 2004 because his lawyers could not cross-examine a prosecution witness who testified that Lobato had confessed in prison.

Lobato was tried again in 2006, convicted of murder, maiming and weapons, and sentenced to 13 to 45 years in prison.

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He was acquitted and released from prison in late 2017 after the Innocence Project and Las Vegas attorneys refiled his case to the state Supreme Court. Justice said the evidence showed that Lobato was at his home in Panaca, Nevada, about 150 kilometers 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.

That action is being 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 Lobato's lawyers obtained the certificate of innocence.