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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Voluntary Manslaughter |
Sentence: |
13 to 35 years |
Years Imprisoned: |
15.1 |
Year Crime: |
2001 |
Year Convicted: |
2006 |
Year Cleared: |
2017 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
Nevada |
County or Region of Crime: |
Clark |
City of Crime: |
Las Vegas |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated Released |
Summary of Case: |
"Kirstin Blaise Lobato was wrongly convicted on October 6, 2006 of voluntary manslaughter and other charges related to the homicide of Duran Bailey on July 8, 2001 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The prosecution of Kirstin Lobato was based on the prosecution's supposition that a statement she made to the police on July 20, 2001 in which she described fending off a rape attempt at a Budget Suites Hotel in east Las Vegas that occurred before mid-June 2001 by using her pocket knife to try and cut her assailant's penis, was the same event as Bailey's homicide weeks after that during which his penis was amputated. Lobato's alibi defense was that on July 8, 2001 she was at her home in Panaca -- 165 miles north of Las Vegas. After Lobato's conviction by a jury for first-degree murder and other charges in May 2002, she was sentenced to 45 years to life in prison. In October 2004 the Nevada Supreme Court reversed Lobato's conviction and ordered a new trial based on errors by Clark County District Court Judge Valorie Vega. After Lobato's retrial a jury convicted her of voluntary manslaughter and other charges. She was sentenced by Judge Vega to 13 to 35 years in prison. Judge Vega also sentenced her to lifetime registration as a sex offender, and lifetime supervison by the DOC as a dangerous criminal. The Nevada Supreme Court's affirmation of Lobato's convictions and sentence became final in October 2009. Justice Denied, based in Seattle, Washington, conducted an intensive investigation that found new evidence not presented at her trial, by more than two dozen witnesses supporting Lobato's actual innocence. In May 2010 Lobato filed a habeas corpus petition that included 79 grounds for a new trial. In August 2011 Judge Vega denied the petition. Lobato appealed. On November 23, 2016 the NSC remanded 27 of her grounds to the District Court: 25 grounds based on new evidence of her actual innocence were to be considered for whether a claim of actual innocence could be raised in a habeas petition under Nevada's post-conviction statute, and if so, what standards of evidence and proof would apply to evaluating an actual innocence claim; and, an evidentiary hearing was to be held to determine if Lobato's trial lawyers provided ineffective assistance of counsel for failing to investigate and present the new forensic evidence in her habeas corpus petition by forensic entomologists: Dr. Gail Anderson, Dr. Linda-Lou O’Connor, and Dr. M. Lee Goff, and forensic pathologist Dr. Glen Larkin, that Bailey died after 8 p.m. on July 8 -- a time when the prosecution conceded during their closing argument credible alibi witnesses proved she was in Panaca. (ADA Sandra DiGiacomo conceeded during her closing argument that evidence established Lobato was in Panaca on July 8, 2001 from late morning until after the discovery of Bailey's body was reported at 10:36 pm.) Judge Vega had retired, so Judge Stefany Miley presided over a five day evidentiary grounds during which Ms. Lobato presented the testimony of three forensic entomologists and a forensic pathologist who provided their expert opinion that Bailey died on the evening of July 8. On December 19, 2017 Judge Miley granted Ms. Lobato's habeas petition and ordered a new trial based on the new forensic evidence she was in Panaca when Bailey died. The Clark County District Attorney's Office decided not to retry Lobato. On December 29, 2017 Clark County District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez vacated the convictions of Kirstin Lobato and granted the Motion to Dismiss the charges against her that was submitted by the Clark County DA's Office. Blaise Lobato had a detainer from an April 2007 gross misdemeanor conviction for conspiracy to have consensual sex with another female prisoner at the FMWCC. Lobato was sentenced to serve 365 days in the Clark County Detention Center consecutive with the completion of her sentences for her 2006 felony convictions, for which she was to be given no credit for time served. Lobato was released about 2pm on January 3, 2018 after Judge Gonzalez granted a motion that was unopposed by the Nevada Attorney General's Office to amend the sentence for Lobato's misdemeanor convicition to be served concurrent with her felony convictions and she was to be given credit for time served in her felony convictions. Judge Gonzalez ordered Lobato's immediate release for time served because she had served more than 15 years wrongly imprisoned for her felony convictions." |
Conviction Caused By: |
Ineffective assistance of counsel for failing to present expert forensic evidence about Duran Bailey's time of death. |
Innocence Proved By: |
"On December 29, 2017 Clark County District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez vacated the convictions of Kirstin Lobato and granted the Motion to Dismiss the charges agaisnt her that was submitted by the Clark County District Attorney's Office." |
Defendant Aided By: |
"Hans Sherrer and the Justice Institute which conducted the post-conviction investigation that resulted in the discovery of new evidence not presented during Kirstin Lobato's trial, by more than two dozen witnesses -- including 10 experts -- that supported her actual innocence. Las Vegas lawyer Travis Barrick represented Lobato in the Clark County Dist. Ct. during the litigation of her habeas corpus petition. J.B. represented Lobato in the Nevada Supreme Court during the appeal of her habeas petition in the district court, and conducted the oral arguments in the Nevada Supreme Court. After Lobato's case was remanded by the Nevada Supreme Court for an evidentiary hearing, Las Vegas attorney David Chesnoff represented Lobato (The Innocence Project in New York assisted Chesnoff during the evidentiary hearing.)" |
Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Identified? |
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Age When Imprisoned: |
18 |
Age When Released: |
35 |
Sex: |
Female |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
White |
Information Source 1: |
"Kirstin Lobato’s Convictions Vacated And Charges Dismissed In 2001 Homicide Case, By Hans Sherrer, Justice Denied, December 29, 2017" |
Information Location 1: |
http://justicedenied.org/wordpress/archives/4109 |
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Book About Case: |
"Kirstin Blaise Lobato's Unreasonable Conviction: Possibility Of Guilt Replaces Proof Beyond A Reasonable Doubt, By Hans Sherrer (Justice Institute 2008, updated 2015)" |
Book Information: |
https://www.amazon.com/Kirstin-Blaise-Lobatos-Unreasonable-Conviction/dp/1434843254 |
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Comments About Case: |
Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org