A federal jury in Nevada awarded $34 million in damages to Kristin Lobato, a woman wrongly convicted of a 2001 murder and imprisoned for nearly 16 years.
The jury found Thursday that Las Vegas police and two detectives fabricated evidence and caused emotional distress during the investigation, leading to Lobato's wrongful imprisonment.
Lobato, now 41 and known as Blaise, was 18 at the time of her arrest. She was convicted twice of the murder of Duran Bailey, a homeless man whose body was found near a dumpster with his throat cut and other injuries.
Despite a lack of physical evidence or eyewitnesses linking her to the crime, police alleged she confessed to killing Bailey in self-defense during a methamphetamine binge.
After the verdict, Lobato said: “It has been an uphill battle with many, many obstacles. And I'm happy that it's finally all over.” However, he admitted uncertainty about his future, stating: “I have no idea what the rest of my life will be like.”
The jury awarded Lobato $34 million in compensatory damages from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and an additional $10,000 in punitive damages from each of the two retired detectives involved, Thomas Thowsen and James LaRochelle.
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Lobato was first convicted of murder in 2002, but the Nevada Supreme Court overturned the verdict in 2004 due to her attorneys' failure to cross-examine a critical witness. In 2006, she was retried, convicted of involuntary manslaughter, and sentenced to up to 45 years in prison.
Lobato's exoneration came in 2017 after the Innocence Project and its legal team presented evidence showing she was in Panaca, Nevada, more than 150 miles from the crime scene, at the time of Bailey's murder. The Nevada Supreme Court ultimately overturned his conviction.
Last year, a state judge issued a certificate declaring Lobato not guilty, although this action has been challenged by Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill and District Attorney Steve Wolfson, who called for a state investigation into how the certificate.
Outside court, attorneys for the retired detectives declined to comment and their representative, Craig Anderson, flagged a possible appeal.
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