A Nevada woman, Kirstin Blaise Lobato, who spent almost 16 years in prison, was recently awarded $34 million by a federal jury. The jury found that local police intentionally caused her emotional distress during their investigation of the murder she was wrongfully convicted of. The verdict was issued last week in a federal civil trial, with the jury siding with Blaise, now 41 years old, as reported by the Associated Press and KVVU-TV.
Retired Las Vegas detectives Thomas Thowsen and James LaRochelle were accused of fabricating evidence during the investigation, according to Blaise’s lawyers. Blaise is set to receive $34 million in compensatory damages from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and $10,000 in punitive damages from each retired detective, as per the AP. Blaise expressed relief that this chapter is over but admitted uncertainty about her future.
Attorney Craig Anderson, representing the retired detectives, did not respond to requests for comment. Lawyers for Blaise and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department also remained silent. Anderson mentioned plans to file additional court documents following the verdict.
Blaise was represented by lawyers from the Innocence Project, a nonprofit aiding wrongfully convicted individuals, after the Nevada Supreme Court ordered a new evidence hearing in her case in late 2016. Blaise was 18 when she was charged in connection with the 2001 murder of Duran Bailey, a homeless man in Las Vegas. Bailey was found dead with severe injuries two months after an incident where Blaise defended herself from a man trying to assault her.
Despite the absence of physical evidence tying her to Bailey’s murder, Blaise’s statement to detectives became crucial in her trial. Police claimed she confessed to the crime during questioning and while in custody, as documented by the National Registry of Exonerations.
Thowsen gave testimony indicating that during his initial conversation with Blaise, he acknowledged her need to defend herself in an attempted sexual assault incident in Las Vegas. At first, she remained silent, prompting him to bring up the possibility of childhood molestation. Thowsen recounted that Blaise’s reaction to this was emotional, with her tearfully expressing, “I didn’t think anybody would miss him,” as reported in the registry.
Regarding the alleged prison confession, inmate Korinda Martin from the Clark County Detention Center testified that Blaise had boasted about severing a man’s penis and forcing it “down his throat” during a drug transaction gone awry. This revelation added another layer of complexity to the case.
Furthermore, there was a discrepancy surrounding Blaise’s whereabouts at the time of Bailey’s demise. Testimonies from her family members and neighbors affirmed that she was located hours away from Las Vegas on the day the deceased individual was discovered. This crucial information was highlighted by the Innocence Project on its website. However, the prosecution leaned heavily on the medical examiner’s estimation of the time of death, suggesting that Blaise’s location was unknown when Bailey passed away.
The legal proceedings that led to Blaise’s exoneration and release unfolded over a series of trials and appeals. Initially convicted of Bailey’s murder in 2002, the Nevada Supreme Court eventually overturned this verdict. A subsequent trial in 2006 resulted in Blaise being found guilty of manslaughter, mutilation, and weapons charges, with a sentence of 13 to 45 years in prison.
In a pivotal turn of events in October 2017, Blaise’s defense team presented testimony from three insect experts challenging the prosecution’s timeline of Bailey’s death. These specialists analyzed weather conditions in Las Vegas on the fateful day in question and examined the outdoor crime scene. Their findings refuted the prosecution’s assertion, pointing out the absence of blowfly eggs on the victim’s body which would have been present had he died at the time stated by the prosecutors.
According to the Innocence Project, the experts concluded that Bailey likely perished around 10 p.m. on July 8, 2001, a timeframe during which Blaise was confirmed to be elsewhere. This critical evidence prompted Clark County District Court Judge Stefany Miley to overturn Blaise’s convictions in December 2017, citing her ineffective legal representation for failing to call upon pathology and entomology experts to challenge the prosecution’s timeline of events.
Following the presentation of this new expert testimony, Judge Miley made the decision to vacate all charges against Blaise, thereby paving the way for her eventual release. In a significant development, the County District Attorney’s Office dismissed the charges against her in the same month. Subsequently, Blaise regained her freedom on January 3, 2018, marking the culmination of a long and tumultuous legal battle.
