A federal jury in Nevada has awarded more than $34 million to Kirstin Lobato, a woman who was wrongly convicted and served nearly 16 years in prison for a 2001 killing she did not commit. Lobato was 18 when she was arrested, and after two trials, she was convicted of murder, mutilation, and weapon charges, and sentenced to 13 to 45 years in prison.
The civil trial jury found that Las Vegas police and two detectives fabricated evidence and inflicted emotional distress upon Lobato. The panel awarded Lobato $34 million in compensatory damages from the department and $10,000 in punitive damages from each former detective, Thomas Thowsen and James LaRochelle. The department had agreed to pay damages if the jury ruled in Lobato’s favor.
Lobato, now 41 and using the name Blaise, began to cry and hug her attorneys after the verdict was read. She expressed her happiness that the ordeal was finally over, but said she was unsure if becoming a millionaire would make up for the years she lost in prison. She also questioned what the rest of her life would look like.
The detectives and their attorney declined to comment on the verdict, and an appeal is likely, according to their attorney, Craig Anderson. The judgment comes after the state supreme court twice threw out her convictions, and she was finally exonerated and freed from prison in 2017 after attorneys from the Innocence Project took her case. Last October, a state court judge issued a certificate declaring Lobato innocent of the killing.
