BREAKING NEWS: "A bleach-blond, lanky 18-year-old who at the time of the murder weighed close to 100 pounds, Lobato made an odd suspect for such a brutal crime. She had just graduated high school, and although she admitted that she had recently spent time in Vegas, she had an alibi for her whereabouts at the time of the murder. Importantly, she had no clear motive for killing Bailey, a stranger, especially in such a violent way. Nor was there any way Lobato could be the source of the semen collected from Bailey’s rectum. In fact, when the results of forensic analysis came back from the crime lab, there was not a shred of physical evidence linking Lobato to the scene. Yet, solely on the basis of a rumor, the state of Nevada would aggressively pursue a murder conviction of Lobato — and ultimately succeed. Today, following two trials, Lobato is imprisoned at the Florence McClure Women’s Correctional Center in Las Vegas. Now 32, she has a number of staunch supporters — including local activists and a retired FBI agent — who insist that she is innocent, the victim of shoddy police work, an overzealous prosecution, a poor defense and a biased judge. “It is a perfect storm of wrongful conviction. Everything that possibly could have been done incorrectly was done incorrectly.” A months-long reinvestigation of the case by The Intercept confirms that the investigation into Bailey’s murder was irredeemably flawed. It also reveals a far more likely theory of the crime, based on leads and potential suspects who were available from the beginning, that Thowsen and LaRochelle failed to pursue. Additional evidence suggests that the state has tried to to cover up its defective investigation — at the very least, by refusing to allow DNA testing of critical crime scene evidence. The Intercept’s inquiry indicates that the state’s gross mishandling of the case at every stage almost certainly sent an innocent woman to prison, allowing the perpetrators of the grisly crime to go unpunished for well more than a decade......... Lobato’s case is currently pending before the Nevada Supreme Court. In arguing against DNA testing before the court last fall, prosecutors acknowledged that there was nothing found at the scene to tie Lobato to the murder. But neither was another key bit of evidence found. “Show me another black man with a missing a penis and maybe we’ll have something to talk about,” Deputy DA Owens told the court. After repeated requests, The Intercept was barred from interviewing Lobato by the Nevada Department of Corrections, despite an official policy that formally encourages news media visits to Nevada prisons. The explanation was that the Nevada DOC does not allow inmate interviews “for entertainment purposes.” DOC records show that the department used the same excuse to deny 18 media requests between January and September of last year. (More than half of those were requests to interview O.J. Simpson.) But Lobato’s supporters are vocal on her behalf. To Steve Moore, the retired veteran FBI agent, the problem from the start was that the cops, unable to see past the lurid detail of the missing penis, never did any real investigation at all. “It was pathetic,” he says. And Michelle Ravell points out that if Lobato is lying — if she has truly been guilty of Bailey’s murder all along — it would mean that a lot of other people are lying on her behalf as well. Everyone who described Lobato’s recounting of the story of her May 2001 attack in Las Vegas would have to have made it up or gotten it wrong. Or even more confounding, says Ravell, it would mean that Lobato went around telling people the details of an attack before it ever happened, in an attempt to create an alibi for a future crime. “You don’t say, ‘I was attacked and some guy tried to rape me’ so that later, some guy can try to rape you or try to attack you and you can kill them,” Ravell says. “Who the hell does that?”"
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/03/12/murderinvegas/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear Readers. Due to a 'writing' assignment, I will not be filing fresh posts for several weeks. (With the exception of breaking news;) When I am back in action I will make up for lost time with a vengeance. In the meantime, please keep me up to date with developments and don't hesitate to bring new matters of interest to this Blog to my attention at hlevy15@gmail.com.
Best wishes,
Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
PS: For latest coverage of the Mark Lundy retrial go to: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/mark-lundy-murder-retrial
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
I look forward to hearing from readers at:
hlevy15@gmail.com.
Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;
