STORY: "In Bizarre Murder Hearing, Prosecutor Argues That Flies in Las Vegas Don’t Like Dead Bodies," by reporter Jordan Smith, published by The Intercept on October 25, 2017.
GIST:
"Larry and Becki Lobato were sitting nervously in the back row of a Las Vegas courtroom
when their daughter, 34-year-old Kirstin Blaise Lobato was brought in
through a side door. Dressed in a prison jumpsuit, her hands were cuffed
and shackled to a thick chain that encircled her waist, while leg irons
secured around her ankles gave her a truncated gait. Her dark, wavy
hair brushed the tops of her shoulders. She’d trimmed it, Larry noted. “She’s been crying,” Becki remarked. “She’s scared shitless,” Larry replied. Kirstin — known as Blaise — looked over her shoulder at her father
and stepmother, and a slightly weary smile spread across her face. Becki
smiled back, motioning to her. Moments later, the county marshal who
acts as the bailiff for the court signaled for Larry and Becki to follow
him into a vestibule outside the courtroom. It’s illegal for them to
communicate with their daughter in any way while she’s in court, he
cautioned. If they did so again, they could be charged with a gross
misdemeanor — an offense punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,000
fine. Understood, they told him. But that’s easier said than done — especially when your daughter has
been in prison for more than a decade for a murder she did not commit.
And it’s even more challenging with the level of anxiety surrounding
this meeting: What happens in court this week could lead to Lobato’s
conviction being overturned. Lobato was twice convicted of the grisly 2001 murder of a homeless
man named Duran Bailey. Bailey was brutalized in a dumpster enclosure
behind a bank just west of the Las Vegas Strip. His carotid artery was
cut, and multiple teeth were knocked from his head. His blood-caked eyes
were swollen shut. His anus was slashed, and his penis was amputated;
it was found several feet away. He was left to bleed out on the ground,
covered in a layer of trash. Lobato has steadfastly maintained her innocence — and there are very
good reasons to believe her. None of the physical evidence had tied her
to the crime. And she had a solid alibi: She was at Larry and
Becki’s house all day on the day of the murder, July 8, 2001, nearly
three hours northeast of the city in the small town of Panaca. Indeed, The Intercept’s 2015 investigation
into the case revealed shockingly inadequate work by police detectives
who ignored Lobato’s alibi and failed to consider strong evidence that
implicated a far more likely suspect. The weeklong court hearing will determine, at the very least, if
Lobato deserves a new trial. At issue is whether the attorneys who
defended her against the murder charge in 2006 were deficient for
failing to call forensic experts to challenge the state’s theory of the
case — and in particular, the assertion that Bailey was killed sometime
before dawn on the day that his body was discovered. “Our hope is that the truth comes out that she has been wrongly convicted,” Larry said, “and that she gets her freedom.”
The entire story can be found at:
The entire story can be found at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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/c
