After spending over 16 years behind bars for a crime she didn't commit, Kirstin Blaise Lobato has been awarded $34 million in damages from a federal jury. Lobato, wrongfully convicted for the 2001 murder of Duran Bailey, was exonerated in 2017 when her conviction was vacated by the Nevada state court. "I am so grateful to my attorneys, Loevy + Loevy, for taking my case when no one else would help me, and for working so hard on it," Lobato said in a statement obtained by News3LV.

The lawsuit contended that Lobato was wrongfully targeted by the Las Vegas Metro Police Department (LVMPD) after she had defended herself against an unrelated rape attempt a month prior to Bailey's murder. According to a News3LV interview, Elizabeth Wang, one of Lobato's attorneys, said, "Detectives not only framed Blaise Lobato for murder, but they actually used the trauma of her earlier, unrelated sexual assault to do it."

The jury awarded Lobato $34 million in compensatory damages for her wrongful incarceration and $10,000 in punitive damages against each of the individual detectives involved in her case. The decision to award punitive damages targets both now-retired detectives, Thomas Thowsen and James Larochelle, according to a report from 8 News Now. When the decision was read, Lobato cried tears of joy, reaffirming the relief and closure the jury’s verdict brings.

David B. Owens, an attorney for Lobato, said to News3LV, "Blaise was a person the police should have treated with care, concern, and protection, but instead they built a bogus case around a teenager by weaponizing a rape attempt she survived."

Megan Pierce, another of Lobato's attorneys, said, "This is an extraordinary woman," to News3LV. "Blaise has been through more in her life than a dozen women should be asked to survive, and she has come out of it tough, fierce, and stronger than ever. We can’t wait to see what she does with the rest of her life, now that she’s free to put all this behind her."