Court briefs for December 6, 2001

Thursday, Dec. 6, 2001 | 9:40 a.m.

Trial was postponed Wednesday for a second time in as many weeks for a Panaca woman accused of killing and mutilating a man she says tried to sexually assault her.

District Judge Valorie Vega on Wednesday set April 29 at 10 a.m. as the new trial date for Kirstin Lobato after defense attorneys and prosecutors discussed the need for more time to gather and examine forensic evidence.

Lobato, 18, has pleaded innocent to murder and other charges in the July 8 slaying of 44-year-old Duran Bailey. Trial was to begin last week but was rescheduled for Wednesday, only to be postponed again.

When Lobato was arrested July 20 she told police she mutilated Bailey after he tried to sexually assault her. A murder charge was filed after an autopsy showed that Bailey died of a fractured skull and severed neck artery.

Lobato is out on bail and was in court Wednesday.

Supreme Court upholds conviction

The Nevada Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the first-degree murder conviction of Sikia L. Smith, who was sentenced to 16 consecutive life terms without parole for his part in the slaying of four young men in Clark County.

Donte Johnson was sentenced to death and Terrell Young received a life term without parole in that case.

In 1998 the three men attempted to rob a home, hoping to get about $6,000 and a cache of drugs, but they only found about $200 in cash and a few pills.

The victims were bound with duct tape and told to lie on the floor of the home near Nellis Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue. Johnson then shot them in the head.

Smith, through his lawyers, appealed the case, claiming a number of errors. They said the jury was unduly prejudiced when they were escorted out of the courtroom by a bailiff and almost bumped into the victims' survivors, who were crying.

Smith said the jury witnessed the emotion of the families immediately prior to deliberation, which tainted the sentencing decision.

The court said the record showed many of the jurors were crying during testimony and that the jury refused to return the maximum sentence of death.

Smith was also convicted of one count of burglary while in the possession of a firearm, one count of conspiracy to commit robbery, four counts of robbery and four counts of first-degree kidnapping. He received additional sentences in addition to the life terms without the possibility of parole.