Trial begins in mutilation death

Kim Smith

Monday, May 6, 2002 | 9:46 a.m.

At first Kirstin Lobato said she killed and mutilated Duran Bailey in self-defense. Now the 19-year-old Panaca resident says she wasn't even in Las Vegas when Bailey died.

The jurors who must decide the truth behind Bailey's death were to be selected today in District Judge Valorie Vega's courtroom.

Lobato, who remains on house arrest after posting bail, faces charges of open murder and sexual penetration of a dead human body in connection with Bailey's slaying.

If convicted, Lobato could face life in prison with or without the possibility of parole.

The 44-year-old Bailey was found dead and sexually mutilated near a trash bin at the North State Bank on West Flamingo Road about 1 a.m. July 8, 2001.

Lobato was arrested 12 days later when it was learned that she had told a teacher in Panaca she had sexually mutilated a man who had tried to sexually assault her.

While Lobato said she didn't remember anything other than the mutilation, Chief Medical Examiner Lary Simms testified at her preliminary hearing that Bailey had dozens of injuries.

Bailey's skull was fractured and his carotid artery had been severed, Simms said. An autopsy revealed numerous knife and trauma injuries on his head and face as well as defensive wounds. His liver had been punctured as the result of a stabbing.

Lobato initially told police she had sexually mutilated Bailey during the attack and she left him crying, but the autopsy showed he had been mutilated after death.

Metro Police Detective Thomas Thowsen testified that Lobato told him the attack happened while she was on a three-day crystal methamphetamine binge.

A baseball bat was found inside Lobato's car, Thowsen said. Lobato told him she had the bat, but couldn't remember if she'd used it on Bailey.

Despite Lobato's statement to police, however, her defense attorneys said in court documents they intend to call 17 witnesses to prove Lobato was 165 miles away from Las Vegas in Panaca at the time of the slaying.

Court documents also indicate they intend to call footwear impression expert William Bodziak to the stand. Bodziak has submitted a report that indicates footprints found at the crime scene are more than two sizes larger than Lobato's.

Those familiar with the case say Lobato's claim of an alibi is supported by the fact she told police the attack took place on the opposite side of town from where Bailey's body was found.

Special Public Defender Phil Kohn declined to discuss the Lobato case in detail late last week.

His client is "just a kid who has had one awful thing happen to her after another," Kohn said.

"She's been a victim all of her life and yet through it all she has no convictions for anything and she has completely behaved on house arrest,' Kohn said.

Although Deputy District Attorney William Kephart could not be reached for comment, court documents indicate he intends to show Lobato not only killed Bailey, but did so with "premeditation, deliberation and malice aforethought."

The trial is expected to last two weeks.