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Murder suspect Kirstin Lobato stands in Las Vegas Justice Court Tuesday before the preliminary hearing in which a judge ordered her released on house arrest. Photo by Gary Thompson.

Wednesday, August 08, 2001
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

MUTILATION SLAYING: Murder suspect on house arrest

Woman, accused of cutting off victim's penis, was sexually assaulted as child

A murder suspect accused of severing the penis of her victim was ordered released on house arrest at the close of a Tuesday hearing in which testimony revealed she was subjected to extensive sexual abuse as a child.

Kirstin Lobato, 18, has told police she wielded her butterfly knife in self-defense when Duran Bailey tried to rape her in a bank parking lot last month.

Testimony in a Tuesday preliminary hearing disclosed that Lobato was sexually victimized by a distant family member when she was about 7 years old.

"She's been terribly traumatized by it," Special Public Defender Phil Kohn said. "She's been a victim all her life."

At the close of the hearing, Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Pro Tem Michael C. Van ruled there was sufficient evidence for Lobato to stand trial in District Court on a charge of murder with use of a deadly weapon.

The judge also ordered Lobato released on house arrest once her family posts a $32,000 annuity intended to secure her appearance at future court proceedings. Kohn said he believes his client will be freed today or Thursday.

"This is a very difficult case for me," Van said while looking directly at Lobato. "You are young and you've got some issues you've got to deal with, but you've got to deal with them."

Lobato, a Lincoln County resident, must remain at a Clark County residence while free on house arrest. "You can look out the window and walk around in the back yard," Van said. "That's about it."

Chief Deputy District Attorney Eric Jorgenson had opposed house arrest, saying Lobato committed a "vicious, vicious attack" on Bailey.

The prosecutor said Lobato's claim that she severed Bailey's penis while fending off a sexual assault is not supported by the physical evidence in the case.

"If that's all it was, we probably wouldn't be here today," Jorgenson said. "This man's head was bashed in."

Bailey's mutilated body was found behind a trash bin off West Flamingo Road on July 8.

Clark County Chief Medical Examiner Lary Simms testified Tuesday that Bailey was repeatedly struck in the head with a blunt object and stabbed in the neck. Bailey was so badly beaten, Simms said, that his skull was fractured and several of his teeth were knocked out.

"There were defensive wounds," Simms said, noting Bailey's arms were bruised and cut.

The man's penis was severed and his rectum was slashed, Simms said. "It is my opinion that that trauma occurred post-mortem," he testified.

Lobato was identified as a suspect after one of her friends, Dixie Tienken, told Lincoln County authorities of a conversation she had with the defendant.

"She told me a man had attempted to rape her. ... that he pushed her down and she took out a knife and cut off his penis," Tienken testified.

Lincoln County authorities relayed this information to Las Vegas police, who then traveled to Lobato's home in Panaca.

Las Vegas Homicide Detective Thomas Thowsen said Lobato told police she was in a methamphetamine-induced haze when she cut off Bailey's penis during a sexual assault.

"We (told her) we understood she had been hurt as a child. ... and she began to cry," the detective said.

At the time of the incident, she had been awake for three days because of the methamphetamine, Lobato told police.

She also said she only vaguely remembers the incident, and said she thought Bailey was alive when she left the scene. "She said he was still crying," Thowsen said.

Thowsen said the knife used in the attack was never recovered. Lobato told police she may have thrown it away or traded it for drugs.

Thowsen said a routine computer check informed police that Lobato had been named as a sexual assault victim in a police report filed in 1989, when the defendant would have been 7 years old.

Kohn referenced these prior attacks when seeking house arrest.

"She has been a victim before," Kohn said. "I can tell you she was a victim of a sexual assault, it happened when she was young, it was more than once and it was over an extended period of time."

Outside court, Lobato's father, Lorenzo, said she was victimized by a distant family member.

Lorenzo Lobato said the man later served time in jail for the molestation of another child.