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Tabish/Murphy
| Tim Sandfort | Kirstin
Lobato has been granted a new trial which is set for Nov. 7,
2005. .
. .Dec.
2003
Kirstin
Lobato
 > > > . .
. .Dec.
2003
We have
to wonder if Las Vegas courts are particularly gentle with sex
offenders and tough on sex trade workers -- at least the street-walking
variety. Many sadistic sexual predators have money; Las Vegas
exists only to part people from their money. Money can be spent
on gambling and high class call girls. Kirstin Lobato perhaps
represents the underbelly of the glitzy town which the city would
prefer to down play.
They have
certainly sent out a loud and clear message with another court
decision,
Aug. 27, 2002, where a known vicious sex predator has been acquitted
because the prosecution failed to get his prior bad acts before
the jury. Kirstin Lobato, on the other hand, was unable to get
her unimpeachable alibi before the jury.
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Kirstin Lobato: loses big time
in Vegas
45 years in
prison and a $10,000 fine for a crime she could not have done
Kirstin websites:
Justice
For Kirstin (by
students at Ohio College) | Innocent
and incarcerated (by friends and family)
News Reports from Las Vegas
newspaper: Convicted
killer turned down plea deal | Lobato found guilty of murder: Teen-ager
faces July 2 sentencing hearing in homeless man's slaying | CLOSING
ARGUMENTS: Jurors deliberate severed penis slaying | Expert's testimony limited:
Forensics specialist: Evidence
excludes Lobato from scene
| 'Sensitive'
defendant denies mutilation slaying charge | Informant: Lobato boasted; Inmate kept
log of her conversations with murder suspect | Prosecutor
says conversation ties teen to killing | MURDER TRIAL: Witness: Man raped her
week before his slaying; 19-year-old defendant might take stand
in her own defense
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A Las Vegas crack dealer and
rapist of street women was murdered and mutilated, most likely
by one of his victims July 7 or 8, 2001. Kirstin Lobato had been
attacked the previous May, Memorial Day weekend. She had successfully
fought off her attacker with a knife attack to the crotch. By
the time of his murder, which the prosecution's expert said was
most likely commmitted by a strong, determined person hyped up
on drugs, Kirstin was far from the scene and clean of drugs.
The only evidence tying her
to the crime was provided by a jailhouse snitch who had perjured
herself before. Other exculpatory evidence was not placed before
the jury, either through judicial prejudice or defence ineptitude.
Kirstin Lobato, who had been
offered a plea bargain of 3 years, and who turned it down because
she was innocent and believed a jury would find her so, was found
guilty of first degree murder and faces up to 40 years in prison
for a crime she could not possibly have committed.
Jurors clear suspect: Panel didn't hear about prior record
By GLENN
PUIT, Las Vegas REVIEW-JOURNAL , August
27, 2002
A man with convictions of sexually
attacking women dating back more than two decades was acquitted
of sex charges Monday by a Clark County jury, which had no knowledge
of the suspect's prolific prior record.
According to court records,
Vincent Mark Santana has been accused of sexually assaulting
at least 10 California women since 1977.
In February, authorities in
Las Vegas charged Santana with raping a prostitute in a northwest
Las Vegas parking lot.
On Monday, Santana was acquitted
of the two counts of sexual assault and one count of kidnapping.
Jurors said there just wasn't enough evidence to support a conviction.
"Based on what evidence
we had, we made the right decision," jury foreman Jeff W.
Baker said.
Baker said, however, that when
informed of Santana's extensive prior record, his "heart
(sank) and the gut turned a little bit."
"We had no idea,"
Baker said.
"Whether it would have
changed the verdict, I don't know," he said. "It would
have been in the back of our minds. It's something you certainly
wouldn't have been able to just dismiss."
Santana has been convicted
of at least six prior felonies including sexual battery, rape
and assault with intent to commit rape. According to court records,
California authorities have received complaints from at least
10 California women who claim Santana either raped them, forced
them to perform oral sex or robbed them.
Santana has spent 23 of the
last 25 years in prison for related crimes, leading Las Vegas
police to label him a Tier 3 sex offender, a ranking that denotes
a high probability of repeat offenses.
Clark County Chief Deputy District
Attorney Douglas Herndon said Monday that he tried to get much
of Santana's prior criminal record entered into evidence in the
trial through what is known as a motion to admit prior bad acts.
District Judge Michael Douglas ruled in mid-August that the motion
was filed too late to give defense attorney Gabriel Grasso enough
time to respond to it.
Herndon said the filing was
delayed because he had to wait for information from the California
legal system, where almost all of Santana's prior criminal cases
were handled.
"I'm disappointed,"
Herndon said. He added, "I think he is a very dangerous
individual."
Despite his acquittal, Santana
is not expected to get out of jail anytime soon. Charges of failing
to register as a sex offender and prescription drug fraud are
pending. Herndon said he is optimistic Santana also will face
new charges of making sexually threatening phone calls to women
from the Clark County Detention Center.
According to court records,
the charges Santana was acquitted of stemmed from his response
to an Internet ad that offered entertainment from a Las Vegas
woman, Taryn Smith. Smith met up with Santana at a bar at Westcliff
and Durango drives and voluntarily got into his car.
Smith, who had agreed to a
sexual act and role playing with Santana, then went with him
to a nearby park. There, she said, Santana started to scare her,
and she decided she did not want to proceed with the agreement
to exchange sex for money.
"Do I need to pull out
my gun?" she quoted Santana as saying when she testified
during a prior preliminary hearing. "Don't mess with me."
Smith said he raped her and
forced her to perform oral sex.
Several jurors said they thought
Smith was lying about some facts of the case, and that she had
credibility problems. For example, she originally gave varying
statements to police about whether she was a prostitute, a fact
she later acknowledged during court proceedings.
Baker said "the clincher"
in reaching the acquittal was the woman's testimony regarding
whether she would have made the rape allegations if Santana had
given her money afterward.
He said Smith's response was,
"I don't know."
Grasso said Douglas followed
the law and made the correct decision in not allowing into evidence
Santana's prior convictions and arrests.
"This was basically a
case of an admitted prostitute who didn't get paid," Grasso
said.
Court records indicate that
in 1994, a California woman accused Santana of picking her up
and holding a screwdriver to her neck while he forced her to
perform oral sex. The case was pleaded down to disorderly conduct/prostitution
and Santana was sentenced to 180 days in jail.
In 1993, he was charged with
assault with intent to commit rape. In 1992, he was charged with
assault and attempted sexual battery in connection with a woman
waiting for a ride at a bus stop.
In 1979, a woman was walking
through a California grocery store parking lot on Christmas Eve
when she said she was forced into a car. She was driven to an
empty field and raped. She identified Santana as her attacker.
In February of 1980, multiple
women accused Santana of rape, sex assault or robbery. The court
records indicate Santana was sentenced to 18 years in prison
on two convictions of robbery and two counts of rape with force.
"The defendant was paroled
on several occasions, all of which were revoked based on the
commission of new crimes," Herndon wrote in his motion to
admit prior bad acts.
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