LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada woman who was twice convicted of a 2001 murder and sexual mutilation that she insisted happened when she was more than 150 miles away has been freed in Las Vegas.
Kirstin Blaise Lobato was released Wednesday from the Clark County Detention Center after a judge gave her time served on a one-year misdemeanor sentence in a 2007 prisoner sexual contact case.
Lobato is 35. She was 18 when she was first arrested.
She says she feels overwhelmed, excited, grateful and happy to be out.
She had been moved to jail from state prison last Friday, after she was exonerated in the July 2001 slaying of Duran Bailey.
Bailey was a homeless man whose body was found in Las Vegas with a slashed throat, cracked skull and his genitals removed.
Lobato's case over the years drew an online following and backing from advocates including the New York-based Innocence Project.
