LAS VEGAS — A woman once convicted of mutilating and murdering a homeless man has a new chance for a jury to hear her case when her retrial begins Wednesday.

Prosecutors say Kirstin Blaise Lobato was on a three-day methamphetamine binge and working as an exotic dancer to make money for drugs when she ran out of cash on July 8, 2001, and tried to exchange sex for drugs from the victim, Duran Bailey.

Prosecutors believe that, when Bailey couldn't live up to his end of the bargain, Lobato, then 18, pulled out a butterfly knife and severed his penis before stabbing him and hitting him over the head with an aluminum baseball bat.

Lobato also allegedly stabbed Bailey in his anus after he was dead, according to prosecutors.  

A Las Vegas jury convicted Lobato of first-degree murder and sexual penetration of a corpse on May 18, 2002, and she was sentenced to 40 to 100 years in prison.

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But the Nevada Supreme Court granted Lobato a new trial in September 2004, citing the trial judge's failure to admit evidence that could have weakened the credibility of a jailhouse informant.

Clark County prosecutors Bill Kephart and Sandra DiGiacomo declined to discuss the specifics of their case, saying they will seek to convict Lobato within "the four walls of the courtroom and not in the media."

But DiGiacomo did say that they won't deviate much from the case they presented in the first trial.

That case is almost entirely based on statements Lobato made about the killing, including her statement to police.

Lobato told police she had been using meth for three days with no sleep when she got out of her car in a parking lot near Sam's Town Casino. She said an "older black man that smelled of alcohol and dirty diapers" grabbed her and was about to rape her.

Lobato said she pulled a butterfly knife from her skirt pocket and "grabbed the man's penis and testicles with her left hand and cut it off."

Then she "snapped and couldn't remember what else happened."

After the incident she said she took off her bloody clothing and drove to her ex-boyfriend's house naked. She then threw away the clothes and showered before driving back to her father's home in Panaca, Nev., which is 165 miles north of Las Vegas. She claims that was on July 2.

Her lawyer says she didn't return to Las Vegas until the early morning of July 9, after Bailey had already been killed.

Special Public Defender David Schieck says Lobato believed she was admitting to her involvement in a different incident that happened around Memorial Day 2001.

"Our position is that Blaise was previously sexually assaulted shortly before Memorial Day weekend," Schieck said.

Although Schiek has been unable to substantiate the theory with hospital or police records, he said "most people aren't going to report that their penis was severed while they sexually assaulted a young woman."

During her first trial Lobato, who has no prior criminal history, testified she didn't report the May event because she once reported being raped and was "blown off" by police.

Lobato also told the jury she was molested at the age of 6 by her mother's boyfriend, raped at 13 by a former boyfriend and raped at 17 by her best friend's father.

As a result of these incidents, she said, she began using meth and marijuana at the age of 13.

During the first trial, an inmate at the Clark County Detention Center, Korinda Martin, claimed Lobato told her she had picked up Bailey to buy methamphetamine. Martin said Lobato told her the victim wanted to have sex but she refused, then stabbed him at least eight times and mutilated him.

Martin, however, had been trying various ways to get out of jail. She wrote fraudulent letters that suggested she had a job on the outside if released.

The Nevada Supreme Court said those letters should have been admitted into evidence to show Martin's motive for testifying may have been an attempt to get favorable treatment leading to her release from jail.

In the second trial, Schieck plans to show dispute much of the physical evidence by saying that footprints discovered at the scene, tire prints, DNA on gum, and pubic hairs recovered are not connected to Lobato, nor did her butterfly knife cause Bailey's wounds.

Lobato has garnered a large group of supporters since her arrest and inspired a Web site, Justice4kirstin.com. Lobato's supporters brought Lobato's case to the attention of San Francisco-based defense attorney Tony Serra.

Although Serra will not be handling the case because he is serving time in federal prison for tax evasion, his colleague Shari Greenberger is serving on Lobato's defense team.

Greenberger and Serra defended Rick Tabish in the retrial of Tabish and Sandy Murphy for the death of millionaire casino figure Ted Binion on Sept. 17, 1998.

Both were acquitted of murder.

Lobato's retrial will be covered live by Court TV Extra.