LAS VEGAS — Kirstin Lobato told detectives she left her small town in northern Nevada to see life in Las Vegas during a summer vacation in 2001.

But instead of expanding her horizons, the then-18-year-old Lobato said she discovered methamphetamine and was quickly "out of my mind on drugs," according to her taped police statement that was played at her murder trial Wednesday.

Prosecutors say she was so out of her mind that on July 8, 2001, she killed and mutilated a homeless man.

To support her drug habit, Lobato performed as an exotic dancer during two amateur nights at the Green Door and Cheetah's strip clubs. Her dancing and constant meth use kept her awake for three days.

That's when, she claimed, she was attacked by a black man in a parking lot who smelled like "old alcohol and dirty diapers."

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Prosecutors claim the man was 43-year-old murder victim Duran Bailey. They contend Lobato offered him sex in exchange for drugs, and when she realized he didn't have any drugs, she killed him with a butterfly knife and baseball bat.

They also allege Lobato, now 23, cut off Bailey's penis and stabbed his anus after killing him. 

Lobato denies her involvement in the crime. If convicted, she faces life in prison.

After receiving a tip that Lobato confessed to her former high school teacher that she mutilated a man in Las Vegas, detectives went to question her on July 20, 2001, at her home in Panaca, Nev.

In the taped police interview, Lobato said the man "seemed like a giant" and came out of nowhere, grabbed her from behind, and threw her to the ground.

She said he tried to sexually assault her.

"He slapped me in my face when I was crying and told me to shut up 'because I was a bitch,'" Lobato said.

She said she grabbed her butterfly knife and stabbed the man's penis.

"I had my butterfly knife in the back pocket, and I just grabbed it out and everything goes black from then on," Lobato said.

She said she could only remember "bits and pieces" of what happened because after being up on meth for three days, "everything starts to flutter."