LAS VEGAS — In July 2001, 18-year-old Kirstin Blaise Lobato returned from Las Vegas to her family home in rural Panaca, Nev., to try and kick her methamphetamine habit, her family says.

Her father and stepmother testified Wednesday that they welcomed her into their home on July 2 hoping they could help her. (VIDEO)

Although Lobato returned to Las Vegas seven days later against their wishes, both Lorenzo and Rebecca Lobato insisted that their daughter was not in Las Vegas on July 8, 2001. That was the day prosecutors say she murdered and mutilated a homeless man in a parking lot.

Prosecutors allege Lobato ran out of drugs and money when she arranged to trade sex for drugs with Duran Bailey. When she realized Bailey couldn't live up to his end of the bargain, they say, she killed him with a butterfly knife and aluminum baseball bat.

Then she allegedly cut off his penis and stabbed him in the anus.

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Lobato confessed to a former high school teacher and the police that she did mutilate a man who sexually assaulted her in Las Vegas. But Lobato, now 23, says she wasn't confessing to Bailey's murder, but to an attack involving a different man over Memorial Day weekend in 2001.

Lobato's father, stepmother, and younger sister all testified that Lobato was staying with them in their Panaca home from July 2 through the early morning hours of July 9, 2001.

The defense introduced phone records from the family's home phone to show that Lobato made several calls to her boyfriend in Las Vegas from July 6 to July 8.

Rebecca Lobato said her stepdaughter was "the only one who had a reason to call him."

Over Rebecca's protests, the boyfriend, Douglas Twining, ultimately drove to Panaca, picked up Kirstin around 1:00 a.m. on July 9 and drive her back to Las Vegas.

Clark County medical examiner Larry Simms previously testified that Bailey was murdered between 9:50 a.m. and 3:50 p.m. on July 8, 2001.

Lobato's father testified that he visited his daughter in Las Vegas at the end of June 2001 and could tell she was on drugs.

"She didn't look too good to me. She looked like she had been up for a few days," said Lorenzo Lobato, who is a recovering drug addict.

During his visit, he became concerned about her well-being and told her, "You can always come back home."

Lorenzo Lobato said his daughter returned to Panaca from Las Vegas about a week later on July 2 and "looked happy to be home."

Lobato was convicted of first-degree murder and sexual penetration of a corpse for Bailey's murder on May 18, 2002, and later sentenced to 40 to 100 years in prison.

The Nevada Supreme Court, however, granted her 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.

Lobato's retrial is being covered live by Court TV Extra. Closing arguments are expected Thursday afternoon.