A Louisiana bounty hunter has felt the cold arm of justice for the crime of kidnapping across state lines. Wayne D. Lozier Jr., aged 46, received a sentence coinciding with the time he'd already served since his arrest on March 31, 2022, for forcibly taking a woman from Missouri to Mississippi without her consent. Lozier, hailing from the New Orleans area, had been held in custody during this period and has already completed his three-year sentence as decreed by U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Tuesday, according to an announcement by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri.
The investigation, led by the FBI and the St. Peters Police Department, uncovered that Lozier, along with his partner Jody L. Sullivan, undertook an illegal operation. The duo journeyed from Louisiana to St. Peters, Missouri, united by the goal to transport the victim back to St. Tammany Parish where an arrest warrant for four misdemeanor offenses awaited her. The victim was taken from her friend's house on May 9, 2019, handcuffed, and driven away in an SUV—a scenario that would soon spiral into a clear legal infraction. According to U.S. Attorneys Matthew Martin and Donald Boyce, who prosecuted the case, Lozier not only entered the residence without notifying local law enforcement but also ignored the plea of a St. Peters Police officer to return the victim to Missouri.
Lozier's original 2023 conviction on charges of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping was overturned by the 8th U.S. Court of Appeals due to an issue with jury instruction. However, prior to a slated re-trial, Lozier pled guilty in March to the same charges and admitted his misdeeds. The situation escalated when, during an attempted escape at a gas station in Sullivan, Missouri, Lozier resorted to using a Taser on the victim and resorting to physical aggression.
Sullivan, aged 57, also faced charges for her part in this crime. She pled guilty on September 18, 2023, to conspiracy and kidnapping charges, confessing to unlawfully seizing the woman and participating in her interstate transport. For her role in the abduction, Sullivan received a sentence of five years of probation.
