Bounty Hunter Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Kidnapping Woman

A bounty hunter convicted of kidnapping a woman from her home in Missouri and trying to take her to Louisiana was sentenced on Wednesday to 10 years in prison, prosecutors said.

Judge Ronnie L. White of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri in St. Louis sentenced the man, Wayne D. Lozier Jr., 45, of the New Orleans area, after a jury found Mr. Lozier guilty in September of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping.

According to an indictment in the case, on May 9, 2019, Mr. Lozier and his partner, Jody L. Sullivan, traveled to St. Peters, Mo., to illegally remove a woman, who was not publicly identified, from her home and take her to Louisiana. Mr. Lozier and Ms. Sullivan had been hired by a bail bond company in Louisiana to find the woman and apprehend her, but they were not licensed by the state of Missouri to work as surety recovery agents, prosecutors said.

The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana had an arrest warrant out for the woman for two misdemeanor offenses, according to prosecutors.

Bounty hunters, sometimes referred to as bail enforcement agents, can work in certain states as long as they are licensed within that state.

Mr. Lozier told the woman he did not need permission to enter her home, and he handcuffed the woman in her basement, according to the indictment. Mr. Lozier and Ms. Sullivan then kidnapped the woman and took her away in an S.U.V., prosecutors said.

The woman called the police from her phone, and a police officer told Mr. Lozier over the phone that he needed to return the woman, according to prosecutors.

After stopping at a gas station in Missouri, the woman asked clerks inside the store for help after she learned that Mr. Lozier and Ms. Sullivan were not police officers, prosecutors said. Mr. Lozier responded by shocking the woman with a Taser several times and pulling her hair, according to prosecutors.

After seeing this, someone at the gas station called the police, who responded. Mr. Lozier told them that he was a surety recovery agent and was licensed by the state of Louisiana, according to prosecutors.

The police did not know at the time that Mr. Lozier and Ms. Sullivan had kidnapped the woman earlier in the day, prosecutors said. Once they were back in the S.U.V., Mr. Lozier threatened to hit the woman, and he told her that she would never see her children again, according to prosecutors.

Eventually, prosecutors said, Mr. Lozier dropped the woman off at a detention facility in Mississippi instead of taking her to Louisiana because he was worried about legal trouble.

Sayler A. Fleming, a U.S. attorney, said in a statement that the sentencing on Wednesday should “reinforce that those who work in the fugitive recovery industry must comply with state and local laws and regulations and treat those they take into custody with decency.”

“They work in a dangerous industry, but that is not a license to go rogue,” she said.

Tyler K. Morgan, a lawyer for Mr. Lozier, said in an email that he was “disappointed in today’s outcome.”

“This was a licensing issue that should have been resolved in state court,” he said. “Now the fight continues on appeal.”

Ms. Sullivan, 56, of the New Orleans area, pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy and kidnapping charges, and she was sentenced in December to five years of probation, according to the Justice Department. A lawyer for Ms. Sullivan did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Jay Greenberg, a special agent in charge with the F.B.I. division in St. Louis, said in a statement that Mr. Lozier “claimed he was just doing his job as a bounty hunter, but a jury convicted him of kidnapping.”

“The evidence presented in trial proved he flagrantly ignored police warnings that he was violating the law and police commands to release his victim,” he said.