BATON ROUGE, La (BRPROUD) – A Baton Rouge man was given a life sentence Monday for killing his wife in 2011.
In February 2023, a jury found Oscar Lozada guilty of second-degree murder after they were presented with evidence that Lozada strangled and dismembered wife, Brusly school teacher Sylviane Finck Lozada.
“It’s a life sentence without the benefit of probation or parole or suspension of sentence,” said Assistant District Attorney Dana Cummings. “Plus he felt like an additional 30 years was appropriate for the obstruction of justice.”
Lozada fled the United States to his homeland, Venezuela with their daughter. For years, Lozada was safe from the authorities’ grasp due to the fact that the U.S. and Venezuela do not have an extradition treaty. But after several years of hiding, he moved to Mexico, where he was captured and sent back to Louisiana with his daughter.
Finck’s sister, Ghislaine Finck, was able to get custody of the young girl and brought her to their home country, Belgium. She was present in the courtroom by video conference, and ADA Cummings read a victim impact statement that she wrote.
“This is the mother she knew and loved back when she was 5 years old, you know she’s got to have some good warm memories of her mother, and then to have been manipulated all those years, that’s just really tough,” Cummings said.
In the letter, Ghislaine Finck asked Lozada to come clean to his daughter about what happened nearly 12 years ago.
“I think that when she was young she was given a totally false account and probably felt, always felt her mother had left her and didn’t love her and that she was alone with Oscar because that was her mother’s fault,” Cummings said. “If Sylviane’s daughter is going to heal, she needs to know the entire truth.”
Lozada’s Attorney Bob Noel said this was a tough day for his client, and he chose not to speak in the courtroom.
“It’s very difficult, I’m sure, for Oscar because he knew he was going to be sentenced to life today, so it didn’t really serve any purpose at this point, said Noel.
Despite confessing to the murder, Lozada is maintaining his innocence and is appealing the judgment.
“This case will be turned over to the Louisiana Appellate Project, they are going to be scouring the records to see what mistakes may have occurred on the record, and we do believe there were a few,” said Noel.
“Anytime someone receives a life sentence, they are going to appeal,” Cummings said.
Leave a Reply