concluded last week in a federal courtroom in St. Louis. After deliberating for less than two hours, a jury found Wayne Lozier, owner of Bayou Boyz Fugitive Recovery, guilty of kidnapping and conspiracy.
The charges stemmed from a May 2019 incident in which Lozier and a partner dragged a woman out of a home in St. Peters. Their target, Rebecca Carman, was wanted on misdemeanor charges in Louisiana.
Despite the minor crimes, the bounty hunters went to significant lengths to capture her, even dragging her back to an SUV when she asked bystanders for help at a truck stop in Sullivan. . The footage was eventually introduced as evidence at his trial.
Katie Kull, courts reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, covered the trial from the courtroom. appeared on the paper鈥檚 front page on Monday.
Lozier 鈥渢urned over his body camera footage to the police,鈥� Kull noted on Tuesday鈥檚 St. Louis on the Air. 鈥淸The police] didn't need to seize it or anything 鈥� which I think speaks to how much he believed that what he was doing was right.鈥�
But Lozier had failed to obtain a $150 license required to legally operate as a recovery agent in Missouri. Despite Lozier鈥檚 treatment of Carman, who was kept shackled and barefoot during her journey, the license would have made the operation legal.
鈥淗e believed he didn't need one,鈥� Kull said of the license. 鈥淗e had done research online, apparently, and looked up the laws and saw some article that said that there were no laws regarding surety recovery agents in Missouri. So it wasn't a problem. And that's what he believed and maintained throughout the trial.鈥�
He may have believed it wasn鈥檛 a problem, but the jury in St. Louis didn鈥檛. A second bounty hunter involved, Jody Sullivan, has pleaded guilty to similar charges and is scheduled for sentencing in December. Lozier will be sentenced in January.
A press release from the U.S. Attorney鈥檚 Office of the Eastern District of Missouri noted that the charges of kidnapping and conspiracy
To hear more from the Post-Dispatch鈥檚 Katie Kull, and to listen to a portion of the audio captured by Wayne Lozier鈥檚 body camera, listen to St. Louis on the Air on , or or by clicking the play button below.
鈥�鈥� brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by , , , and . is our production assistant. The audio engineer is . Send questions and comments about this story to talk@stlpr.org.
