A Denton County grand jury indicted former Denton police Detective Robert “Bobby” Lozano on Thursday for murder in connection with the July 6, 2002, shooting death of his wife, Virginia “Viki” Lozano.

Bobby Lozano

The indictment came less than three weeks after a Denton Record-Chronicle investigative report detailing the case against Lozano, 43, who was indicted in connection with his wife’s death that year and then released from the indictment in 2004.

The newspaper report relied on police files obtained using the Texas Open Records Act.

Virginia Lozano, 36, was found dead in her bed in an affluent neighborhood with a gunshot wound to her chest. Her husband, Bobby Lozano, 43, said he came in from visiting a tanning salon and found her with his 9 mm service weapon nearby and a gun-cleaning kit also on the bed.

Lozano told police he laid out the gun and cleaning kit before he left the house, planning to clean the gun in anticipation of a trip the two planned to make to a gun range the next day, taking along their 11-month-old baby. He said he believed she accidentally shot herself while cleaning the gun.

Three weeks later, facing an internal affairs investigation, he resigned from the police department. Bruce Isaacks, who was district attorney at the time, took the case to a grand jury in December and obtained a murder indictment.

But in July 2004, Isaacks issued a news release that stated that a Chicago, Ill., medical examiner had looked at the autopsy report and indicated he believed the death was the result of suicide. The news release stated that Dr. Gary Sisler, who performed the autopsy, had changed his mind about the manner of death. Sisler called the manner of death “undetermined” at the time, saying the autopsy alone did not provide enough information. But in the news release, Isaacks said Sisler had changed that determination to suicide and that he was dropping the indictment because of it.

Denton police have maintained since that time that they considered the case still open. But in the face of the open records request, they relinquished 400 pages of investigative reports.

The “murder book” brought out aspects not released at the time, when everyone connected with the case refused to talk about it.

According to the evidence and statements in the case, Viki Lozano would have been cleaning a gun on the bed in her $500,000 home. The 9 mm Glock was dripping gun oil but she had no oil on her hands or clothing. Bobby Lozano said in his statement that he unloaded the gun before he left but it was fully loaded except for the one spent shell when police took it into evidence.

Lozano said he performed CPR but no evidence of that showed on the body. Proper CPR may cause bruises and even breaks ribs and Bobby Lozano, as a police officer, had been trained in CPR. And Bobby Lozano had no blood on his hands or clothing, according to the reports.

There was lividity, or pooling of blood, in her back, which should not have been there within the time he said had elapsed before calling 911, according to the reports.

There was blood transfer on the oilcan that had to have been placed there after her death.

Bobby Lozano’s last words to his dead wife as they took her away were “take care,” according to statements of witnesses.

Viki Lozano had popcorn in her mouth and down the front of her pajamas. The popcorn would have fallen out had she stood after eating but there was no sign of a popcorn bowl in the room, according to the reports.

She had an “L” shaped bruise on her forehead that matched the slide of the gun. She also had fresh bruises on her hand, arm and legs, according to the autopsy report.

The investigative report held statements from five women, most of them blond and physically fit, as was Viki Lozano, that told of affairs they had with Bobby Lozano during his marriage. All of them told police he said he could not leave his wife because of the large amount of money her family possessed.

One woman told police that she had been dating Bobby Lozano for nearly two years and he had promised to leave his wife and marry her. She said he missed a June 30 deadline for leaving and visited her in the early morning hours of July 5, his 16th wedding anniversary, one day before his wife died.

Jeff Wawro was lead investigator for Denton police on the case. He now is a captain with the Denton County Sheriff’s Office. Wawro said Thursday that he was pleased with the indictment.

“I’m glad to see it happen,” Wawro said. “Viki Lozano deserves her day of justice in court. The combined law enforcement agencies in this case came together and gathered the evidence and came to believe that Bobby Lozano is guilty of murder. We have never wavered from that.”

Rick Hagen

Denton lawyer Rick Hagen is again representing Lozano. He said Thursday that in 2003 he met with Sisler, other members of the medical examiner’s office and members of the district attorney’s office.

He questioned Sisler and then wrote a letter detailing what he believed Sisler’s answers were, Hagen said. He did not receive word from Sisler afterward that the answers — as he wrote them — were not correct, he said.

“Almost five years ago, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy told the prosecutors and I that he did not know how the State could prove this case. Specifically, he told us that there was no evidence that Bobby was in the room when the gun was discharged. He stated that there was nothing in his investigation or the investigation of anyone in his office that led him to believe that Bobby was untruthful in his statement. He stated that there was nothing in the EMS report that was inconsistent with Bobby’s statement. He stated that lividity can set in as early as twenty minutes. The fact that EMS personnel noted lividity and that the body was cold to the touch was of no consequence at all because Bobby stated he was gone for about thirty minutes. The medical examiner stated that the evidence suggested that Vicki was either in close proximity to a gun or had a gun in her hand. The medical examiner in Illinois that the State hired believed that the injuries were consistent with the gun being in Vicki’s hand and opined suicide,” Hagen wrote. “The medical examiner in Tarrant County stated that the fact that no blood was found on Bobby’s clothes did not mean that he did not perform CPR. He stated that because of the amount of blood that Vicki lost through the exit wound, one would not necessarily expect to find blood on Bobby’s clothes when he attempted CPR. He also noted that there was no sign of a struggle.”

Hagen said he asked permission for Anna Farish, Viki Lozano’s mother, to appear before the grand jury Thursday.

“Mrs. Farish asked for permission to talk to the grand jury and that request was ignored. I do not understand why the grand jury would refuse to hear relevant evidence regarding this case,” Hagen wrote in a news release. “Mrs. Farish sat outside the grand jury room for almost four hours waiting to testify. Had they invited her in, she would have told them that she believed the death was accidental and that Vicki routinely cleaned Bobby’s gun. She would have also told them that a few weeks before Vicki’s death that she cleaned Bobby’s gun while sitting on the bed, just like day she did when she died. This case involved the death of her daughter. She had a right to be heard.”

District Attorney Paul Johnson and his first assistant, Jamie Beck, who usually handles requests for comment, both were out of the office at a meeting Thursday afternoon, according to district attorney personnel, and could not be reached for comment.

“The current prosecutors tell me that there is no new evidence, there have been no new developments, that nothing has changed,” Hagen wrote. “Bobby is innocent and this case will be tried.”

Denton police asked for the Texas Rangers to take over the case because the suspect was one of their own. Texas Ranger Tracy Murphree was one of the Rangers who investigated.

“I believe the grand jury made the right decision today,” Murphree said. “And I look forward to presenting the case in court.”

DONNA FIELDER can be reached at 940-566-6885. Her e-mail address is dfielder@dentonrc.com .