Convicted murderer Robert “Bobby” Lozano, who is incarcerated in a West Texas prison, was denied a new trial on a motion from his new attorney alleging that his rights were violated during his first trial.

Robert Lozano

Judge Bruce McFarling denied the motion for the new trial Thursday, but attorney Gary Udashen already has filed a notice that the conviction will be appealed to a higher court.

Lozano, 44, was convicted Aug. 3 of shooting to death his wife, Virginia “Viki” Lozano, in July 2002. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison and fined $10,000.

He was taken the next day to a diagnostic unit in Huntsville, and he is now incarcerated in the Daniel Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The Daniel Unit is in Snyder, which is west of Abilene.

TDCJ spokesman Jason Clark said Lozano is being kept in the unit’s general population.

Lozano was an 18-year veteran of the Denton Police Department when his wife died in their bed of a gunshot wound he said she accidentally inflicted on herself while cleaning his service weapon.

Forensic evidence presented during the trial showed she had not touched the gun and had been dead long before he said he found her. Prosecutors also presented testimony about Lozano’s multiple affairs, including one that was ending because he had not left his wife and her family money.

Former police officers convicted of a crime are not routinely segregated, Clark said.

“An offender like this will come into our system and go through a classification process,” the spokesman said. “Officials will look at his history, any prior convictions, the offense itself, their medical records, work history, education and skills. They look at any number of things to determine their custody level and their job unit assignment.”

In a high-profile case such as this one, other prisoners are more inclined to recognize a former police officer, so officials would be more inclined to put him in a unit in the Panhandle or South Texas so inmates won’t know the circumstances of his crime, Clark said.

“If his life is threatened or there are threats of bodily harm, he can be placed in protective custody. But he will go in the general population unless there is a direct threat,” he said. “They look at it on a case-by-case basis.”

Udashen based the motion for a new trial on three points, the first of which was that the verdict was contrary to the law and the evidence, according to court documents.

The second point concerned the testimony of defense witness Lawrence Renner, a forensic expert who contended that Viki Lozano, 36, sat up after she was shot in the heart and that her movements caused the shell casing that flew from the pistol to roll under a gun cleaning kit and a newspaper on the bed.

Lozano told detectives that he found his wife in a sitting position slumped over, but the autopsy showed she had been lying on her left side when the bullet passed through her heart and damaged one lung, her liver and her spleen.

The motion stated that Renner was not allowed to expound on his theory that mortally wounded people can move for several moments after the wound is inflicted.

Another point in the motion was that former District Attorney Bruce Isaacks was not allowed to testify before the jury. Isaacks was in office when Lozano was indicted. He ultimately dismissed the indictment, saying that a Chicago medical examiner had looked at the autopsy report and determined that the death was a suicide.

Isaacks testified out of the jury’s presence, but the judge denied the request of defense attorney Rick Hagen to allow Isaacks to testify to the jury.

The written report Isaacks claims the Chicago medical examiner made cannot be located, and a prosecutor on the first case testified there never was a written report.

The issue hinges on an appeals court ruling in the case Brady v. Maryland that the state did not furnish the defendant with information that would have materially impacted the case.

Udashen could not be reached for comment Friday.

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