U.S. Department
of Justice
United
States Attorney 1100
Commerce St., 3rd Fl. |
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Telephone (214) 659-8600 |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
DALLAS, TEXAS
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CONTACT: 214/659-8600 www.usdoj.gov/usao/txn |
JUNE 15, 2007
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ARMED GANG MEMBER SENTENCED TO 10 YEARS DALLAS - Bernardo Lozano, a Dallas resident, was sentenced today to 120 months in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm, announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper of the Northern District of Texas. The sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater is the maximum punishment permitted by federal law and will begin after Lozano serves the remainder of his state prison term, which was imposed following violation of the conditions of Lozano’s state parole. Lozano, 25, was sentenced to the statutory maximum term of imprisonment, without the possibility of parole, because of the circumstances of his May 2006 firearm possession and his long history of violent crime. On May 18, 2006, officers from the Dallas Police Department went to a Dallas home to investigate a “911" complaint that a man, matching Lozano’s description, had pointed a shotgun at a passerby traveling on a bicycle and threatened that person with physical harm. Eyewitnesses identified Lozano as the perpetrator when he walked out of the house carrying a nylon bag that contained the shotgun. In 1999, Lozano was convicted of aggravated assault for shooting a rival gang member and in 2001 of felony deadly conduct for shooting at a Dallas home. He was also convicted of three counts of aggravated assault for returning hours later to threaten three people with a gun outside that home, and retaliation, for calling one of his earlier victims and threatening her with injury should she press charges. Federal law prohibits convicted felons from possessing any manner of firearm or ammunition. Lozano is a longstanding member of a criminal street gang. Lozano’s case was investigated and adopted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force, and prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office under the Project Safe Neighborhoods program, a nationwide effort which targets gun crime. U.S. Attorney Roper praised the investigative efforts of the ATF and the Dallas Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jordan A. Konig. ###
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