UPDATE: Oscar Lozada was convicted of second-degree murder and obstruction of justice. Read the full update here: https://www.wbrz.com/news/oscar-lozada-convicted-of-killing-his-wife-more-than-a-decade-after-her-disappearance-157145

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BATON ROUGE - Oscar Lozada said he and his wife Sylviane had both concluded by July 2011 that the marriage was at its end. But she wanted to take their daughter to Belgium full-time, and he wanted to share custody.

Lozada’s account of the couple’s last days together were part of a more than five-hour recorded interrogation that jurors in his trial for his wife’s murder spent much of Thursday watching. It took place after Lozada’s 2018 arrest in Mexico. Sylviane Lozada’s body has never been found, and Oscar Lozada took their daughter Angelina to Venezuela for years after his wife’s disappearance.

When the trial broke for the day, prosecutor Dana Cummings said nearly 90 minutes remained in the recording and that she expected to finish presenting the state’s case by noon Friday.

Jurors watching the recording followed along with transcripts of the conversation between Lozada and Sheriff’s Major Todd Morris, the lead investigator.

Lozada told Morris that he and his wife had tried counseling, but he felt like the counselor was trying to control the conversation. He says he lost interest after just a few sessions.

He carefully recounted to Morris the days after his wife and daughter returned from a month-long trip to Belgium to see his wife’s family. The days were a mix of attempts at family activities, a romantic interlude and tense disagreements.

When cleaning up after a swimming outing, he says he found his wife’s phone and saw that she had new messages. He listened to them and discovered they were from an ex-boyfriend in Belgium. He recalled her speaking in French to someone on the phone, but she told him it was her cousin.

Lozada told Morris he confronted her about the calls, telling her “if you’re having something with Francois, I’m going to be happy for you.”

He said they could part as a couple and still be friends.

She proposed that she turn over ownership of the house to him, and take their daughter and move back to Belgium.

“I couldn’t believe what she was saying,” he said.

He responded that he would rather give her the house and share custody of Angelina.

“She is my princess … you cannot take her away like that,” he said.

Lozada told Morris his wife said she didn’t want their daughter to grow up to be like him.

“Were you mad?” Morris asked.

“No, I was sad. And more than sad, I was worried,” he replied.

He’d long been concerned that his wife might try to leave the country with his daughter.

Lozada said that after their discussion, his wife picked up a bag and left the house, saying she would be “right back.”

“But she did not come back,” he told Morris.

Judge Thomas Kliebert Jr., a retired ad hoc judge from the 23^rd Judicial District, is presiding over the case. He ended court for the day at 6 p.m.

Prosecutors and sheriff’s detectives have said that at the end of the interrogation, Lozada confessed to strangling his wife, dismembering her and disposing of her body.

Investigators have testified they found her blood on the ceiling and floor of the family’s garage. Court records indicate that Lozada bought buckets, plastic bins and concrete mix around the time his wife disappeared.

Court will resume Friday at 9 a.m.