A former U.S. soldier with a controversial past in Ukraine has been sentenced to two consecutive life sentences for the brutal murder of a Florida couple. The killings occurred during a robbery scheme aimed at financing his journey to Venezuela to oppose Nicolás Maduro’s regime, according to the Justice Department’s announcement on Tuesday.

Craig Austin Lang, 35, was found guilty in September on several federal charges, including robbery and a conspiracy to commit murder abroad. Lang had been extradited from Ukraine, where he had joined forces with local troops to combat Russian separatists.

“The severity and indifference to human life demonstrated by Lang’s actions are appalling,” remarked Nicole Argentieri, the principal deputy assistant attorney general of the Department of Justice’s criminal division, in a previous statement.

Lang, along with fellow ex-soldier Alex Jared Zwiefelhofer, was involved in the murder of Serafin “Danny” Lorenzo Jr. and his wife, Deana Lorenzo. The couple had traveled from Brooksville to Estero in April 2018, under the impression they were purchasing firearms through “Armslist,” an online weapons marketplace, as detailed by federal prosecutors.

Lang and another former soldier, Alex Jared Zwiefelhofer, killed Serafin “Danny” Lorenzo Jr. and Deana Lorenzo, who traveled from Brooksville to Estero, in April 2018 during what the couple believed was a meeting to buy guns advertised on “Armslist,” an online marketplace, federal prosecutors said.

Craig Austin Lang, left, an ex-US soldier, is accused of killing Deana Lorenzo, right, and her husband in a double homicide in 2019 before he allegedly fled the country to fight as a mercenary in foreign countries.  (Special to The News-Press)

The pair had brought $3,000 and were ambushed in a parking lot and shot multiple times, authorities said. The robbery was intended to fund travel plans for Lang and Zwiefelhofer to Venezuela, where they hoped to join a paramilitary group.

Lang was dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Army in 2014 before joining the far-right Ukrainian nationalist military group known as Right Sector two years later, according to The Washington Post.

Craig Austin Lang, an ex-U.S. soldier, faces three federal indictments in three states dating back to 2019 after fighting extradition from Ukraine for years, the Department of Justice said.  (East2West)

Lang and Zwiefelhofer had previously fought in Ukraine and intended to travel to fight in other conflicts.

Zwiefelhofer was convicted in 2024 and sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison.