Friday, Sept. 26, 2014 | 12:24 p.m.
A federal jury in Louisiana today sentenced a Las Vegas man to death in the kidnapping and slaying of a 12-year-old girl.
Thomas Sanders, 57, was convicted on Sept. 8 of kidnapping resulting in death and using a firearm during a crime of violence resulting in death in the 2010 slaying of Lexis Roberts, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Sanders met Suellen Roberts, 31, in the summer of 2010 when Roberts rented a storage unit at a warehouse in Las Vegas where Sanders worked, and the couple began dating, Justice Department officials said.
They were on their way back to Nevada with Lexis after a trip over the Labor Day weekend when Sanders stopped in the Arizona desert, shot Suellen Roberts in the head and took the girl captive, officials said.
Sanders drove several days across the country before he killed Lexis in a wooded area in Catahoula Parish, La., officials said.
Sanders shot the girl four times, cut her throat and left her in the woods, where a hunter found her body on Oct. 8, 2010, officials said.
After a nationwide manhunt, Sanders was arrested Nov. 14, 2010, at a truck stop in Gulfport, Miss.
At trial, the jury heard a recorded confession in which Sanders admitted killing the mother and daughter.
“This is a heartbreaking case,” said Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s criminal division. “A young girl witnessed the murder of her mother, was held captive for days, and had her life cut tragically short by a senseless, brutal murder.”
This case marked the first time the death penalty was imposed in federal court in the Western District of Louisiana.
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