Man Sentenced to Death for Alexandria 12-Year-Old's Murder

A federal jury in Alexandria, Louisiana, has imposed the death penalty on a Las Vegas, Nevada, man for the kidnapping and murder of a 12-year-old Alexandria girl.

The jury deliberated for about seven hours before deciding 57-year-old Thomas Sanders should be sentenced to death for the 2010 kidnapping and murder of Lexis Roberts. According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, this case represents the first time the death penalty has been imposed in federal court in the Western District of Louisiana.

The penalty phase of the trial began September 16, 2014, after the same jury found Sanders guilty of one count of kidnapping resulting in death and one count of using a firearm during a crime of violence resulting in death. Jury selection lasted eight days. The guilt phase began September 3 and ended September 8. The jury returned a guilty verdict after deliberating for about an hour.

Evidence admitted during trial showed that Sanders met Lexis' mom, 31-year-old Suellen Roberts, in the summer of 2010 when Roberts rented a storage unit at a warehouse in Las Vegas, where Sanders worked. The two began dating and two months later, Roberts agreed that she and Lexis would go on a trip with Sanders over the Labor Day weekend to a wildlife park near the Grand Canyon.

As they were returning to Nevada after three days of traveling, Sanders pulled off Interstate 40 in a remote location in the Arizona desert and fatally shot Suellen in the head and forced Lexis into the car, keeping her captive for several days. He murdered the young girl in a wooded area in Catahoula Parish by shooting her four times and cutting her throat. Then he left her body in the woods, where a hunter found it on October 8, 2010. Sanders was arrested November 14 at a truck stop in Gulfport, Mississippi.

"This is a heartbreaking case," said Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell in the news release. "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. We hope today's verdict will help Lexis' family as they continue to struggle with the loss of their loved ones."

U.S. Attorney Stephanie Finley said "the severity of the sentence imposed against Sanders underscores the senseless brutality of his acts against an innocent 12-year-old girl."