Louisiana child killer once spared from execution under Biden faces death penalty again

CATAHOULA PARISH, La. (KTVE/KARD) — According to Fox News, In 2014, a convicted child killer was sentenced to death but had the sentence commuted to life in prison under former President Joe Biden. Now, the inmate is once again facing the possibility of execution in Louisiana.

67-year-old Thomas Sanders was convicted by a federal judge of kidnapping and murdering Las Vegas 12-year-old Lexis Roberts in 2010. As a result of his crime, he was sentenced to death. According to reports, this case was the first death penalty imposed in federal court in the Western District of Louisiana.

Sanders was one of 37 death row inmates whose sentences were commuted by Biden shortly before he left office. On Monday, Sanders was indicted before a grand jury in Catahoula Parish on state charges.

In 2010, while working at a warehouse, Sanders met Lexis’s mother, Suellen. The warehouse was in Las Vegas, which is where Lexis and her mother were living at the time. According to the Justice Department, Sanders and Suellen began dating, and about two months into their relationship, they decided to take a road trip to the Grand Canyon over Labor Day Weekend that year.

During their return home, Sanders drove off I-40 into an Arizona desert and fatally shot Suellen. Afterwards, Lexis was forced into Sanders’s vehicle and taken across the country while being held hostage. Sanders had the 12-year-old girl captive for several days until arriving in Louisiana.

The young girl was brought to a wooded area of Catahoula Parish, where Sanders shot her four times and cut her throat. In October of 2010, hunters discovered her body, and a nationwide hunt was enacted for the perpetrator. That November, the suspect was apprehended by authorities at a truck stop in Mississippi.

President Biden’s decision to commute Sanders’ sentence led Catahoula Parish District Attorney Brad Burget to take action he believes was a misuse of presidential authority. As a result, Burget took the case to a Catahoula Parish grand jury on Monday. Burget explained district attorneys cannot independently charge individuals with capital offenses that carry a life sentence—those cases must be brought before a grand jury.

According to Fox News, Sanders was arrested in 2010 on federal charges. Burget explained that there was a warrant for his arrest out of Catahoula Parish, but was never executed due to the federal prosecution.

On Monday, Burget presented evidence to the grand jury in court where they made the decision to indict Sanders on state charges.