After Biden commutation, child murderer Thomas Sanders faces death penalty again

A convicted child killer who was sentenced to death in 2014 but received a commuted sentence to spend life in prison under former President Joe Biden is facing the possibility of death again in Louisiana.

A Louisiana federal jury convicted Thomas Sanders, now 67, of kidnapping and murdering Las Vegas 12-year-old Lexis Roberts in 2010 and sentenced him to death — the first death penalty imposed in federal court in the Western District of Louisiana. 

Sanders was one of the 37 death row inmates who received a commuted sentence from Biden just before the 46th president left office. On Monday, a grand jury in Catahoula Parish indicted Sanders on state charges.

“I found it outrageous that President Biden would use this clemency power to commute the sentence of the child killer,” Catahoula Parish District Attorney Brad Burget told Fox News Digital on Thursday. “Whatever your politics are doesn’t matter. This is a 12-year-old who watched her mother be brutally killed by Mr. Sanders. Then, he kidnapped her and traveled halfway across the United States to rural Catahoula Parish in Louisiana, where he shot this 12-year-old three times in the head and once in the chest with a 22-caliber rifle and then slit her throat with a homemade knife.”

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Sanders initially met Lexis’ mother, Suellen, in 2010 while he was working at a warehouse in Las Vegas, where Lexis and her mother were living at the time. 

He 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, according to the Justice Department.

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It was during their return home that Sanders drove off I-40 into an Arizona desert and fatally shot Suellen. He then forced Lexis into his vehicle and traveled across the country with the 12-year-old girl, holding her captive for several days until they arrived in Louisiana.

In a wooded area of Catahoula Parish, Sanders shot the girl four times and cut her throat. Hunters found her body in October 2010, and a nationwide hunt for the perpetrator ensued. Authorities eventually caught him at a truck stop in Mississippi in November of that year. 

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“This child suffered a horrible death,” Burget said. “And I think the only penalty for Sanders is the death penalty. The federal prosecutor did a wonderful job and presented the case to their jury, sought justice and got justice for Alexis and her family. And then Joe Biden decided to undo that with the signing of his signature. I don’t understand why.”

“Joe Biden decided to undo that with the signing of his signature.”

— Brad Burget

It was Biden’s decision to commute Sanders’ sentence in what Burget believes was an abuse of authority that prompted the district attorney to present the case to a Catahoula Parish grand jury on Monday “and see what Mr. Sanders’ fate would be at the state level,” he said.

“I think we’ll be successful, but only time will tell,” he said. “I’ll put it in the hands of a jury … when the jury makes a decision, you have to respect that. I respect the Catahoula Parrish jury will make the right decision when I present the case to them.”

In Louisiana, Bruget explained, the district attorney does not have the ability to charge anyone with a capital offense that carries a life sentence. Such cases are presented to a grand jury. 

When Sanders was arrested in 2010, he was arrested on federal charges. There was a warrant for his arrest out of Catahoula Parish that was never executed due to the federal prosecution, Burget explained.

“Therefore, I presented it to the grand jury this past Monday,” the district attorney said. Burget presented evidence to the grand jury in court on Monday, at which point they decided to indict Sanders on state charges.