USA - Louisiana. (federal) A federal jury today imposed the death penalty on Thomas Sanders

An Alexandria federal jury today imposed the death penalty on Thomas Sanders, 57, White, a man convicted of kidnapping and murdering a 12-year-old girl, Lexis Roberts, in the fall of 2010. Evidence admitted during trial established that Sanders met Suellen Roberts, 31, in the summer of 2010. Roberts and Sanders began dating, and approximately 2 months later Roberts agreed that she and her 12-year-old daughter, 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, Sanders pulled off Interstate 40 in a remote location in the Arizona desert and fatally shot Suellen Roberts in the head and forced Lexis Roberts into the car, keeping her captive. Sanders drove several days across the country before he murdered Lexis Roberts in Louisiana on October 8, 2010. A nation-wide manhunt ensued and Sanders was arrested on November 14, 2010 in Mississippi. Sanders was declared dead two decades ago, only to resurface as a murder suspect. Sanders confessed to killing the young girl and her mother, Suellen Roberts after his arrest in Gulfport, Mississippi. Sanders left his family in Mississippi in 1987. He was declared dead in 1994 after he had been missing for years.