Once-declared dead Mississippi man now convicted of kidnapping, murder given death sentence

Published January 08, 2015

A Mississippi man once declared dead only to resurface as a suspect in a kidnapping and killing has been sentenced to death for his murder conviction.

U.S. Attorney Stephanie A. Finley said federal jurors Friday returned the sentence against 57-year-old Thomas Sanders for the 2010 kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Lexis Roberts of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Sanders left his family in Mississippi in 1987. He was declared dead in 1994 after he had been missing for years.

Jurors on Sept. 8 convicted Sanders of kidnapping resulting in death and using a firearm in a violent crime that resulted in death.

Sanders confessed to killing the young girl and her mother, Suellen Roberts, after his arrest in Gulfport, Mississippi.

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https://www.foxnews.com/us/once-declared-dead-mississippi-man-now-convicted-of-kidnapping-murder-given-death-sentence