ALEXANDRIA, Louisiana (AP) — A Mississippi man who authorities thought had been dead for more than 15 years pleaded not guilty Friday to kidnapping a 12-year-old girl whose body was found by hunters in remote Louisiana woods.
Thomas Steven Sanders, suspected of shooting Lexis Roberts of Las Vegas before dumping her body in central Louisiana's Catahoula Parish, said little Friday during the hearing in federal court in Alexandria, Louisiana.
Shackled and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, the 53-year-old Sanders spent much of the hearing leaning forward in his seat and reading documents with his lawyer. Sanders had shaven off the bushy, white beard seen in police photographs before his capture.
Sanders wouldn't say anything when questioned by reporters about the case outside the courtroom. His public defender, Rebecca Hudsmith, said she had met with him for the first time Friday and wouldn't comment on his mental state or whether he'd offered any details about the case.
A federal kidnapping charge in a case that results in death is punishable by life in prison or death, said Lisa Langley, a spokeswoman with the U.S. attorney's office in Louisiana. As of Friday afternoon, prosecutors had not indicated whether they would seek the death penalty.
James Kelly, sheriff of the Louisiana parish where Roberts' body was found by hunters Oct. 8, also was at the hearing. Kelly said he will charge Sanders with first-degree murder in state court when the federal government finishes processing him, possibly early next week.
Authorities said security footage showed Sanders buying ammunition Sept. 3 at a Walmart in Las Vegas. The bullets are allegedly the same type that killed the girl.
Sanders also is a suspect in the disappearance and likely death of the girl's mother, 31-year-old Suellen Roberts. Investigators are using dental records to determine whether a body found Monday in Arizona is hers.
If that body turns out to be Suellen Roberts, it's likely Sanders will at some point be charged in Arizona state court. Arizona, Louisiana and federal officials have been working together on the case.
Sanders was arrested Sunday in Gulfport, Mississippi, after a massive manhunt to find the missing woman and her daughter. Authorities say Sanders and Suellen Roberts were in a relationship and took Lexis on a road trip for the Labor Day holiday weekend. The last place they were seen alive was in Arizona.
The case took a bizarre twist when authorities realized their prime suspect in the disappearances had been declared legally dead in 1994.
Sanders' parents, brother and ex-wife petitioned a Mississippi court for the death declaration in 1994, saying nobody had heard from him in seven years. Even so, Sanders drifted from state to state unnoticed despite being arrested in Georgia and Tennessee under his real name.
Sanders was arrested in January 1994 and charged with two counts of cruelty to children in Winder, Georgia, where prosecutors said he repeatedly hit a boy on the back of the legs and put a pair of soiled underwear in the boy's face, according to court records. Sanders was sentenced to two years of probation and fined $500.
In November 2002, he was arrested in Clarksville, Tennessee, for driving on a revoked license. Police records indicated he had Tennessee identification even though he was from McComb, Mississippi. He listed his address as a room at a motel where many transients live. Sanders was arrested in Tennessee again in March 2003 for alleged possession of drug paraphernalia.
Little else is known about Sanders' life after being declared dead. He didn't buy property or establish many bills in his name, things that create paper trails for most people.
He has worked as a laborer, a welder and a scrap metal collector. Authorities said he sometimes gave his name as Tom or Steve or used the nickname "Spider."
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Mohr reported from Jackson, Mississippi. Associated Press writers Greg Bluestein in Winder, Georgia, and Kristin M. Hall in Clarksville, Tennessee, contributed to this report.
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