AppId is over the quota
JACKSON, Miss. (WTW) — Defense attorneys in Louisiana are objecting to a federal magistrate's recommendation to allow a jury to hear the confession of a Mississippi man declared dead in 1994 but suspected in the deaths of a Las Vegas woman and her daughter.
Thomas Steven Sanders is charged in Louisiana with kidnapping resulting in the death of 12-year-old Lexis Roberts. Her body was found in October 2010 in Catahoula Parish, La. Her mother, Suellen Roberts, was found dead the following month in Arizona.
Sanders' lawyers want U.S. District Judge Dee Drell to throw out Sanders' confession. Trial is scheduled for January.
Magistrate James Kirk in Alexandria, La., has recommended Drell allow the confession.
Sanders' lawyers filed an objection to the recommendation Wednesday. They insist Sanders asked for a lawyer and questioning should have stopped.
Sanders was declared dead in Mississippi in 1994 after he abandoned his family seven years earlier. Despite the death certificate, Sanders was able to move about easily and undetected even though he was arrested over the years, including for drug paraphernalia and a number of traffic and motor vehicle incidents, all in Tennessee. He was sentenced to two years in jail in Georgia for simple battery.
Sanders' attorneys have been trying to get the confession thrown out based on the argument that questioning continued after he asked for a lawyer.
Kirk disagrees, saying that Sanders only requested a lawyer to discuss certain questions: why he killed the mother and daughter, what he had been doing while in Nevada and whether he had worked for a mattress company.
Sanders could face the death penalty if convicted in Lexis' kidnapping and death. Authorities in Louisiana and Arizona have also said he could face state charges.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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