Spending cuts delay man’s trial

Associated Press

A judge says he is postponing the trial of a man who disappeared and was declared dead, only to resurface years later as a suspect in the slayings of his girlfriend and her daughter, because federal budget cuts are hampering the publicly funded defense team.

U. S. Dist. Judge Dee Drell in Alexandria, La., says in a court order that public defenders can’t afford expenses for the complex, death-penalty trial because of automatic spending cuts known as sequestration, which took effect in March.

Thomas Steven Sanders’ trial had been set for Aug. 26 in Alexandria, where he’s charged in 12-year-old Lexis Roberts’ kidnapping death. Hunters found the child’s body in the woods in Catahoula Parish, La., in October 2010. She had been shot and her throat was cut. Sanders was arrested in Gulfport, Miss., the following month.

Authorities say he confessed and directed them to the body of Suellen Roberts, who was his girlfriend and the child’s mother, in Yavapai County, Ariz.

Drell said he will set a new trial date during a status conference scheduled for July 19.

Drell’s ruling on June 14 said the inability of the legislative and executive branches of government to resolve budget cuts has “seriously constrained the capacity of the judicial system to have this case disposed of by trial.”