DeSoto Parish child killer gets formal death sentence

MANSFIELD, La. -- His fate was sealed on July 6 when a DeSoto Parish jury said a convicted child killer should die.  District Judge Amy Burford McCartney made it official this afternoon when she formally sentenced Brian Horn, 47, of Keachi, to death.  Horn was emotionless, as he was during his capital murder trial last summer. Once the sentence was announced, the orange-clad Horn, who was shackled at his waist and ankles, was quickly ushered from the courtroom with DeSoto Parish sheriff's deputies and state prison guards surrounding him. All had taken positions in the courtroom as McCartney told Horn to stand as she read a sentencing document. The cavernous courtroom was silent, even though dozens of family members and friends of Horn's victim -- 12-year-old Justin Bloxom of Stonewall -- watched intently. Their reaction was one of relief.  That's the second time Justin's family has heard Horn be sentenced to death for killing Justin on March 30, 2010. The first time was in 2014.  A Louisiana Supreme Court ruling years later overturned Horn's first conviction. He was spared from death row until a new trial was held last summer.  While Horn left the DeSoto Parish Courthouse en route back to a death row cell at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, a date with death won't be set until his appeals process is exhausted.  "The next step of the process is there’s an automatic direct appeal to the Louisiana Supreme Court. And that will take place once the record is fully completed and provided to the Supreme Court, then briefing and oral arguments and an opinion by the Louisiana Supreme Court at some time in the future. It takes a good long time for that to happen," DeSoto District Attorney Charles Adams said. "But, one more step on this process, seeking justice, and it’s extremely slow, it shouldn’t be this slow but it is the system we have. And we’re here to defend the system and we’re doing the best we can." "There’s an awful lot to this process. We hope this is one more step of closure for the Bloxom family," Adams added. But Horn's attorneys tried today to delay or stop Horn's sentencing. They filed assorted motions seeking a continuance and a new trial. McCartney denied all.  Their arguments likely will be part of Horn's appeals process. One of their arguments centered on their allegation they were not provided all of the text messages between Horn and Justin. Horn portrayed himself as a young girl in text messages to Justin to lure him away from a friend's home. Horn picked up Justin in his taxi cab then killed him after he ran out of gas on U.S. Highway 171 in Stonewall.  The state countered, however, that the defense unsuccessfully raised the same issue at the trial. "We can't produce what we don't have," prosecutor Nancy Berger-Schneider said.  Horn's attorneys also claimed testimony by witnesses during the victim impact portion of the trial was irrelevant and prejudicial. Prosecutor Lea Hall said in response, "You can't tell the story without telling the story. ... It shows the truthfulness of what happened." The evidence presented against Horn was "meant to be prejudicial," Hall said. There were other accusations by the defense of misconduct, inserted bias, challenge of a juror and denial of a mistrial. All were refuted by the state and denied by McCartney. The judge did take issue with one of the defense's allegations that the jury was allowed to take one of Justin's tennis shoes into the jury room "to pray over it." McCartney called that claim "fabricated," and said she found it "wholly offensive."  There was never any indication during the trial of such actions by the jurors, McCartney told the attorney, who was not a member of Horn's trial defense team. "I was here, you were not," McCartney said.