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MANSFIELD, La. -- Opening statements are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Friday in the capital murder retrial of a DeSoto Parish man previously convicted of killing a Stonewall child more than 13 years ago. A 12-person jury and two alternates were seated Thursday afternoon in Leesville. They'll be taken to Mansfield, where they will be housed throughout the duration of the first-degree murder trial of Brian Horn, 47, of Keachi. DeSoto District Attorney Charles Adams said the trial will go non-stop, including weekends and the July 4th holiday, until a verdict is reached. Horn is accused in the March 23, 2010 death of 12-year-old Justin Bloxom, a North DeSoto Middle School student. Jurors were selected in Vernon Parish because of extensive publicity about Justin’s death and Horn’s arrest. The first jury that convicted Horn in 2014 was made up of East Baton Rouge residents.
Justin Bloxom Horn sat on death row at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola until the fall of 2018, when the Louisiana Supreme Court overturned his conviction and death sentence because of precedent set by another case. In both cases, the defendants accused their attorneys of conceding their guilt before the juries without their approval. At his trial, Horn’s attorneys claimed Justin’s death was accidental and did not warrant a first-degree murder conviction and death sentence. Adams is again seeking the death penalty in the case. Horn is a twice-convicted sex offender, having served time in a Missouri prison for felony sexual assault. Still, he was able to get a job as a taxicab driver in Shreveport in 2010. Two weeks after he was hired, Horn, posing as a 15-year-old girl, communicated via text messages to Justin and set up a meeting. The “girl” told Justin she was sending a taxi to pick him up from a friend’s house. Instead, it was Horn who showed up. He picked up Justin then his taxi ran out of gas on U.S. Highway 171 just south of the school complex. Prosecutors said Horn held Justin against his will in the car, before killing him and disposing of his body in a shallow pool of water in a wooded area across a fence. Sightings of the taxi in the area quickly led to Horn and his arrest. Justin died of asphyxiation. That taxicab company no longer exists. And a new law in Louisiana and other states – called Justin’s Law – puts employment restrictions on violent sex offenders. Horn sought to have his prior sex offense convictions omitted from his murder trial. However, the Louisiana Supreme Court in February reinstated DeSoto District Judge Amy Burford McCartney’s pre-trial determination that Horn’s crimes can be included in his capital murder trial.
MANSFIELD, La. -- Opening statements are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Friday in the capital murder retrial of a DeSoto Parish man previously convicted of killing a Stonewall child more than 13 years ago. A 12-person jury and two alternates were seated Thursday afternoon in Leesville. They'll be taken to Mansfield, where they will be housed throughout the duration of the first-degree murder trial of Brian Horn, 47, of Keachi. DeSoto District Attorney Charles Adams said the trial will go non-stop, including weekends and the July 4th holiday, until a verdict is reached. Horn is accused in the March 23, 2010 death of 12-year-old Justin Bloxom, a North DeSoto Middle School student. Jurors were selected in Vernon Parish because of extensive publicity about Justin’s death and Horn’s arrest. The first jury that convicted Horn in 2014 was made up of East Baton Rouge residents.