DeSoto DA, Brian Horn's wife react to death penalty verdict
MANSFIELD, LA (KSLA) - DeSoto Parish District Attorney Richard Johnson says there have been few defendants that deserved the death penalty more than Brian Horn, convicted Wednesday in the kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Justin Bloxom.
Horn posed as a 15-year-old girl to entice Bloxom via text to meet up with him for sex. The boy's body was found in a wooded area off Highway 171 on March 31, 2010.
On Wednesday, a jury of 6 men and 6 women from East Baton Rouge unanimously found Horn guilty of first degree murder. It took them 45 minutes to return the verdict.
On Saturday, the same jury took just over an hour to agree that Horn should be put to death for the crime.
Johnson says few cases in recent memory have called for the death penalty more definitively than this one. "Only one, and that was over twenty years ago, and that was state vs. Chris Sepulvado. And he killed little Mercer boy, and that was the only case I've seen that rivaled this one in just plain cruelty. As I stated before, if there is a case that ever screams for the death penalty this is the case that screams for it."
The jury's decision had to be unanimous, or Horn would have been sentenced to life in prison.
There was little reaction from Brian Horn upon hearing the verdict. His mother broke down in tears and had to be escorted out of the courtroom.
Horn's soon-to-be ex-wife Amanda Horn was also crying and cheering along with others in the courtroom. Outside the courtroom, she told KSLA News 12, "There's a lot more victims than just one in this case. There's not really any winners or losers," said It's been a hard road for all of us. Just glad that it's over, and I do believe the right thing was done, and I believe justice has been served."
She says she is divorcing Brian Horn, a process that can move forward now that the trial is over.
http://www.ksla.com/story/25173739/d...enalty-verdict
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