The man accused of abducting 7-year-old Athena Strand while delivering a FedEx package to her Texas home in 2022 has pleaded guilty to killing her during the start of his capital murder trial.
Tanner Horner, a former FedEx driver, told law enforcement that he strangled Athena after hitting her with his FedEx truck in Wise County on November 22, when he had delivered a Christmas package containing Barbies for Athena, according to authorities, Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.
He maintained that he abducted and strangled her to prevent her from telling her father about the collision, according to his arrest warrant affidavit obtained by the newspaper. Horner later allegedly dumped her body, which was discovered naked in the Trinity River within 10 miles from her father’s home on December 2, 2022.
“The only truthful thing that Tanner Horner told law enforcement was that he killed her,” Wise County District Attorney James Stainton said in his opening statement at Horner’s trial, according to the Washington Post.
“The pattern and web of lies that he put together, it’s going to be hard for ya’ll to keep up with. It is lie upon lie upon lie upon lie,” Stainton added.
Stainton accused Horner of lying about striking Athena with his FedEx truck, according to the newspaper. Stainton argued that he abducted her without her being harmed from a collision.
“The first thing Tanner Horner says to Athena when he picks her up and puts her in that truck, he leans down and he says: ‘Don’t scream or I’ll hurt you.’ He says that twice,” Stainton said, the Washington Post reported.
Horner was indicted in February 2023 on charges of aggravated kidnapping and capital murder in connection with Athena’s death, CBS News reported.
Now that he has pleaded guilty, he could face the death penalty, according to the outlet.
Horner’s attorney Steven Goble has asked jurors to consider a life sentence for Horner instead of a death sentence, the Washington Post reported.
Goble said that based on the evidence, what Horner did was “overwhelming” and “terrible,” according to the newspaper.
In Horner’s defense, Goble said that he has Autism and has experienced “various mental illnesses throughout his life,” the newspaper reported.
“When someone’s brain is what’s injured, you don’t see it,” Goble said in the courtroom, according to the Washington Post.
Horner’s trial is scheduled to continue the morning of April 8, Fox 4 News reported.
Wise County is about a 75-mile drive northwest from Dallas.
