A former FedEx delivery driver who pleaded guilty to the murder of a 7-year-old girl in Texas has been sentenced to death.
The jury handed down the death penalty against Tanner Horner after a judicial process that lasted more than two weeks.
Horner, 34, was going to stand trial when pleaded guilty on April 7 to the kidnapping and murder of Athena Strand in rural Knowing County in November 2022.
“There are no words that can express the devastation that Tanner Horner caused us and our family,” Elijah Strand, Athena’s uncle, said in court after the sentencing was read, NBC News reported.
Horner remained standing but showed no emotion.as state District Judge George Gallagher sentenced him to death before dawn on a date yet to be determined in Huntsville.
In Texas, executions are carried out by lethal injection.
The day of the crime
Horner had delivered a Christmas present to the family home in the rural town of Paradise on November 30, 2022, the day Athena disappeared. His body was found two days lateraccording to authorities.
Horner testified that he ran over the girl with his truck and strangled her in a panic. Knowing County District Attorney James Stainton claimed Horner killed the girl and called his explanations lies.
BREAKING: After roughly two and a half hours of deliberations, a Texas jury sentenced youngster killer and kidnapper Tanner Horner to death on Tuesday afternoon. pic.twitter.com/HqwLqaBHZC
— Court docket TV (@CourtTV) Would maybe well 5, 2026
Stainton told the jury in his closing arguments that the death penalty should only be applied in the most extreme cases, but that Horner deserved it.
“Tanner Horner is proof of why parents hug their children tighter,” he said. “It’s proof of why children are afraid to go out and play.”
Horner pleaded guilty last month to capital murder of a person under 10 and aggravated kidnapping.
The jury had to choose between sentencing Horner to death or life imprisonment. without the possibility of parole. On Tuesday, the jury determined two special circumstances that justified the death penalty.
The first was the likelihood that Horner would commit acts of violence that posed a “continuing threat to society.” Regarding the second, the jury rejected that there were mitigating factors that justified a sentence of life imprisonment without parole.
An appeal was automatically filed and a court-appointed attorney will be assigned, Gallagher said.
Horner’s defense argued for a mitigation of the sentence, alleging that Horner’s mother drank excessively during pregnancy and that he was diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndromewhich causes emotional, cognitive and other problems.
“Tanner’s problems began before he was even born,” defense attorney Susan Anderson stated in her closing arguments.
Keep reading:
– FedEx driver confessed that he strangled 7-year-old Athena Strand.
– 7-year-old Texas girl found dead after being kidnapped by FedEx driver.
