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A Texas jury will hear more testimony on April 23 that defense attorneys hope will convince them to spare the life of a former FedEx driver who admitted to kidnapping and killing a 7-year-old girl after delivering what would have been her Christmas gift.
Tanner Lynn Horner pleaded guilty to the murder of Athena Strand at the start of the trial.
Prosecuting attorney James Stainton said Horner was delivering Barbies to Athena’s home in Paradise, a town of fewer than 500 people about 60 miles outside Dallas, when he abducted her in late November 2022.
Stainton said Horner attacked Athena in his FedEx truck and she fought back for about an hour. He said Horner covered the camera, so there is no video of the killing, but shocking audio of the incident was reportedly played for the jury on April 16.
After the state rested its case, jurors returned to court to hear from witnesses for the defense, including Horner’s mother, before making a sentencing decision. Horner faces either life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.
Defense attorney Steven Goble acknowledged that the “evidence is overwhelming,” but urged jurors to sentence Horner to life in prison in his opening statement.
He said the jury must consider two issues: whether Horner is likely to commit another criminal act of violence and whether there are any mitigating factors to warrant a life sentence.
Goble said Horner would not be a continuing threat in prison. And Goble said Horner has suffered from mental illnesses throughout his life and is autistic.
Stainton, the prosecutor, called the anticipated testimony about Horner’s issues “all an excuse” in his opening statement.
“I’ll submit to you that the level of violence that one person can inflict on a child is important,” he said, alluding to sentencing.
Ashley Strand testified that she ordered Barbies as a Christmas gift for Athena, her stepdaughter, that were delivered via FedEx on Nov. 30, 2022, the day she went missing.
Video played for the jury showed Horner arriving at their home in his FedEx truck, picking up Athena and putting her inside, NBC DFW reported.
More than an hour and a half after he arrived at Athena’s home, Horner covered the camera inside his vehicle, Texas Ranger Job Espinoza testified. Jurors heard over an hour of chilling audio of the attack, according to NBC DFW.
“Are you a kidnapper?” Athena could be heard repeatedly asking in the audio recording from inside the truck, according to the outlet.
“Don’t scream or I’ll hurt you,” Horner reportedly told her.
Athena’s body was found Dec. 2, two days after she was reported missing by her stepmother.
She was found naked in the Trinity River near an area called Bobo’s Crossing-
About 12 to 13 miles away from her home, Stainton and witness former Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin said.
She had Horner’s DNA under her fingernails.
And DNA was also found “places where you shouldn’t find DNA on a 7-year-old girl,” Stainton said.
Espinoza said cameras captured Horner stuffing Athena’s clothes into a backpack, which was later found at his home, and cleaning the FedEx fan after the attack.
Horner told someone over the phone that he cleaned the truck because he threw up in it, according to video footage.
Horner also returned to the scene, where a woman told him the area was blocked off because of the kidnapping.
“Are you serious?” he said in video shown to the jury.
Horner then spun a “web of lies” and told multiple different stories about what happened to Athena and where her body was during the police investigation, Stainton said.
At one point, Horner told investigators that he took Athena after he accidentally hit her with his vehicle, so that she wouldn’t report him. He said she wasn’t seriously injured but he panicked and strangled her after she said she would tell her father he hit her.
“That is an absolute lie,” Stainton told jurors.
Athena strand had suffered injuries to her back, chest , face, head and neck, and there was evidence of asphyxiation and blunt force trauma consistent with multiple blows.
A zigzag or tread -like pattern consistent with tire tracks was found on Strand’s face and chest , Dr Dwyer said.
A jury is hearing its second week of evidence as it decides whether the former delivery, driver, who has already pleaded guilty to murdering and killing strand in 2022, should face the death penalthy or life in prison without parole.
Horner pleaded guilty on the first day of his trial to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping.
Horner’s mental state has been the central pillar of his defenses’s case as they look to avoid the death penalty.