A former FedEx driver has pleaded guilty to the killing of a 7-year-old girl in Texas after delivering a Christmas package to her home, a case that shocked the small rural community where the crime occurred.<\/p>\n
Tanner Horner admitted Tuesday to the 2022 murder of Athena Strand in the town of Paradise, near Fort Worth. A jury will now decide whether Horner receives the death penalty or life in prison.<\/p>\n
Athena\u2019s body was discovered two days after she was reported missing from her family\u2019s property in Wise County.<\/p>\n
During opening statements, Wise County District Attorney James Stainton told jurors that Horner repeatedly lied to investigators about what happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only truthful thing that Tanner Horner told law enforcement was that he killed her,\u201d Stainton said. \u201cThe pattern and web of lies that he put together \u2014 it is lie upon lie upon lie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prosecutors challenged Horner\u2019s claim that the incident began when he accidentally struck Athena with his delivery van and panicked.<\/p>\n
Stainton told jurors the evidence shows the child was uninjured when Horner put her into the delivery truck.<\/p>\n
According to prosecutors, Horner threatened the girl after forcing her into the vehicle.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing Tanner Horner says to Athena when he picks her up and puts her in that truck, he leans down and he says: \u2018Don\u2019t scream or I\u2019ll hurt you.\u2019 He says that twice,\u201d Stainton said.<\/p>\n
Jurors were shown an image taken from a video inside the delivery truck that showed Athena alive and kneeling behind the driver\u2019s seat shortly before the killing.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said Athena fought back during the attack and that Horner\u2019s DNA was found under her fingernails. Investigators also discovered his DNA in other locations on the child\u2019s body, which prosecutors described as deeply disturbing evidence.<\/p>\n
Authorities say Horner eventually led investigators to the location where he left the child\u2019s body.<\/p>\n
According to court documents, Horner told police he strangled Athena after he feared she would tell her father about the incident.<\/p>\n
Defense attorney Steven Goble acknowledged that the evidence against Horner was \u201coverwhelming\u201d but urged jurors to consider his client\u2019s mental health and personal history when determining punishment.<\/p>\n
Goble told the court that Horner\u2019s mother drank alcohol during pregnancy and said Horner has autism and has suffered from mental illness throughout his life. He also said Horner had been exposed to high levels of lead, which he argued may have affected his neurological development.<\/p>\n
The defense is asking the jury to sentence Horner to life in prison rather than death.<\/p>\n
Athena\u2019s stepmother, Ashley Strand, testified during the trial that the package Horner delivered to their home that day contained a Christmas present intended for the girl \u2014 a box of \u201cYou Can Be Anything\u201d Barbie dolls.<\/p>\n
Strand told jurors that Athena loved living in the countryside, where she could play freely outdoors.<\/p>\n
The case has drawn intense attention in Texas, and the trial was moved from Wise County to Fort Worth after defense attorneys argued that widespread publicity in the rural community could prevent Horner from receiving a fair trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A former FedEx driver has pleaded guilty to the killing of a 7-year-old girl in Texas after delivering a Christmas package to her home, a case that shocked the small rural community where the crime occurred. Tanner Horner admitted Tuesday to the 2022 murder of Athena Strand in the town of Paradise, near Fort Worth. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":16200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[3672,19019,19016,19018,19021,19017,19014,19020,19023,19015,19022],"class_list":["post-16198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-amat","tag-athena-strand-disappearance-and-killing-paradise-texas","tag-athena-strand-wise-county-texas-murder-trial","tag-fedex-delivery-driver-crime-texas-2022-case","tag-prosecutors-challenge-horner-accident-claim-case","tag-tanner-horner-death-penalty-or-life-sentence-jury-decision","tag-tanner-horner-fedex-driver-guilty-athena-strand-murder","tag-texas-child-murder-trial-fort-worth-court","tag-texas-criminal-justice-fedex-driver-murder-case","tag-texas-fedex-driver-killing-7-year-old-girl-case","tag-wise-county-district-attorney-athena-strand-trial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}