Overview
- Tanner Horner, 34, pleaded guilty Tuesday in a Fort Worth courtroom to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping in the 2022 killing of 7-year-old Athena Strand, moving the case straight to a jury sentencing phase.
- Prosecutors outlined evidence that includes a confession, DNA, and an hourlong audio recording from inside the FedEx truck, and they showed a black-and-white image from the cab that captured Athena alive behind the driver’s seat.
- Wise County District Attorney James Stainton told jurors Horner’s claim that he hit Athena with his truck and then panicked is false, arguing he abducted and strangled her after delivering a package to the home.
- The defense asked jurors to choose life without parole and cited Horner’s autism and mental-health history, after a judge earlier denied a bid to remove the death penalty as an option.
- The trial was moved from Wise County to Tarrant County because of pretrial publicity, and Athena’s killing later spurred Texas to create an “Athena Alert” that allows broader alerts in missing-child cases that fall short of Amber Alert criteria.