Dallas (AP) — A former FedEx driver pleaded guilty Tuesday to killing a 7-year-old girl after delivering a Christmas reward to her Texas home, the place he informed authorities he by chance caught her along with his van after which strangled her in a match of panic.
Tanner Horner faces both the demise penalty or life in jail within the 2022 killing of Athena Strand, whose physique was discovered two days after she was reported lacking within the rural city of Paradise, close to Fort Worth. Jurors will now determine Horner’s punishment.
“The only truthful thing that Tanner Horner told law enforcement was that he killed her,” Wise County District Attorney James Stainton mentioned throughout opening statements. “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.”
As Athena’s stepmother testified, the jury was proven a picture of Athena taken from a video contained in the delivery truck. She was nonetheless alive and sitting on her knees behind the driver’s seat.
Stainton mentioned the situation that Horner informed authorities — that he hit her along with his car and panicked — is an “absolute lie.” He mentioned she was unhurt when Horner put her into the car.
“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 mentioned.
Stainton informed jurors that the proof within the case is “rough,” and they’ll watch video after which hear audio after the digital camera has been lined up.
“You are going to hear what a 250-pound man can do to a 67-pound child,” Stainton mentioned. “And when I say it’s horrible, I mean it.”
He mentioned Athena fought Horner, and his DNA was discovered underneath her fingernails. He additionally mentioned Horner’s DNA was discovered “in places where you shouldn’t find DNA on a 7-year-old girl.”
According to an arrest warrant, Horner informed authorities that he strangled Athena after by chance hitting her along with his van whereas making a delivery. Horner informed investigators that Athena wasn’t critically damage after he hit her whereas backing up, however he panicked and put her in his van.
Horner mentioned he didn’t need her to inform her father what occurred, so he first tried to break the girl’s neck and when that didn’t work, he strangled her along with his palms behind the van, the warrant mentioned. The warrant mentioned Horner took investigators to the place he’d left Athena’s physique.
In opening statements, Horner’s legal professional Steven Goble informed jurors: “When someone’s brain is what’s injured, you don’t see it.”
While acknowledging that the proof in opposition to Horner was “overwhelming” and “terrible,” he informed jurors that Horner’s mom drank whereas she was pregnant, that he has autism and suffered from “various mental illnesses throughout his life” as well as to being uncovered to a “massive amount of lead.”
Goble requested jurors to sentence him to life in jail.
Ashley Strand, Athena’s stepmother, informed jurors that the bundle Horner had dropped off was a Christmas current for Athena — a field of “You Can Be Anything” Barbies. Strand, who has since divorced Athena’s father, mentioned Athena loved residing out on their land within the nation, the place she received to “run wild and free.”
The trial was moved from rural Wise County to Fort Worth after Horner’s attorneys argued that he wouldn’t have acquired a good trial.