Former FedEx driver faces death for killing 7-year-old girl
· Toronto Sun
WARNING: GRAPHIC DETAILS
A former FedEx delivery driver pleaded guilty Tuesday in Texas to killing a 7-year-old girl after delivering a package to her house, where he told authorities he hit her with his van and then strangled her in a panic.
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Jurors will now decide the fate of Tanner Horner , who faces the death penalty or life in prison for the 2022 murder of Athena Strand, whose body was found after she was reported missing in the small town of Paradise, Texas, near Fort Worth.
The prosecution said the only thing that jurors should believe of Horner is that he killed Athena.
“The only truthful thing that Tanner Horner told law enforcement was that he killed her,” Wise County District Attorney James Stainton said during opening statements. “The pattern and web of lies that he put together, it’s going to be hard for you all to keep up with. It is lie upon lie upon lie upon lie.”
The jury was shown an image of Athena inside the delivery truck , still alive and sitting behind her knees in the driver’s seat, matching the testimony of her stepmother, Ashley Smith. The stepmother, now divorced from Athena’s father, told jurors Horner was there at the time to drop off a box of Barbies as a Christmas present, adding Athena loved the country, where she would run “wild and free.”
“I adored Athena. She was so much fun. She was a free spirit,” testified Athena’s first grade teacher Lindsey Thompson.
‘Don’t scream or I’ll hurt you’
Horner told authorities, according to an arrest warrant, that he strangled Strand after accidentally hitting her with his van while backing up. He said that she wasn’t seriously hurt, but he panicked and put her in the van.
Horner said he didn’t want to let her father know what happened, so he tried to break her neck. When that failed, he choked her to death in the back of the van. The warrant added Horner took authorities to the body.
Stanton said Horner’s story was an “absolute lie.”
“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 said.
Stainton warned jurors that the case will be graphic, and that they will watch video of what happened and hear audio of it once the cameras were covered up.
“You are going to hear what a 250-pound man can do to a 67-pound child,” Stainton said. “And when I say it’s horrible, I mean it.”
The DA said Horner’s DNA was found under the girl’s fingernails because she fought him, and “in places where you shouldn’t find DNA on a 7-year-old girl.”
“He brought violence, fear and death. That’s what he brought with him,” Stainton said.
Defence asks for life
Horner’s lawyer, Steven Goble, says the evidence against his client is “overwhelming,” and “terrible,” but is asking for life in prison all the same, arguing mental health issues. He says Horner’s mother drank while pregnant, that he has autism, and has suffered from mental illness and was exposed to a “massive amount of lead.”
“When someone’s brain is what’s injured, you don’t see it,” Goble told the jury, whose defence team also got the trial moved from Wise County to Fort Worth, saying Horner would not have received a fair trial.
What’s next?
Jurors will hear from another witness before watching and hearing hours of video and audio evidence before coming to their decision.