Tanner Horner told police at the time that he accidentally struck Athena Strand while backing up his delivery van. He said he didn’t want to tell her father what happened and instead decided to kidnap and strangle her. Two days later, he led authorities to her body, which he’d left in Wise County near Fort Worth.
Horner told investigators that Strand wasn’t seriously injured when he hit her, but he panicked and put her in his van. He said he first tried to break her neck, and when that didn’t work, he strangled her with his hands.
Wise County District Attorney James Stainton told the jury that Horner’s version of events 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.
Horner now faces the sentencing phase of the trial, which is expected to continue for weeks as the jury is presented evidence that will determine the severity of his punishment. The prosecution is pursuing the death penalty, while Horner’s defense seeks life in prison.
Horner’s defense argues that his autism spectrum disorder “reduces his moral blameworthiness, negates the retributive and deterrent purposes of capital punishment and exposes him to the unacceptable risk that he will be wrongfully sentenced to death.”
During the first day of testimony, the jury saw a still image of Horner and Strand that appears to have been captured on the van’s interior camera. In the photo, Strand is sitting on her knees behind Horner while he sits in the driver’s seat. She appears alert and unharmed, in contradiction to Horner’s claim that he hit and then strangled her in a fit of panic.
The prosecution said it planned to play four hours of video footage depicting Horner talking to authorities and ultimately leading them to Strand’s body. Former Sheriff Lane Akin testified that Strand was found nude in an area of the Trinity River called the Bobo Crossing, about 13 miles from her home. Prosecutors have indicated that DNA analysis reveals evidence of sexual assault.
“You are going to hear what a 250-pound man can do to a 67-pound child,” Stainton added. “And when I say it’s horrible, I mean it.”
Strand’s stepmother told jurors at the trial that the package Horner delivered that day was a box of “You Can Be Anything” Barbies, intended to be a Christmas present for the girl.
Lindsey Thompson, Strand’s first grade teacher at Paradise ISD, testified that she was a “typical 7-year-old girl that loved life.”
“She would come in with stickers on her hand,” Thompson said. “She loved to dress up. She truly was a free spirit.”
The trial was moved from Wise County to Tarrant County after Horner’s attorneys argued he would not receive a fair trial in the rural community where Strand lived.