Tanner Horner sentenced to death by lethal injection

FORT WORTH – A Tarrant County jury sentenced Tanner Horner, who confessed to killing 7-year-old Athena Strand in November 2023, to death on Tuesday. Before Horner’s capital murder trial began almost a month ago, he entered a guilty plea and acknowledged that he had abducted and killed Strand, moving the case forward to the sentencing stage.

A terrifying audio recording of Strand’s kidnapping and murder, taken from inside Horner’s delivery van, was played for the jury during the trial. The microphone captured everything that transpired inside the van even though Horner covered it before assaulting the girl. The investigators who spoke with Horner in the days following the girl’s disappearance, as well as the search and recovery of her body, provided the jury with graphic testimony.

Horner’s defense team discussed the defendant’s upbringing with the jury, emphasizing his own abuse and mental health issues. Both sides rested their cases on Monday and made closing arguments on Tuesday morning following 19 days of testimony. The jury started deliberating just after 11 a.m. and took roughly three hours to reach its verdict. Horner was sentenced to either life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty after entering a guilty plea to capital murder.