FedEx driver Tanner Horner is sentenced to death for kidnapping and murdering Athena Strand
The FedEx driver who kidnapped and killed little Athena Strand will be put to death for his horrific crimes after a jury handed him to the death penalty.
Tanner Horner, 34, was delivering packages to Athena’s family home in Paradise, Texas, in November 2022 before he scooped her up, placed her in his truck and shut the door.
Athena, seven, fought for her life in the back of his truck before he brutally killed her.
He pleaded guilty to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping on April 7, hours before his trial was set to start.
The jury, which was made up of an even split between men and women, took two hours and 50 minutes to deliberate on whether Horner deserved to die.
After the death penalty was handed down, Athena’s uncle said to the killer in court: ‘I want you to know that you are nothing. You are a footnote in Athena’s story.’
In the closing arguments on Tuesday, Wise County District Attorney James Stainton called seven-year-old Athena a ‘warrior’ for withstanding the traumatic ordeal before her untimely death in the back of the FedEx van.
The DA showed the jury the shoes Horner was wearing on the day of the murder – dropping them onto a table in front of the people who were in charge of determining the killer’s sentence.
Stainton said: ‘This is what it took [pointing at shoes] to beat the life out of her.’
‘If you want mercy, if you want someone to consider giving you life in prison when you gave no life to her, when you gave no mercy here,’ he added.
