DALLAS (AP) 鈥� A former FedEx driver was sentenced to death on Tuesday after he a 7-year-old girl he took from her Texas home while delivering a Christmas gift.
Jurors in a Fort Worth courtroom decided on Tanner Horner’s punishment after hearing about a month of testimony and evidence that included audio of last moments from inside his delivery van. Horner, 34, pleaded guilty to capital murder last month in the 2022 killing just as his trial began. Athena’s two days after she was reported missing from her home in the rural town of Paradise, near Fort Worth.
Horner didn’t visibly react when the judge read the sentence, according to a livestream of the court proceedings.
Jurors found there was a probability Horner would commit criminal violence and be a continuing threat to society. They said there was nothing in the commission of the crime or in Horner’s background to warrant life without parole instead of death.
Prosecutor James Stainton told jurors in opening statements that Horner had told, 鈥渓ie upon lie upon lie upon lie鈥� in the case, including that he accidentally struck Athena with his van while making the delivery and then killed her in a fit of panic.
Several jurors cried as they were shown video and heard audio from inside the van after Athena was taken. He could be seen lifting her into the van, and then driving away, telling her not to scream or he鈥檇 hurt her.
Horner then covered the camera, but the audio continued recording. Horner asks Athena questions, including how old she is and where she goes to school, before stopping the van and telling her they are going to 鈥渉ang out.鈥� Horner tells her to take off her shirt and she begins crying, asking what he鈥檚 doing and whether he鈥檚 a kidnapper. She cries no and asks for her mother and to go home.
She asks him: 鈥淲hy are you doing this?鈥� He replies, 鈥淏ecause you are pretty.鈥�
鈥淢y mom says I can鈥檛 do that to somebody,鈥� she tells him. 鈥淎nd you can鈥檛 do that to me either.鈥�
As the recording, which lasts over an hour, continues, Athena鈥檚 screams can be heard as well as choking and slamming noises.
At one point he tells her: 鈥淚f you don鈥檛 shut up, I will hurt you worse.鈥�
A medical examiner testified that Athena died of blunt force injuries with smothering and strangulation.
While acknowledging during opening statements that the evidence against Horner was 鈥渙verwhelming鈥� and 鈥渢errible,鈥� Horner鈥檚 attorney, Steven Goble, told jurors that Horner鈥檚 mother drank while she was pregnant, that he has autism and suffered from 鈥渧arious mental illnesses throughout his life鈥� in addition to being exposed to a 鈥渕assive amount of lead.鈥�
Goble had asked jurors to sentence Horner to life in prison.
Athena鈥檚 family has said that the package Horner had dropped off was a Christmas present for her 鈥� a box of 鈥淵ou Can Be Anything鈥� Barbies.
The trial was moved from rural Wise County to Fort Worth after Horner鈥檚 attorneys argued that he would not have received a fair trial. ____
Associated Press writer Audrey McAvoy contributed to this report from Honolulu.
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