Jury sentences former FedEx driver Tanner Horner to death for murder of 7-year-old Athena Strand

Harriet Ramos and Amy McDaniel, Fort Worth Star-Telegram on May 5, 2026

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FORT WORTH, Texas — After a little less than three hours of deliberations, a jury in Fort Worth has sentenced former FedEx driver Tanner Horner to the death penalty by lethal injection for the capital murder of 7-year-old Athena Strand.

The jury’s verdict was unanimous on both questions and found that Horner is a future danger to society and that there were not sufficient mitigating circumstances to justify a sentence of life in prison without parole.

Judge George Gallagher read the sentence, telling Horner, “It is the order and sentence of this court that you, Tanner Lynn Horner, having been adjudged to be guilty of capital murder and whose punishment has been assessed by the verdict of the jury and the judgment of this court at death, shall be remanded to the custody of the sheriff of Tarrant County and transported to and kept in the custody of the director of the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, until some future date to be determined later, upon which day, at some hour after 6 p.m., in a room arranged for the purpose of execution, the said director, acting by and through the executioner designated by said director as provided by law, is hereby commanded, ordered and directed to carry out this sentence of death by intravenous injection of a substance or substances in a lethal quantity sufficient to cause your death and until you are dead.”

Athena’s uncle, Elijah Strand, gave a victim impact statement. “You did not just take a life, you destroyed a family,” he said. “You will be judged. You will face the wrath of God. And I want you to know that you are nothing. You are a footnote in Athena’s story. Her name will forever be celebrated, and everyone will forget you.”

Jailers then took Horner into custody. Horner, who has been held in the Tarrant County Jail, will be transferred to death row at a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison.

Automatic appeals of Horner’s sentence will be filed with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the judge said.

At the start of the prosecution’s case on April 7, Horner pleaded guilty to capital murder in the course of kidnapping. The jury’s role was to decide whether he would be sentenced to the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

The former FedEx driver abducted and killed Athena on Nov. 30, 2022, after delivering a package to her rural Wise County home. Horner told a false story about hitting the little girl with his van and then strangling her in a panic, according to testimony of the case’s lead investigator, Texas Ranger Job Espinoza. Investigators believe Horner planned to kidnap and murder Athena.

The prosecution showed the jurors chilling video and audio evidence that included Athena’s last moments after Horner lured her inside the FedEx van. She died from blunt force trauma, smothering and strangulation, and Horner dumped her naked body in the water along the Trinity River.

Prosecutors, who asked for the death penalty, told the jury that Horner sexually assaulted Athena before killing her and that his DNA was found on her body.

In interviews with investigators, Horner blamed an alter ego called “Zero” for the girl’s death.

Horner’s lawyers tried to convince the jury that the 34-year-old man should be sentenced to life in prison without parole. Defense witnesses focused on Horner’s childhood and mental conditions, including discussion of autism, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, bullying, sexual abuse, and lead exposure after he ate coins as a toddler.

The state presented rebuttal witnesses Monday in response to the defense case, including a surprise witness who alleges Horner sexually assaulted him as a child, and a psychiatric expert.

The trial was held at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center in Fort Worth after a change of venue from Wise County.

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