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FedEx driver Tanner Horner has been sentenced to death for the murder of seven-year-old Athena Strand by a US Jury following a gut-wrenching trial that detailed his psychotic behaviour during the killing.
The confessed killer learned his sentence at a court in Fort Worth, Texas, some 40 miles (64km) southeast of where Athena’s naked body was dumped in a creek on November 30, 2022.
Jurors deliberated for about three hours after arguments rested on Tuesday, the New York Post reports.
Horner appeared utterly unmoved by the verdict – with not a flicker of emotion on his face as the judge said he’d die by lethal injection “before the hour of sunrise” at a future date.
And his face was equally blank when he turned to listen to Athena’s uncle, Elijah Strand, address the court.
“You will be judged. You will face the wrath of god,” Athena’s uncle said, pointing at Horner as he spoke.
“But I want you to know that you are nothing. You are a footnote in Athena’s story,” he added. “Her name will forever be remembered. Her name will be forever celebrated.”
“Everyone will forget you. You wanted your 15 minutes of fame. You got it. And no one is going to remember you after this,” the uncle said, fighting back tears.
Athena’s mother – her hair dyed her daughter’s favourite colour, pink – also wiped away tears in the gallery, the arm of a loved one around her.
His death sentence was automatically appealed, which is standard procedure when capital punishments are handed down in Texas.
All Horner said during the sentencing was “Yes sir,” when the judge asked him about the appeal.
Horner was rushed from the room moments after the uncle finished speaking.
The perv fessed up to the killing on the first day of his trial, saying he accidentally hit Athena with his truck and then kidnapped her outside her house in Paradise.
He later strangled her to death as he sang along to “Jingle Bell Rock” on the radio.
Throughout the trial, which was moved from Wise County to Tarrant County due to extensive local media coverage, the jury was presented with truly harrowing pieces of evidence, including audio of Athena’s murder, pictures of her abandoned clothes, and testimony from forensics experts about DNA found around the little girl’s genitals.
Ahead of the first day of sentencing on April 7, the jury was warned to “buckle up” by Wise County DA James Stainton.
“You’re going to hear what a 250-pound (113kg) man can do to a 67-pound (30kg) child. And when I say it’s horrible, I mean it,” he told the jury.
“I’ve been doing this 25 years, and I promise you, buckle up,” he added.
But no amount of forewarning could prepare the court for what they saw.
Jurors were left sobbing in their seats as footage from Athena’s murder was played, and some viewers in the gallery even fled from the courtroom as the horrific video cut out and the sounds of Athena being strangled filled the room.
That clip started by showing Horner lifting Athena into his FedEx truck, with the girl eventually asking “Are you a kidnapper?” as they drove away.
Horner didn’t answer, and instead covered his truck’s camera and said, “You’re really pretty. You know that?” as the audio recording continued on.
The truck was then heard stopping, and Horner was heard telling Athena to take her shirt off.
She said “No,” and began asking for her mum — and then began screaming as the sounds of Horner slamming her into the truck floor filled the courtroom.
“Shut up,” he told Athena as she moaned. “If you don’t shut up, I will hurt you worse.”
The Christmas carol “Jingle Bell Rock” then began playing on the truck radio, and Horner began singing along as he strangled Athena with his bare hands. He finally stopped singing once Athena quieted and died.
The jury also heard from two young women who claimed Horner had raped them when they were underage and he was in his early 20s, along with a man who lived with Horner as a child and made similar claims.
And although he denied sexually assaulting Athena, a forensic analyst revealed that Horner’s sperm cell DNA could not be excluded from the swabs in Strand’s sexual assault kit.
Horner’s damning Google history, including a search asking whether the cameras in FedEx delivery trucks “constantly record,” was also presented in court.
Horner’s defence focused on his mental health and background, arguing that he is on the autism spectrum and has struggled with long-term mental illness.
In a letter he wrote from jail before a suicide attempt in 2023, Horner blamed FedEx for switching his routes in the weeks before Athena’s murder.
He claimed that changes to his routine exacerbated his Asperger’s syndrome.
Horner also blamed the crimes on his alter ego, named “Zero”.
He claimed that he thought the killing was a “nightmare,” until he found Athena’s pants in his backpack the next day.
The cowardly murderer was also seen crying in a police interview about not being allowed to go home for a month so he could spend Christmas with his young son.
Prosecutors pushed for the death penalty, saying Horner’s actions were cold and calculated, and said he lied to investigators at every turn.
This article originally appeared in the New York Post and has been reproduced with permission.
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