The sentencing phase centers on brutality, intent, mental health and future danger.
FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas jury is weighing whether Tanner Lynn Horner should be sentenced to death after he admitted kidnapping and killing 7-year-old Athena Strand while working as a delivery driver.
The guilty plea ended the trial’s first question before it fully began. Horner no longer contests that he committed capital murder and aggravated kidnapping in Athena’s 2022 death. The case now turns on punishment, with prosecutors pressing for execution and defense lawyers asking jurors to choose life in prison without parole because of Horner’s diagnoses, history and alleged neurological impairments.
The punishment case opened with prosecutors describing the killing as deliberate and deceptive. They told jurors that Horner’s early claim about accidentally hitting Athena with his van was false and that his later statements showed he was trying to avoid responsibility. Wise County District Attorney James Stainton said Horner lied about everything except killing the child. Prosecutors said the state would present video and audio from the delivery truck, including the first words Horner said after putting Athena in the vehicle: “Don’t scream or I’ll hurt you.” The state argued that those words showed control, threat and awareness, not panic after an accident.
Defense attorneys began from a different point. They did not ask jurors to find Horner innocent. They asked jurors to look at the whole life of the person who pleaded guilty. The defense has cited autism, mental illness, possible brain damage, exposure to high lead levels and childhood instability. Lawyers have said Horner lacked needed services growing up and struggled to manage stress and change. They have also presented family testimony about addiction and chaos in his childhood home. The defense position is that those factors do not excuse Athena’s death, but should lead jurors to reject execution and impose the only other available sentence, life without parole.
Texas capital punishment law requires jurors to make findings beyond guilt before a death sentence can be imposed. In cases like Horner’s, jurors must consider questions that include future danger and mitigating evidence. The state must persuade the jury that the legal standard for death has been met. The defense can point to any evidence it says reduces moral blame or supports mercy. If the jury does not answer the required questions in the way death law demands, the sentence becomes life without parole. That structure has shaped the testimony, with prosecutors emphasizing the facts of the crime and the defense presenting experts and family members to explain Horner’s development and functioning.
The state’s evidence has been graphic and emotionally difficult, according to courtroom accounts. Prosecutor Patrick Berry warned jurors that they would hear audio from inside the van and said the child’s fight would be impossible to forget. He told them Athena “fought with the strength of 100 men.” Prosecutors said the truck camera lens was covered during the killing, but the audio remained clear. They have argued that the recording, Horner’s statements and his conduct after the delivery show he knew what he was doing. The state has also emphasized the size and age difference between Horner and Athena, describing the child as 67 pounds and the defendant as much larger.
The defense’s mitigation case has included testimony about Horner’s family background. His mother testified about abuse, substance use and instability, saying she carried shame over her son’s crime while still describing the circumstances in which he was raised. Other witnesses have discussed autism and developmental concerns. A pastor who knew Horner testified about his behavior after the killing and his history of reacting poorly to unexpected change. Defense experts have evaluated Horner and said he had significant underlying issues. Prosecutors have cross-examined those witnesses, pressing them on whether Horner understood right from wrong and whether his conditions explain the choices he made before, during and after Athena’s death.
The facts that led to Horner’s conviction remain the foundation of the punishment case. Athena disappeared Nov. 30, 2022, from her home near Paradise after a delivery driver dropped off a package that authorities said contained Barbie dolls. Her stepmother reported her missing after family searches failed to find her. Investigators identified the delivery truck and reviewed video from inside the vehicle. Authorities said Horner first claimed he did not remember making the delivery, later claimed he saw a green van leaving the driveway and eventually admitted killing Athena. Her body was found about two days later miles from her home near Boyd. Horner was indicted in 2023 and had originally pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors have used the shifting statements to argue that Horner should be treated as calculating. FBI Special Agent Patrick McGuire testified that the green van account led officers to look for a vehicle that investigators now believe did not exist. The state has argued that Horner’s story about hitting Athena with the van was also made up. Prosecutors say those false accounts matter because they show consciousness of guilt and an attempt to redirect officers while Athena was missing. The defense has not centered its case on proving those accounts true. Its focus has been the sentence, the defendant’s impairments and whether the state has shown that death is the proper punishment.
The people who knew Athena have given jurors a different kind of evidence. Her teacher, Lindsey Thompson, said Athena was bright, expressive and creative. Her father, Jacob Strand, testified that he searched for her and still lives on the property where she disappeared. Elizabeth “Ashley” Strand, Athena’s stepmother, told jurors the family’s other child remains afraid of delivery drivers and has nightmares. Former Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin described telling the family Athena had been found. “It was heartbreaking,” he said. Those witnesses supplied the loss and impact evidence that prosecutors use to show the human cost of the crime beyond the physical evidence from the van and recovery site.
The trial’s move to Tarrant County underscores the case’s public profile. Defense attorneys argued Horner could not receive a fair trial in Wise County because the case had received intense attention there. State District Judge George Gallagher is presiding in Fort Worth. Jurors have already seen the trial change shape once, when Horner’s guilty plea removed the need for a guilt phase. They are now hearing testimony that can be both factual and moral in nature, from crime scene and investigation details to arguments about whether Horner’s life history should affect the final sentence.
The sentencing decision may not arrive until after additional expert testimony and final arguments. Court coverage has indicated the punishment phase could continue into early May. Until the jury reaches a verdict on punishment, Horner’s legal status is unusual but clear: he has admitted and been convicted of the charged crimes, yet his sentence remains unresolved. The verdict will determine whether he is sent to death row or to prison for the rest of his life without parole.
Jurors are still hearing evidence in the punishment phase. The next step is completion of testimony, followed by instructions from the judge, closing arguments and jury deliberations on the sentence.
Author note: Last updated April 28, 2026.