🔴LIVE: Tanner Horner murder trial - Athena Strand

Jurors returned to a Tarrant County courtroom on Tuesday to weigh a death sentence for Tanner Horner.

Horner pleaded guilty to capital murder and kidnapping in the 2022 death of 7-year-old Athena Strand. He admitted to abducting the girl while delivering a package to her Wise County home on Nov. 30, 2022. The jury must now decide between the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

DAY 12 RECAP: The punishment phase of the Tanner Horner trial continued Monday as the defense presented testimony regarding Horner’s mental health and communication struggles. Witnesses included a childhood friend, a former teacher and a pastor, all of whom spoke to Horner’s history prior to the 2022 kidnapping and murder of 7-year-old Athena Strand.

The most extensive testimony came from Dr. Amy Fritz, a speech-language pathologist who evaluated Horner in jail to analyze how autism impacts his social communication. Dr. Fritz testified that Horner suffers from significant difficulties with empathy and social appropriateness, noting his evaluation was one of the worst she had ever conducted. She also discussed his use of an alter ego named ‘Zero,’ which she described as a tool he used to tell the story of the crime rather than a symptom of multiple personality disorder.

Under a rigorous cross-examination, Dr. Fritz made several key concessions to prosecutors. She admitted that the violence captured in the abduction video was ‘shocking’ and ‘horrific,’ noting it was entirely incongruent with the man she had interviewed. She clarified that she was not suggesting Horner’s language disabilities caused the crime, nor was she claiming he was unable to distinguish right from wrong. While she interpreted a suicide note written by Horner as a sign of remorse, she agreed with prosecutors that the letter contained untruthful explanations and showed he was not fully accepting blame.

Earlier in the proceedings, character witnesses described Horner as a devoted church musician and a hard-working student, though his record did include a previous disciplinary citation for fighting.

BACKSTORY: Horner was charged with capital murder for the death of 7-year-old Athena Strand outside her family’s Wise County home on Nov. 30, 2022.

A contract delivery driver working for FedEx at the time, Horner was delivering what was meant to be a Christmas present for the young girl.

Horner told investigators he accidentally hit Athena with his van while delivering a package to her home. She reportedly survived, but Horner told authorities he panicked and kidnapped her, later strangling her to death.

Athena was reported missing, and eventually an Amber Alert was issued, leading to 72 hours of searching. She was found dead in Boyd, Texas, not far from her family's home.

After Athena Strand's case, Texas Legislators passed a new bill that created a version of an Amber Alert known as the ‘Athena Alert.’

The new law allows authorities to issue an Amber Alert for a missing child that doesn’t have to meet all of the initial criteria.

Under the Athena Alert law, an Amber Alert can still go out even though authorities haven’t confirmed a missing child was kidnapped.

The alert would be able to be sent out to a 100-mile area around the disappearance and adjacent counties.

DPS emphasizes that this is not a new type of alert. All alert messages will still be referenced as an Amber Alert.

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