Tanner Horner previously pleaded guilty to kidnapping and murdering 7-year-old Athena
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The FedEx driver who previously pleaded guilty to murdering 7-year-old Athena Strand was sentenced to death.
A Texas jury handed down a death sentence to Tanner Horner, 34, who abducted Athena from the driveway of her Paradise, Texas, home and then killed her in 2022.
In April, Horner pleaded guilty to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping, setting up a sentencing trial that ended Tuesday, May 5.
During the sentencing trial, which was streamed by WFAA, Athena’s uncle, Elijah Strand, read an emotional victim impact statement.
“You did not just take a life, you destroyed a family,” Strand testified, as Horner sat expressionless. “You took a little girl who trusted the world and repaid that innocence with violence. You chose to cause pain that will last generations.”
Strand further testified that Horner will “face the wrath of God.”
“You are nothing, you are a footnote in Athena’s story,” he said. “You wanted your 15 minutes of fame, you got it, and no one’s going to remember you after this.”
Horner was delivering a Christmas package when he kidnapped Athena from the driveway of the home where she was staying with her father and stepmother.
The 7-year-old girl suffered blunt force trauma, a medical examiner ruled, and was smothered and strangled.
Athena’s body was found in a river several miles from her home.
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