Killer FedEx driver Tanner Horner claimed his victim, Athena Strand, saw him “snorting cocaine” before he kidnapped and killed her, a psychiatrist testified at his murder trial.
The confessed murderer said he forced the 7-year-old girl into his van after she saw him taking drugs and began “catastrophizing” over what would happen if she reported him, Dr. Eileen Ryan told the jury on Tuesday.
Horner was afraid of losing his job and losing contact with his son when he made the “jump from Point A to Point Z” that was “completely unreasonable,” Ryan told the jury at the court in Fort Worth, Texas.
Delivery driver Tanner Horner has pleaded guilty to kidnapping and strangling 7-year-old Athena Strand outside her home in Wise County in 2022.FOX 4 DFW
The killer, who will find out this week if he will face the death penalty, also admitted to assaulting Athena after initially denying it, Ryan said, testifying for the defense.
Athena Strand, 7, was strangled in the back of Tanner Horner’s FedEx truck in 2022.Family Handou
“The only other time that he had a similar demeanor was talking about his own rape when he was 10,” she told the jury, describing how he appeared deeply ashamed.
Dr. Amy Fritz, another expert witness testifying for the defense, described how Horner’s justification for abducting Athena after she saw him snorting cocaine reflected his “weak theory of mind” and difficulty in understanding other people’s perspectives.
“If your cause to action is to abduct a child and kill them because you think that they may have seen you do cocaine, you are definitely not understanding their perspective,” Fritz said.
“First of all, a young child may not have any idea of what cocaine is or what it looks like to use it, or that it’s against the law,” she added.
The explanation for the kidnapping differs wildly from Horner’s initial account, when he told investigators he panicked after accidentally hitting Athena with his delivery van.
A jury will determine whether Horner will be sentenced to death.AP
He also previously blamed his alternate persona, whom he called “Zero,” for the strangling of the little girl, who was kidnapped from her family’s driveway in Paradise, Texas, while Horner was delivering a package to the home on Nov. 30, 2022.
Her naked body was found two days later in a rural creek, with the medical examiner determining she died from blunt force trauma, smothering, and strangulation.
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