BREAKING NEWS: After a little less than three hours of deliberations, a jury in Fort Worth has sentenced former FedEx driver Tanner Horner to the death penalty for the capital murder of 7-year-old Athena Strand.
The jury’s verdict was unanimous on both questions and found that Horner is a future danger to society and that there were not sufficient mitigating circumstances to justify a sentence of life in prison without parole.
After Judge George Gallagher read the sentence, Athena’s uncle gave a victim impact statement and jailers took Horner into custody.
PREVIOUS STORY: Closings arguments began about 9 a.m. Tuesday, and the jury is now deliberating on punishment in the capital murder trial of Tanner Horner, the former FedEx driver who has pleaded guilty to killing 7-year-old Athena Strand.
At the start of the prosecution’s case on April 7, Horner pleaded guilty to capital murder in the course of kidnapping. The jury will decide whether he will be sentenced to the death penalty or life in prison without parole.
Wise County District Attorney James Stainton holds a photo of Athena Strand during the capital murder trial of Tanner Horner on Wednesday, April 15, 2026. Shafkat Anowar The Dallas Morning News
The former FedEx driver abducted and killed Athena on Nov. 30, 2022, after delivering a package to her rural Wise County home. Horner told a false story about hitting the little girl with his van and then strangling her in a panic, according to testimony of the case’s lead investigator, Texas Ranger Job Espinoza. Investigators believe Horner planned to kidnap and murder Athena.
The prosecution showed the jurors chilling video and audio evidence that included Athena’s last moments after Horner lured her inside the FedEx van. She died from blunt force trauma, smothering and strangulation, and Horner dumped her naked body in the water along the Trinity River.
Prosecutors, who are seeking the death penalty, told the jury that Horner sexually assaulted Athena before killing her and that his DNA was found on her body.
In interviews with investigators, Horner blamed an alter ego called “Zero” for the girl’s death.
Defendant Tanner Horner enters the courtroom for closing arguments during the punishment phase of his capital murder trial on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center in Fort Worth. Horner pleaded guilty to capital murder in the November 2022 strangulation and beating killing of 7-year-old Athena Strand. Amanda McCoy FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
Horner’s lawyers have tried to convince the jury that the 34-year-old man should be sentenced to life in prison without parole. Defense witnesses have focused on Horner’s childhood and mental conditions, including discussion of autism, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, bullying, sexual abuse, and lead exposure after he ate coins as a toddler.
The state presented rebuttal witnesses Monday in response to the defense case, including a surprise witness who alleges Horner sexually assaulted him as a child, and a psychiatric expert.
The trial is being held at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center in Fort Worth. Watch live video of the trial here with analysis from WFAA-TV, and follow Star-Telegram.com for updates.
12:30 p.m. Jury sends note
The jurors sent a note to Judge Gallagher asking for the video recordings in the case, evidence from the sexual assault kit, and a letter that another jail inmate wrote to Horner.
If the jurors don’t reach a verdict by tonight, they will be sequestered at a hotel and will continue deliberations on Wednesday.
11:20 a.m. Jury begins deliberating on sentence
About 11:20 a.m. closing arguments finished, and the judge sent the jury to begin deliberations on Tanner Horner’s sentence. The jurors can send notes to the judge if they have questions during deliberations.
10:51 a.m. Second part of prosecution’s closing argument
DA Stainton made the second half of his closing argument.
He argued that Horner hasn’t shown remorse, and he’s been behaving in jail because he wants to avoid a death sentence and he’s being held in isolation. “When you want to say he’s rehabilitated, he doesn’t have access to anybody else.”
He said that Horner continued to make excuses and tell lies in the letter he wrote to Athena’s family when he attempted suicide in the jail in 2023. In hours of interviews with psychological experts, Horner only wanted to talk about himself and never said he was sorry for what he did to Athena, Stainton said.
Wise County District Attorney James Stainton points to a box full of the defense’s expert witnesses’ reports during the punishment phase of the trial on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center in Fort Worth. Horner pleaded guilty to capital murder in the November 2022 strangulation and beating killing of 7-year-old Athena Strand. Amanda McCoy FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
He said the defense theory that Horner catastrophized and killed Athena in a panic doesn’t explain why Horner stopped and took the time to sexually assault the child. “That’s a true predator, someone who ripped a child away form her home,” he said.
He said Horner’s offer in 2022 to make a deal with prosecutors and plead guilty if he could go home for Christmas was selfish and had nothing to do with being sorry for what he did to Athena.
Stainton said that every expert who predicted Horner wouldn’t be a danger was wrong. “Everyone who tells you they can predict the lethality of this man at a later date is wrong,” he said, arguing that Horner has proved his capacity for violence.
“If you put a man-eating tiger in a cage, it doesn’t somehow become a vegetarian,” Stainton said. “Just because you cage this lethality, doesn’t mean it goes away.”
Nothing can reduce the moral blameworthiness of what Horner did, the DA concluded.
“The level of pain, the level of abuse that he has inflicted upon this little girl and this family are unfathomable. The level of lies, the multiple different versions of whatever truth it is, that video. Everything you saw is important. Athena is important. Justice for her is important. And justice in this case has one result.”
10:11 a.m. Defense attorney Anderson’s closing argument
Defense attorney Susan Anderson addressed the second special issue for the jurors to consider, which is mitigating evidence including Horner’s character and background.
Anderson said that understanding child development is the key to understanding who Horner is today. She said Horner’s problems began before he was born, when his mother drank alcohol and smoked marijuana during pregnancy.
Anderson said that Horner’s mother and grandmother loved him, but they had their own traumas and issues to deal with. She talked about Horner’s diagnosis with autism and ADHD and his struggles in school, where he was bullied.
Defense attorney Susan Anderson gives closing arguments during the punishment phase of Tanner Horner’s capital murder trial on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center in Fort Worth. Horner pleaded guilty to capital murder in the November 2022 strangulation and beating killing of 7-year-old Athena Strand. Amanda McCoy FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
She said Horner was raped by his family’s landlord when he was about 10 years old, after Horner set a fire to a field on the property.
She said Horner’s struggles continued into adulthood and though he was engaged and had a baby, he hadn’t settled down.
Anderson argued that Horner did not plan the crime. “If you were planning to abduct a child, would you cover the lens cap before you did or after you did it?” she said. She argued that it made more sense that he was covering up the camera because he was using drugs in the FedEx truck.
Anderson said that everyone in the courtroom was deeply affected by listening to the audio of Horner kidnapping and killing Athena. “It’s natural to be angry,” she said. “We should be furious that her life was taken form her in that manner.”
“It’s natural to want to know why it happened,” she said, but she argued that “we won’t ever know why it happened.”
Anderson said that Horner’s autism and other conditions aren’t an excuse for what he did, but they help explain who he is. She said Horner made a “very bad decision” and “he didn’t know how to get out of it. He wasn’t able to reason and think about the consequences of his actions.”
Anderson argued that Horner has shown responsibility, remorse and rehabilitation through his actions such as his behavior in jail, and confessing and pleading guilty, knowing that he would spend the rest of his life in prison.
She asked the jurors to choose life. “It’s probably going to be one of the most important decisions you will ever make in your life, because you hold a man’s life in your hands, and your decision will define who you are,” Anderson said. “Are you going to be merciful? Are you going to be benevolent? Are you going to be vengeful? Because mercy isn’t earned. Mercy is freely given. That’s why we call it mercy.”
9:48 a.m. Defense attorney Goble’s closing argument
Defense attorney Steven Goble began his closing argument.
Goble reminded the jurors to use their own individual moral judgment in deliberations. If they can’t agree on a verdict, he said, there won’t be a mistrial and Judge Gallagher will sentence Horner to life without parole.
Goble said the prosecution has not proved its case for the death penalty. “They didn’t put on any evidence that Tanner Horner is going to be a continuing threat to society in prison, nothing,” he said.
Goble said the case could have been over if the prosecution had taken Horner’s offer of a deal seriously in December 2022.
Horner offered “to plead guilty, to plead no contest, to accept a minimum of life without parole,” Goble said. “And he wanted out for Christmas and they mocked it. He wanted out for Christmas with his son and they made fun of him, like that wasn’t reasonable. He could have been out that day if he’d had cash. He had a bond.”
The defense attorney said Horner doesn’t meet the criteria of someone who would be a future danger in prison, such as being incarcerated at a young age, having less than a high school education or being in a gang.
“For Tanner, none of those apply, and it was 31 when he went to prison,” Goble said. “Tanner is not the person you see on the news who’s been arrested 31 times and released, despite it being violent crimes. This is Tanner’s first time. He has his high school diploma. He’s not a member of a gang, obviously.”
A fellow Tarrant County Jail inmate who is friends with Horner testified that Horner is naive and could be a target for other prisoners.
“To his face, he kind of had to describe his friend Tanner as an itty-bitty little baby lamb,” Goble said.
The defense attorney argued that the prosecution has misrepresented DNA evidence in the case and that the DNA was not tested for the presence of semen. “Unfortunately, we know Tanner undressed Athena,” he said. “Tanner covered Athena’s mouth. This report doesn’t tell us anything more than that.”
9:28 a.m. Prosecutor Stainton’s closing argument
Wise County District Attorney James Stainton made the first part of his closing argument to the jury.
Stainton began by reminding the jurors that Athena is the most important thing in the case. He showed a poster-size photo of Athena in Christmas pajamas with a red bow on her head. He said he kept that photo in his office for months and looked at it every day as he prepared for trial.
“When this picture was taken, she didn’t know she only had four days left,” the prosecutor said.
“We’re here for her. Here for her memory, her voice, little bow on her head, smile on her face, love in her heart. … “She can’t see justice.”
The prosecutor said the death penalty should be reserved for the most extreme cases, and this is that type of case, which he called cold-blooded and premeditated, with “no mercy shown” to Athena.
“I’m going to tell you that Tanner Horner is proof why parents hug their children a little tighter,” Stainton said. “He’s proof why children are nervous to go play outside. He’s proof of why there’s evil in society and we can never turn our backs.”
Stainton said that Athena fought like “a warrior” as Horner sexually assaulted her, and choked and beat her “over and over again.”
The prosecutor pulled Horner’s sneakers out of an evidence bag and showed the jury the treads that he said left marks on Athena’s face. “That’s what it took to beat the life out of her,” the DA said. “If the facts were not bad enough, if the sexual assault wasn’t bad enough, the level of violence that one person can inflict on a child, including stomping them with a pair of shoes. And I don’t wonder where that tread print came from anymore because we know.”
Wise County District Attorney James Stainton holds the shoes Tanner Horner wore when he killed Athena Strand during the punishment phase of the trial on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center in Fort Worth. Horner pleaded guilty to capital murder in the November 2022 strangulation and beating killing of 7-year-old Athena Strand. Amanda McCoy FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
Stainton spoke about the various diagnoses that experts made of Horner and said he doesn’t know whether the defendant has all those conditions. “There’s going to be a lot of talk about, you know, his deficits and disabilities and things of that nature,” he said. “But let’s remember this: Everything they’re telling you is an excuse. You know how I know it’s an excuse? Because it took six or seven experts and half a million dollars.”
The video evidence shows Horner lied consistently as he tried to cover up the crime, the DA said. He called Horner’s story about kidnapping Athena because she saw him using cocaine “nonsense, just another lie.”
He reminded the jurors about Horner covering up the camera lenses in the FedEx truck. He called Horner “absolutely lethal” and a predator who was calm and knew what he was doing while hunting for a victim.
“The difference between wanting mercy and earning it are two separate things,” Stainton said.
9:18 a.m. Judge reads jury punishment instructions
Judge Gallagher read instructions on punishment deliberation to the jury.
There are two special issues for the jurors to consider as they determine Horner’s sentence.
The first question is whether Horner is a continuing threat to society. If the jurors unanimously answer yes to that question, they will then consider the second question, which is whether there are mitigating circumstances that would reduce Horner’s moral blameworthiness.
If jurors answer no to the second question, Horner will receive a death sentence. If at least 10 jurors find that Horner is not a future danger or that there is mitigating evidence, then he will be sentenced to life without parole.
9 a.m. Judge instructs jury to find Horner guilty
Because Tanner Horner has pleaded guilty, Judge George Gallagher instructed the jury to vote to find the defendant guilty as charged in the indictment.
The jurors have gone into the jury room to take a vote to formally find Horner guilty. After that, the attorneys will move on to closing arguments on punishment.
Before the jury arrived this morning, Gallagher denied defense attorneys’ request to take the death penalty off the table and sentence Horner to life because of pervasive media coverage of the case. Attorney Susan Anderson said that the defense team, witnesses and Horner have received death threats.
Gallagher said that he has reminded the jurors every day not to watch or read coverage of the trial and he is satisfied that the jury has followed his instructions.
Athena Strand’s mother, Maitlyn Gandy, leaves the courtroom following closing arguments in the punishment phase of Tanner Horner’s capital murder trial on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center in Fort Worth. Horner pleaded guilty to capital murder in the November 2022 strangulation and beating killing of 7-year-old Athena Strand. Amanda McCoy FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
This story was originally published May 5, 2026 at 8:18 AM.
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