A former FedEx delivery driver who pleaded guilty to killing a 7-year-old girl in Texas was sentenced to death Tuesday.
The jury handed down the death penalty for Tanner Horner after a court proceeding that lasted more than two weeks.
Horner, 34, was set to go on trial when he pleaded guilty April 7 in the kidnapping and killing of Athena Strand in rural Wise County in November 2022.
“There are no words that truly capture the devastation that Tanner Horner caused us and our family,” Elijah Strand, Athena’s uncle, said in court after the death sentence was read.
“It was the best thing to see her running up to me with her arms open, yelling ‘Uncle Elijah,’ and it’s one of my last memories I have of her,” Strand said. “And now I get to never hear that again.”
Horner stood but showed no outward emotion as state District Judge George Gallagher sentenced him to be executed before sunrise at a date to be determined in Huntsville.
