A FedEx driver who admitted last month to the 2022 kidnapping and murder of seven-year-old Athena Strand has been sentenced to death by lethal injection.
Tanner Horner, 34, pleaded guilty to capital murder on April 7 at the start of his trial, immediately sending the case into the penalty phase.
The sentence will be automatically appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
Horner faced a punishment of either life in prison without parole or the death penalty.
Prosecutors sought the death penalty, pointing to key evidence that included a chilling, hour-long audio recording captured inside Horner’s delivery van during the attack.
open image in gallery Tanner Lynn Horner was sentenced to death on Tuesday for the 2022 murder of Athena Strand ( AP ).
The jury also heard testimony from investigators about Horner’s confession, the search for Athena, and the recovery of her body. »