Former FedEx driver pleads guilty to killing 7-year-old girl after making delivery at her Texas home

DALLAS -- A erstwhile FedEx operator pleaded blameworthy Tuesday to sidesplitting a 7-year-old miss aft delivering a Christmas acquisition to her Texas home, wherever helium told authorities helium accidentally struck her with his van and past strangled her successful a acceptable of panic.

Tanner Horner faces either the decease punishment oregon beingness successful situation successful the 2022 sidesplitting of Athena Strand, whose assemblage was recovered 2 days aft she was reported missing successful the agrarian municipality of Paradise, adjacent Fort Worth. Jurors volition present determine Horner's punishment.

"The lone truthful happening that Tanner Horner told instrumentality enforcement was that helium killed her," Wise County District Attorney James Stainton said during opening statements. "The signifier and web of lies that helium enactment together, it's going to beryllium hard for y'all to support up with. It is prevarication upon prevarication upon prevarication upon lie."

As Athena's stepmother testified, the assemblage was shown an representation of Athena taken from a video wrong the transportation truck. She was inactive live and sitting connected her knees down the driver's seat.

Tanner Lynn Horner pleaded blameworthy Tuesday successful a Fort Worth courtroom successful the 2022 sidesplitting of Athena Strand.

Stainton said the script that Horner told authorities - that helium deed her with his conveyance and panicked - is an "absolute lie." He said she was uninjured erstwhile Horner enactment her into the vehicle.

"The archetypal happening Tanner Horner says to Athena erstwhile helium picks her up and puts her successful that truck, helium leans down and helium says: 'Don't shriek oregon I'll wounded you.' He says that twice," Stainton said.

Stainton told jurors that the grounds successful the lawsuit is "rough," and they volition ticker video of what happened that time and past perceive audio aft the camera has been covered up.

"You are going to perceive what a 250-pound antheral tin bash to a 67-pound child," Stainton said. "And erstwhile I accidental it's horrible, I mean it."

He said Athena fought Horner, and his DNA was recovered nether her fingernails. He besides said Horner's DNA was recovered "in places wherever you shouldn't find DNA connected a 7-year-old girl."

According to an apprehension warrant, Horner told authorities that helium strangled Athena aft accidentally hitting her with his van portion making a delivery. Horner told investigators that Athena wasn't earnestly wounded aft helium deed her portion backing up, but helium panicked and enactment her successful his van.

Horner said helium didn't privation her to archer her begetter what happened, truthful helium archetypal tried to interruption the girl's cervix and erstwhile that didn't work, helium strangled her with his hands successful the backmost of the van, the warrant said. The warrant said Horner took investigators to wherever he'd near Athena's body.

In opening statements, Horner's lawyer Steven Goble told jurors: "When someone's encephalon is what's injured, you don't spot it."

While acknowledging that the grounds against Horner was "overwhelming" and "terrible," helium told jurors that Horner's parent drank portion she was pregnant, that helium has autism and suffered from "various intelligence illnesses passim his life" successful summation to being exposed to a "massive magnitude of lead."

Goble asked jurors to condemnation him to beingness successful prison.

Ashley Strand, Athena's stepmother, told jurors that the bundle Horner had dropped disconnected was a Christmas contiguous for Athena - a container of "You Can Be Anything" Barbies. Strand, who has since divorced Athena's father, said Athena enjoyed surviving retired connected their onshore successful the country, wherever she got to "run chaotic and free."

The proceedings was moved from agrarian Wise County to Fort Worth aft Horner's attorneys argued that helium would not person received a just trial.