Day 14 recap: Tanner Horner admitted to sexually assaulting, beating Athena Strand
A forensic psychiatrist testified Wednesday that Tanner Horner admitted to sexually assaulting 7-year-old Athena Strand and punching and kicking the child as he tried to kill her repeatedly. The psychiatrist, who was a witness for the defense, said her opinion is that Horner would present a low risk of future violence in prison.
Tanner Horner’s grandmother is expected to testify this week as defense attorneys continue presenting their case in the trial of the former FedEx driver who has pleaded guilty to killing the 7-year-old North Texas girl. The defense is no longer planning to call Horner’s brother, who is in prison, as a witness.
Horner’s mother was one of the first defense witnesses to testify last week as Horner’s lawyers try to convince the jury that he should be sentenced to life in prison without parole instead of the death penalty. Witnesses have focused on Horner’s childhood, including discussion of autism, fetal alcohol disorder, bullying, sexual abuse, and lead exposure after he ate coins as a toddler.
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 his punishment.
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.
The prosecution told the jury that Horner sexually assaulted Athena before killing her, and a DNA analyst testified that Horner could not be excluded as the source of male DNA found on swabs in the victim’s sexual assault kit.
In interviews with investigators, Horner blamed an alter ego called “Zero” for the girl’s death.
The trial is being held at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center in Fort Worth and is expected to continue into next week.
Watch Wednesday’s video of the trial here with analysis from WFAA-TV, and follow Star-Telegram.com for updates.
3:45 p.m. Doctor testifies about low testosterone
Dr. Steven Yount, a Fort Worth physician, testified that Tanner Horner has low testosterone levels, which he said generally reduces aggression but doesn’t necessarily mean someone won’t be violent.
Court has ended for the day. The jury will return at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, after the attorneys and judge handle some issues related to witnesses earlier in the morning.
2 p.m. Fetal alcohol expert testifies
Dr. Julian Davies testified. He is a medical doctor and an expert in fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, which are caused by a mother drinking during pregnancy and can result in brain damage, he said.
Tanner Horner’s mother, Melissa, signed an affidavit saying that she drank heavily during her first eight or nine weeks of pregnancy, which Davies said is the most vulnerable time for the fetus.
Davies said scans of Horner’s brain showed abnormalities consistent with fetal alcohol issues. These types of abnormalities can be seen in patients with conditions such as autism and ADHD, which Tanner Horner also has been diagnosed with, he said. As other experts in the case have testified, he found significant impairment to Horner’s language and social communication skills.
Davies diagnosed Horner with moderate neurodevelopmental dysfunction related to alcohol exposure.
He said his opinion is that adversity in Horner’s childhood caused additional damage to his brain. He said Horner also suffered head injuries, including from hitting himself in the head until he was unconscious.
“His brain has had a lot of hits from before he was born until now,” Davies said.
On cross-examination the prosecution asked if Davies had reviewed video and audio including recordings from the FedEx truck when Horner killed Athena. He said he did.
The prosecution asked the doctor about malingering, which is defined as exaggerating or faking psychological symptoms, and whether Horner might have engaged in that. Davies called Horner’s alter ego, Zero, “an attempt at malingering that I don’t think was very effective.”
1:30 p.m. Friend Horner made in jail testifies
A friend Horner made in jail testified. He said his cell is across from Horner’s and he sees the defendant awake early in the morning pacing the floor and wringing his hands.
The witness said he and Horner study the Bible together, and he thinks Tanner is a good man.
12 p.m. Former FedEx boss testifies
Horner’s former boss at a FedEx contractor testified and said he loaned Horner $1,100 to try to help him with financial struggles after Horner’s son was born.
The trial is on a lunch break until about 1:15 p.m.
11:30 a.m. Friends of Horner testify
Two friends of Horner’s testified about how he reacted to stress in his life. One friend said he and Horner worked together at a company where their job was to install glass and that Horner was fired after he made a mistake and had an outburst in front of a homeowner. Horner “lost control, freaked out, couldn’t handle himself ... almost crying, slapping himself in the head,” the friend said.
9 a.m. Prosecution questions forensic psychiatrist
Wednesday morning began with Wise County District Attorney James Stainton cross-examining forensic psychiatrist Dr. Eileen Ryan.
In Ryan’s interviews with Horner, she testified, he lied multiple times, but he eventually admitted to sexually assaulting Athena, beating the child with his fists and kicking her in addition to strangling her. Stainton noted that this was the first time that Horner had confessed to those details of the crime.
Horner also told the psychiatrist that he was sexually assaulted as a child and that it was difficult for him to talk about. “My opinion was that he was deeply ashamed and that was a major factor in his lying and hesitancy to talk about what had happened,” she said.
Ryan also said that she believe Horner created the fake persona of Zero because, “I think Zero gave him the ability to confess and distance himself from the horribleness that he had actually done.”
Ryan said she believes the account that Horner told her about kidnapping Athena because she saw him snorting cocaine. The psychiatrist said her opinion is that after Horner put Athena inside the back of his FedEx truck, the defendant “catastrophized” and realized he had made the situation worse when Athena asked him if he was a kidnapper, and that’s when he decided to kill the child.
Ryan said that Horner’s actions were “very disturbed and foolish, but that was how he problem-solved.”
The prosecutor noted that Horner sexually assaulted the girl in between kidnapping and murdering her, and Ryan agreed that was true.
Stainton repeatedly questioned why Ryan believes Horner’s story about the cocaine when the defendant lied about other things. Ryan acknowledged that she doesn’t have proof of what Horner said about the drugs, but it’s her opinion that it was true. She said that Horner told her he covered up the video camera lens in the FedEx truck because he used cocaine in the vehicle on the day he murdered Athena.
Ryan said she had listened to the audio from the FedEx truck which includes Horner telling Athena, “Don’t scream or I’ll hurt you” after putting her in the back of the vehicle. Horner is heard asking Athena questions, which the prosecutor described as the defendant trying to keep the girl calm as he drove for about 20 minutes to the place where he stopped the truck and sexually assaulted the child. He is heard telling the girl to take off her shirt and other clothes. Horner told the psychiatrist that when he tried to kill Athena, he first attempted to break her neck and then choked her, but she was still alive. Ryan said Horner later confessed to punching and kicking the child in the head. The prosecutor said there were tread marks from Horner’s shoes on Athena’s face. The audio also includes Horner singing along with “Jingle Bell Rock” on the radio while the victim screams.
The jury heard the audio recording earlier in the trial. Ryan said she did not include a section describing what Horner did to Athena in the psychiatrist’s more than 30-page report, but it’s in the approximately 140 pages of written notes that she also provided to the defense and prosecuting attorneys.
Ryan said Horner showed poor decision-making ability and planning skills, but she agreed with the prosecutor when he said that Horner didn’t seem to have any issues with deciding how to dispose of Athena’s body, getting a gas station clerk to give him free cleaning supplies soon afterward, or figuring out how to keep the “crime-scene” FedEx truck the next day.
“You understand that he’s doing these things, these problem-solving type actions, within 10 minutes of him tossing her body in the water?” Stainton asked, and Ryan agreed.
“It sounds to me like his problem-solving is working just fine at this point. Correct?” Stainton said.
“I would say it’s not,” Ryan replied.
“Well, it sure didn’t slow him down, did it?” the prosecutor asked, and Ryan said, “It did not.”
Ryan said that Horner didn’t show signs of a “meltdown” during the crime, but she believes he was emotionally dysregulated.
Ryan’s diagnosis of Horner after more than 18 hours of interviewing him as well as speaking to other witnesses and reviewing records listed 10 conditions including autism, ADHD, post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
She said those disorders did not cause Horner to kidnap and kill Athena, but they “contributed to the way he thinks and behaves.”
Ryan agreed with the prosecutor that some of Horner’s conditions are permanent. “So, essentially, what you’re saying is that the same person who committed these acts is the same person who’s sitting here today?” Stainton said.
The psychiatrist said that despite Horner’s admission and audio-recording evidence that he sexually assaulted Athena and allegations that he raped two 16-year-old girls, her opinion is that doesn’t show the pattern required for a diagnosis of pedophilia.
In response to the prosecutor’s questions, Ryan said she also doesn’t think Horner meets the criteria for antisocial personality disorder. Antisocial personality includes a persistent pattern of traits such as callousness, lack of concern, deceitfulness, and irresponsibility, Ryan said. She agreed with Stainton that Horner showed those traits in his treatment of Athena but she didn’t believe there was a persistent pattern of that behavior.
Ryan said Horner told her that on his first night in jail, he had his best night of sleep in over a year. Horner also told the psychiatrist that he wanted to be famous and that he may have made a deal with the devil for fame.
In response to questions from the defense on redirect, Ryan said she believes Horner would present a low risk of future violence while in prison.
Future dangerousness is a key question in death penalty cases in Texas, according to state law. In their deliberations, the jury will first answer that question. If the jurors find that Horner represents a continuing threat to society, they will then consider whether there is mitigating evidence that would justify a sentence of life in prison instead of death. Mitigating evidence is open to interpretation in the minds of the jurors, but it could include issues such as the defendant’s mental health.
This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 8:12 AM.
