The former FedEx delivery driver who copped to kidnapping and killing a 7-year-old girl in Texas has now been sentenced to death by lethal injection.
Tanner Lynn Horner learned his fate on Tuesday when a Texas jury sentenced him to death. He pleaded guilty to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping last month, in November 2022, in the death of Athena Strand.
Horner entered his plea just before the trial, and then the jury was tasked with deciding between life in prison and capital punishment.
He was delivering packages for FedEx in November of 2022 when he kidnapped Athena from outside her father's residence in Paradise, Texas, and then strangled her to death inside the delivery van.
During this trial, the jury was shown footage of Athena in Horner's van. The young girl went home on the school bus and was reported missing around two hours after she was dropped off, prompting a huge search effort by law enforcement and volunteers.