Former FedEx driver pleads guilty to killing 7-year-old girl after making delivery at her Texas home
CNN • • nation
Key Points:
- Former FedEx driver Tanner Horner pleaded guilty to killing 7-year-old Athena Strand in Texas after delivering her a Christmas gift, claiming he accidentally hit her with his van and strangled her in panic.
- Horner faces either the death penalty or life imprisonment, with jurors now tasked with deciding his punishment.
- Prosecutors presented evidence that Athena was uninjured when taken into Horner's van and that he threatened her before killing her, with his DNA found under her fingernails and in other incriminating locations.
- Horner's defense cited his autism, mental illnesses, prenatal exposure to alcohol and lead, and asked for a life sentence instead of the death penalty.
- The trial was moved from Wise County to Fort Worth due to concerns over Horner receiving a fair trial in the rural community.
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