Overview
- Tanner Horner changed his plea to guilty on Tuesday minutes before jury seating, moving the capital case straight to the punishment phase with death or life without parole as the only options.
- Prosecutors presented an image from inside the FedEx truck showing Athena alive in the van and said audio captured Horner telling her, “Don’t scream or I’ll hurt you.”
- The district attorney says Horner’s story about accidentally hitting the child is false, pointing to a confession, DNA under Athena’s fingernails, and DNA found in places a 7-year-old should not have it.
- Following Tuesday’s plea, jurors are being shown interrogation and bodycam footage; in one clip played Wednesday, Horner told police she was not alive when he put her in the truck and that he “kind of tossed her” when dumping her body.
- Horner’s lawyers ask for a life sentence, citing autism, prenatal alcohol exposure, possible brain injury, and lead exposure as mitigation, while the high-profile case was moved to Tarrant County and helped spur Texas’ Athena Alert to speed child-missing notifications.