Overview
- A Tarrant County jury on Tuesday chose death over life without parole after Tanner Horner pleaded guilty last month to kidnapping and murdering 7-year-old Athena Strand.
- Judge George Gallagher imposed the sentence by lethal injection and Horner will be moved from the county jail to the Allan B. Polunsky Unit, which houses Texas death row.
- Jurors saw van video and heard audio in which prosecutors said Horner warned Athena not to scream, and they reviewed DNA that linked him to the assault along with her DNA under his fingernails.
- The defense sought life in prison, citing autism-spectrum and chronic mental-health diagnoses, while two women testified that Horner had assaulted them as minors to support aggravation.
- Family members delivered emotional statements in court, and the automatic appeal will assign counsel and require multiple court reviews before any execution can be set.