Capital murder trial for FedEx driver charged in Athena Strand killing scheduled for 2025
The trial for Tanner Horner, the FedEx driver indicted on capital murder and kidnapping charges in the killing of 7-year-old Athena Strand, is set for early next year.
Pre-trial hearings are scheduled for Jan. 21-22, and jury selection will begin Feb. 3, according to court documents filed Monday. Testimony in the case is scheduled to begin on March 17 in a Tarrant County courtroom.
Horner has been in the Wise County Jail since his Dec. 2, 2022, arrest in connection with Athena’s death.
Horner, a FedEx contract driver, delivered a Christmas gift of Barbies intended for Athena to her father’s home near the Wise County town of Paradise on Nov. 30, 2022. The 7-year-old girl went missing at the time of the delivery, and her body was found two days later at a site along the Trinity River, less than 10 miles from the house.
According to his arrest warrant affidavit, Horner confessed to authorities and said that he backed into Athena with his FedEx truck. She wasn’t seriously hurt, but he kidnapped her, strangled her and killed her so she couldn’t tell her father about the accident, he said.
A Wise County grand jury indicted Horner in February 2023 on charges of aggravated kidnapping and capital murder of a child. The next day prosecutors with the Wise County District Attorney’s Office filed notice with the 271st District Court that they intended to seek the death penalty for Horner if he’s convicted of capital murder at trial.
On March 6, 2023, Horner pleaded not guilty at his arraignment hearing in Wise County.
Technicalities, including who should represent Horner at his trial, have slowed the case. In January, Horner’s attorneys unsuccessfully filed a motion to transfer him from the Wise County Jail to another facility.
In an Aug. 28 motion, Horner and his attorneys requested that his trial be moved out of Wise County, citing “pre-trial publicity” as a barrier to Horner receiving a fair trial in that community.
Their motion was accompanied by several exhibits, including the number of media stories that dealt with Athena’s killing and statements from three Wise County residents confirming the widespread public knowledge surrounding the case.
On Sept. 20, Judge Brock Smith of the 271st District Court in Decatur ordered that Horner’s trial be moved to Tarrant County.
In a statement to the Wise County Messenger, District Attorney James Stainton called the change in venue “unfortunate,” but said it won’t affect how the prosecution handles the case.
