Tanner Horner wanted to spend one last Christmas with his family, jury hears
Former FedEx driver Tanner Horner promised investigators he would plead no contest to killing Athena Strand and tell them everything they wanted to know about the little girl’s death if they would let him spend Christmas at home with his 1-year-old son, according to a video interview shown to jurors Thursday during Horner’s capital murder trial in Tarrant County.
“There’s only one thing in this world that I want — I want a month,” Horner told the case’s lead investigator, Texas Ranger Job Espinoza, in a Dec. 7, 2022, interview that the suspect requested at the Wise County Jail.
Horner, 34, pleaded guilty Tuesday to capital murder in Athena’s killing. The jury will decide whether Horner should receive the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Athena went missing from her family’s Wise County property the afternoon of Nov. 30, 2022. Video evidence shows Horner abducted the 7-year-old while delivering a package to her home. He later strangled her and dumped her body in a creek along the Trinity River in rural Wise County, according to prosecutors.
Horner was arrested Dec. 2, 2022, after investigators traced the FedEx package to him. After leading Espinoza and other officers on a wild goose chase for several hours, he finally agreed to show them where he’d hidden Athena’s body.
Five days later, Horner asked to speak to investigators again so he could try to cut a deal, Espinoza told the jurors Thursday. Horner said he would wear a GPS monitor and even agree to surveillance cameras at his house if he could go home for Christmas.
“I would give up everything,” Horner can be heard saying on the video. “I would say throw me in a jail cell forever. I don’t care. I would give up all my defenses, plead no contest, tell you everything.”
Espinoza told Horner he wasn’t the right person to make that decision and he didn’t want to give false hope that such an arrangement would be possible.
During the approximately two-hour interview, Horner repeatedly talked about his proposition and dodged the ranger’s questions about why he kidnapped and killed Athena.
“You got to give me some good faith and answer that question for me,” Espinoza said. “You’ve got to answer the why, right? Because that’s what’s weighing on me.”
Espinoza told the jurors that Horner never answered that question. On the video Horner can be heard defending the false narrative that he knocked Athena down with his FedEx truck while leaving her house. He panicked, thinking he would lose his job, and told her to get in the truck, he said.
Again, Horner blamed Athena’s death on his alleged alter ego “Zero.” Horner wanted to take Athena to the hospital, he said, but Zero wouldn’t let him. Zero took control, according to Horner, and he thought he’d just had a nightmare until he found Athena’s pants in his backpack.
“I’m in trouble for something I don’t even remember,” Horner said.
Espinoza asked Horner again whether he sexually assaulted Athena.
Horner said he’s “98% sure” that he did not and then paused to say, “I’m halfway thinking about a cigarette now.” Then he added, “I haven’t seen anything in my dreams or anything like that” about sexual assault.
Horner seemed to grow more relaxed as the interview progressed. He chatted casually about his background, saying he’d driven for Uber and delivered pizza at Papa Johns prior to working at FedEx. He talked about how he met his girlfriend and different bands he’d been a part of.
Espinoza asked Horner several times what he’d done with Athena’s clothes. The night they discovered the 7-year-old’s body, Horner told the ranger that Zero had thrown her clothes out the window of the FedEx truck because it was “funny.”
During the Dec. 7 interview, the ranger asked if Horner had taken Athena’s clothes to humiliate her. Horner didn’t seem to give a clear answer.
Horner had previously said that he didn’t take Athena’s clothes back to his house, but FBI Special Agent Kurt Duross said crime-scene investigators found her blue jeans, socks and underwear scattered among trash behind the shed where Horner was living.
Photos of the clothing items were shown to the jury, including the blue jeans, which were embroidered with pink flowers on the front pockets.
The FBI agents also collected one of Horner’s FedEx shirts and a hoodie that they believed he may have been wearing at the time of the crime.
The trial is scheduled to resume Friday at 9 a.m. More crime-scene investigators are expected to testify about what was found at the various locations connected with Athena’s murder.
