Tanner Horner Trial Day 6: Jurors hear jailhouse calls, read letters to Athena Strand’s family

FORT WORTH, Texas - The punishment phase in the trial of Tanner Horner enters its sixth day Tuesday, as a jury decides whether the former delivery driver will face the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

Horner pleaded guilty on the first day of the trial to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping. He admitted to kidnapping 7-year-old Athena Strand while delivering a package to her home on Nov. 30, 2022, and later strangling her.

FOX 4 will have gavel-to-gavel coverage of the trial on FOX LOCAL.

Live Updates

12:30 p.m. Lunch break

The trial stopped for a one-hour lunch break.

11:50 a.m. Second sexual assault accuser

A second alleged sexual assault victim testified that Horner raped her in 2014. She was 16 years old at the time.

She said she and Horner were in the same band. They saw each other often for band practice and would hang out together with other friends. Often, alcohol and drugs were involved. But, the witness said she never agreed to date Horner or have a sexual relationship with him.

She described an encounter while staying at another friend's house overnight. She and Horner shared a bed, but she told him she didn't want to be touched and only wanted to go to sleep. 

She fell asleep, but woke up sometime later in the night to find Horner on top of her.

"I became conscious and came too to Tanner Horner raping me," she said.

11:35 a.m. Cross-examination

Under cross-examination, Horner's accuser admitted that no one forced her to be around him. She also admitted that no one forced her to drink alcohol or use drugs. She said she did indeed plan to spend the night at his house. She admitted she "went along with it" after Horner made the first move.

"When you had your forensic interview with the Fort Worth police detective, do you recall telling him that the encounter was consensual?" the defense attorney asked her.

"In the fact that I did not say no, yes. But I was still a minor child at 16," the witness said.

"But do you recall telling him that it was consensual?" the defense asked.

"Yes," the witness admitted.

10:40 a.m. Sexual assault accuser's testimony

Jurors heard testimony from a witness who said she was sexually assaulted twice by Horner in 2013 when she was 16 years old, and he was 22 years old. She is the accuser in two current sexual assault of a child cases pending in Tarrant County. The judge decided her face would be blurred.

The witness testified that Horner asked her to lie to his grandmother about her age. She said Horner took her back to his shed to drink alcohol and smoke marijuana. Horner purchased the alcohol that she was drinking.

"That night when I decided it was time to go to sleep, I laid down and Tanner Horner started grabbing a hold of me, kissing me, and proceeded to have sex with me," she said.

She said she told him the next day that she did not want to have that kind of relationship with him.

The witness testified that there was a second incident after another night of smoking and drinking. She fell asleep in Horner's room. She testified that she was asleep and woke up to him grabbing and touching her. He once again proceeded to have sex with her.

"I froze. I completely froze, shut down, did not know what to do, and just let it happen," she said.

She said she felt gross, violated, and hated herself for allowing it to happen. 

She also told jurors that she feels guilty about not reporting the sexual assaults sooner because if she had, "things may not have happened to other people."

9:50 a.m. Constable testifies

Wise County Constable Kevin Huffman was called to the stand. He lives in Paradise, near Athena's home, and received a package delivery the day before the little girl went missing. Prosecutors showed video of Horner delivering a large package to his home. Huffman admitted that he never feared for his safety.

9:10 a.m. Cellphone Expert

The trial began on Tuesday morning with testimony from a cellphone expert who recovered data from Horner's cellphone. 

He talked about Horner's browser cache and search history on the day of Dec. 1, including the phrases "Paradise missing girl" and "do FedEx truck cameras constantly record." He said he found no evidence of child pornography or the sexual assault of a child.

Tanner Horner Trial Day 5 Recap

Day 5 of the Tanner Horner capital murder trial focused on the harrowing physical evidence of 7-year-old Athena Strand’s death and the defendant’s own words following his 2022 arrest.

Dr. Jessica Dwyer, the medical examiner who performed Athena’s autopsy, testified that the child died from blunt force injuries, smothering and strangulation. When asked by prosecutors if Athena suffered before she died, Dwyer replied, "Yes, I think she did." While Dwyer found no physical evidence of sexual trauma, she clarified that the absence of such injuries does not definitively rule out the possibility of an assault.

FBI Agent David Rogers testified regarding the recovery of Athena’s body from the Trinity River and the evidence collected from Horner’s van. 

The jury was shown letters Horner allegedly wrote in jail prior to a 2023 suicide attempt. In a letter to Athena’s family, Horner apologized, claiming he "couldn't hold it in any longer" and blaming his actions on a mental breakdown caused by his inability to handle "random changes" to his FedEx delivery route. However, in a separate note labeled "detectives only," Horner offered a conflicting account, claiming an unidentified man with a rifle forced him to kidnap the girl.

The day concluded with prosecutors playing audio from five jailhouse phone calls between Horner and his family. In one recording, Horner’s mother is heard asking if Athena died on her own, to which Horner replied, "No." 

Throughout the testimony, Horner frequently looked away from the courtroom screens or sat with his head down.

Tanner Horner Trial Week 1 Recap

The first week of the punishment phase was dominated by hours of police body camera and interrogation footage. On Thursday, jurors watched video of investigators questioning Horner about the location of the girl's body. Horner, speaking as his alter ego, said he dumped the child's clothes along the highway because he "thought it was funny."

Horner previously told police he did not kill Strand, instead blaming an alter ego he called "Zero." A sergeant with the Texas Rangers testified that he obtained more information about the crime by questioning "Zero" directly. The sergeant noted that Horner would roll his eyes back before switching personalities, displaying a marked change in his physical demeanor.

The jury was also shown photos of Horner’s residence and the locations where the clothing was recovered. In another interview shown to the court, Horner asked investigators to release him from jail for one month so he could spend Christmas with his family, promising to "tell everything" if they agreed.

• Day 1 - Tanner Horner pleads guilty
• Day 2 - Tanner Horner discusses alter ego ‘Zero’
• Day 3 - Tanner Horner interrogation shown to jury
• Day 4 - Investigators share details about FedEx ‘abduction van’
• Day 5 - Phone calls with family members, ME testifies

Athena Strand’s Death

The backstory:

Horner was charged with capital murder for the death of 7-year-old Athena Strand outside her family’s Wise County home on Nov. 30, 2022.

A contract delivery driver working for FedEx at the time, Horner was delivering what was meant to be a Christmas present for the young girl.

Horner told investigators he accidentally hit Athena with his van while delivering a package to her home. She reportedly survived, but Horner told authorities he panicked and kidnapped her, later strangling her to death.

Athena was reported missing, and eventually an Amber Alert was issued, leading to 72 hours of searching. She was found dead in Boyd, Texas, not far from her family's home.

Athena Alert

The Impact:

After Athena Strand's case, Texas Legislators passed a new bill that created a version of an Amber Alert known as the ‘Athena Alert.’

The new law allows authorities to issue an Amber Alert for a missing child that doesn’t have to meet all of the initial criteria.

Under the Athena Alert law, an Amber Alert can still go out even though authorities haven’t confirmed a missing child was kidnapped.

The alert would be able to be sent out to a 100-mile area around the disappearance and adjacent counties.

DPS emphasizes that this is not a new type of alert. All alert messages will still be referenced as an Amber Alert.

NewsCrime and Public SafetyTexasTop Stories