After Tanner Horner’s mother and paternal great-aunt testified yesterday, his defense attorneys proceeded with their arguments Thursday morning. They are trying to avoid the death penalty after the former FedEx delivery driver pleaded guilty to kidnapping and murdering 7-year-old Athena Strand in November 2022.

Tanner Horner’s Mother Testifies

Prosecutors rested their case last week, and to allow the defense to finalize their remaining witnesses, the trial was delayed for a day. Horner’s mother was the first to take the stand in his defense on Wednesday. 

She appeared emotional and nervous even through the blurred camera. She described herself as a high school dropout with two kids, and struggled growing up. The defense used her testimony to show the influence her life had on her kids. 

“I don’t remember having dreams. I didn’t have a good childhood,” she said before describing the sexual abuse she endured from her stepfather. “I was four when he tried to have sex with me.”

As a coping mechanism, she turned to meth, heroin, and alcohol. She was a stripper for about 12 years and said she continued her bad habits into her 8th week of pregnancy with Horner. When she found out she was pregnant, she stopped all but smoking. “I wish I hadn’t. I really wish I hadn’t,” she said.

Senseless Murder of Athena Strand

Athena Strand was kidnapped from her driveway on November 30, 2022, in Paradise, Texas. The FedEx delivery driver, later identified as Tanner Horner, took the little girl and savagely assaulted and murdered her. When Horner’s mother was asked how she felt about her son after learning what he had done to Athena, she said, “I’m so mad at him.”

Fact Witnesses Called

Horner’s paternal great-aunt and cousin on his mother’s side took the stand Thursday. The courtroom’s camera feed remains obscured to protect the witnesses’ identities. His paternal great-aunt was the sister of his late father, Terry Horner. She opened up about her brother’s struggle with addiction and how he was in and out of jail the majority of his life.

During her cross-examination, she conceded she only saw Horner a few times in his life, but recalled he cried a lot as a baby. The other witness, referred to as Ms. Sullivan, is his mother’s first cousin. She is about a decade older than the defendant, and she said she babysat him when he was young.

She testified that as a pre-teen, Horner’s mother would leave him alone with her for long periods of time, sometimes days. She was responsible for feeding him, changing his diapers, and putting him to bed as an infant, and it continued into toddlerhood. For a while, she was paid in cash before Horner’s mother switched to marijuana as compensation.  

Sullivan said Horner was different from other children and tended to be hyperactive or aggressive, and would ingest coins. On cross-examination, she admitted she had not seen him since the early 1990s.

Both witnesses acknowledged during their cross-examinations that while they had difficult upbringings, they have never killed, sexually assaulted, or kidnapped anyone, insinuating that Horner’s childhood is not an excuse or explanation for what he has done.

Lead Expert Testifies

After the fact witness testimony, an expert witness on lead exposure took the stand. Aaron Specht is an assistant professor at Purdue University who specializes in environmental health and physics. He testified that the amount of lead in Horner’s bones was 24 times higher than the average amount in a person his age.

Specht said that the lead level indicates Horner was exposed to a significant amount of lead as a child, which more than likely led to neurological problems.