Former FedEx driver pleads guilty to killing 7-year-old girl after making delivery at her Texas home

What an awful human being. Who in the hell's first instinct after hitting someone with a vehicle is, "Oh she's still alive! Better kill her to make sure no one knows I hit her!" What the hell man....

"strangled her in a fit of panic" I just cannot imagine in my brain how the instinctual way to panic to to strangle the dying child. What the f*** Edit: holy shit, I didn't read enough, the kid was fine when he killed her. Wtf is wrong with humans. "Oh no can't let anyone know I be bumped this kid, let me brake her neck, oh that didn't work, strangle it is"

"While acknowledging that the evidence against Horner was 'overwhelming' and 'terrible,' he told jurors that Horner’s mother drank while she was pregnant, that he has autism and suffered from 'various mental illnesses throughout his life' in addition to being exposed to a 'massive amount of lead.'" Oh, what a f****** load.

Oh god that’s absolutely disgusting. Poor baby girl. 

Yeah, I do not belive his entire story.

This is not the full article text? Not sure why you said that when your comment has the article shortened with key information omitted and slightly reworded. Did you summarize it with AI or something? The full article is way worse: > A former FedEx driver pleaded guilty Tuesday to killing a 7-year-old girl after delivering a Christmas gift to her Texas home, where he told authorities he accidentally struck her with his van and then strangled her in a fit of panic. > Tanner Horner faces either the death penalty or life in prison in the 2022 killing of Athena Strand, whose body was found two days after she was reported missing in the rural town of Paradise, near Fort Worth. Jurors will now decide Horner’s punishment. > “The only truthful thing that Tanner Horner told law enforcement was that he killed her,” Wise County District Attorney James Stainton said during opening statements. “The pattern and web of lies that he put together, it’s going to be hard for ya’ll to keep up with. It is lie upon lie upon lie upon lie.” > As Athena’s stepmother testified, the jury was shown an image of Athena taken from a video inside the delivery truck. She was still alive and sitting on her knees behind the driver’s seat. > Stainton said the scenario that Horner told authorities — that he hit her with his vehicle and panicked — is an “absolute lie.” He said she was uninjured when Horner put her into the vehicle. > “The first thing Tanner Horner says to Athena when he picks her up and puts her in that truck, he leans down and he says: ‘Don’t scream or I’ll hurt you.’ He says that twice,” Stainton said. > Stainton told jurors that the evidence in the case is “rough,” and they will watch video and then hear audio after the camera has been covered up. > “You are going to hear what a 250-pound man can do to a 67-pound child,” Stainton said. “And when I say it’s horrible, I mean it.” > He said Athena fought Horner, and his DNA was found under her fingernails. He also said Horner’s DNA was found “in places where you shouldn’t find DNA on a 7-year-old girl.” > According to an arrest warrant, Horner told authorities that he strangled Athena after accidentally hitting her with his van while making a delivery. Horner told investigators that Athena wasn’t seriously hurt after he hit her while backing up, but he panicked and put her in his van. > Horner said he didn’t want her to tell her father what happened, so he first tried to break the girl’s neck and when that didn’t work, he strangled her with his hands in the back of the van, the warrant said. The warrant said Horner took investigators to where he’d left Athena’s body. > In opening statements, Horner’s attorney Steven Goble told jurors: “When someone’s brain is what’s injured, you don’t see it.” > While acknowledging that the evidence against Horner was “overwhelming” and “terrible,” he told jurors that Horner’s mother drank while she was pregnant, that he has autism and suffered from “various mental illnesses throughout his life” in addition to being exposed to a “massive amount of lead.” > Goble asked jurors to sentence him to life in prison. > Ashley Strand, Athena’s stepmother, told jurors that the package Horner had dropped off was a Christmas present for Athena — a box of “You Can Be Anything” Barbies. Strand, who has since divorced Athena’s father, said Athena enjoyed living out on their land in the country, where she got to “run wild and free.” > The trial was moved from rural Wise County to Fort Worth after Horner’s attorneys argued that he would not have received a fair trial. EDIT: I see you updated the comment to “Article summary” instead of “Full article text”

Jesus f****** Christ. Monster. Send this f***** to Mars and get him the hell off my planet.

>> Her family said the package Horner had dropped off was a Christmas present for Athena — a box of “You Can Be Anything” Barbies. As if this story wasn't awful enough, knowing he was delivering her Christmas presents that she would never get to unwrap and play with makes me so sad

OH MY GOD! That went from bad to FUCKED UP real quick..

This upsets and angers me so very much. At least they caught this m***********.

[ Removed by Listnook ]

It’s 2am and this just made me tear up. My daughter is 2 years old with another on the way and it makes me sick to my stomach to think stuff like this happens

I can’t even comprehend crimes like this. I know humans are capable of terrible things, but stories of this magnitude are f****** terrifying. We walk around every day alongside people who are capable of unimaginable harm. I’m not a religious person, but “evil” feels like the only word that fits this kind of crime. It’s just so unfathomable.

Made my stomach turn. I have a niece and hopefully a son/daughter soon and even at my most mad I can’t imagine this.

I'm at work so I can't. Wish I didn't see this one though. Double wish I didn't read what the delivery was...

I don't think I can even sleep after reading this

Absolute monster

The priorities of our society are out of order.

Because instead of choosing to ruthlessly pursue and imprison sex offenders, we focused on drugs for decades to no avail.

He had a clean criminal record prior to this. It wasn’t until after he was arrested that he was linked to other crimes.

I have been drinking but I dont see any prior mention of pedophilia or child abuse. Does he have a previous history?

Read it. He didn't *just* want to kill her. Despicable human.

What is with this replies? Why are people upset at a comment about you not wanting to open the door for delivery, under a post about deliver driver brutality killing a little girl?

Unfortunately the reality of things is that 93% of the victims of sexual abuse reported to law enforcement that are under 18 know their abuser. It’s generally not some random stranger acting on an impulse. https://rainn.org/facts-statistics-the-scope-of-the-problem/statistics-perpetrators-of-sexual-violence/

100%, and just to add, as a man, I am also at the mercy of the male impulse and am far more wary of men than of women. So, don't worry about being considered wrong in some way for being wary.

It's not like men do anything to try and assuage our fears anyways. Remember the whole bear vs man argument and how offended so many men got that women would, in fact, choose the bear because the worst thing the bear could do is kill you? Yeah.

I’m a father and I would rather the jail just takes him out with the trash and saves the subsidized meals for someone capable of rehabilitation. Just be done with him. He’s not human. 

Poor baby. 

I hate the autism defence. If he’s capable of working an unsupervised 9-5 job as a delivery driver, he is also mentally competent enough to know that sexually assaulting and murdering children is wrong. If an autistic man is so severely impaired he cannot be trusted around children for fear of him pulling a Lenny from Steinbeck, then he needs to be in a 24/7 care home with an aide or other staff member supervising him. I’m autistic and it just makes my blood boil. My SIL was also molested as a child by another kid who was autistic and both his and her parents minimized it and brushed it under the rug because “he’s autistic and doesn’t know better.” Like…then teach him better and don’t keep leaving him alone with your preschool daughter.

There are a lot of fates worse than death. Killing him would be kind.

Which image? The one in the truck? This was meant to be his trial. His defenders had it delayed by requesting a venue change. It's very possible this evidence wasn't presented and put on record earlier because the local newspaper was reporting on the events non-stop. The local newspaper and public opinion in the area was why the defenders were able to get a venue change.

The trial never even started, he pleaded guilty.

Wow CNN seriously understated that heading.

They were "You can be anything" barbies 💔

He'll be put on death row which is pretty isolating. He won't be attacked by other inmates really 

Washed? What?