When asked to tell the jury about the point at which Horner decided to kill Athena, Ryan said, "he was pretty clear that he did not decide to kill Athena until she was in the truck. And then he began to think, 'Now I'm in even worse trouble than he was before.' I think he just... he described it as it snowballed into an avalanche. And he then said that he knew he had to kill her, and he tried to make it, as he put it, as painless and quick as possible. So he tried to, as he put it, snap her neck, but it's not like in the movies, and it wasn't working, and so he attempted to strangle her, and he had a number of attempts to strangle her, which were unsuccessful."
Ryan said Horner's actions were a "combination of ambivalence and incompetence," but she did not think it was sadistic or that he derived pleasure from Athena's suffering.
She told the jury that Horner was under a significant amount of stress leading up to Strand's murder.
Ryan explained to the jury that when she met with Horner, he told her that she picked up Athena because she saw him snorting cocaine. This was a departure from his earlier claims that he struck Athena with his truck.
She explained that this caused Horner to "catastrophize" and imagine the worst possible outcome. She said he was afraid of losing his job, and because of his "laser focus" on his son, he was distraught over the consequences of losing his job and was afraid he would lose his son, too.
Ryan said Horner's "jump from Point A to Point Z" was "completely unreasonable."
She told the jury that Horner spoke to her about assaulting Athena, despite the fact that he denied it at first. She said he finally told her the truth about the assault, and "the only other time that he had a similar demeanor was talking about his own rape when he was 10." She said he seemed to be deeply ashamed and remorseful for what he had done.
Character witnesses in Fort Worth testified about Tanner Horner’s past, including drug use, partying and how he responded to stress.
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