The mother of a FedEx driver who admitted to murdering seven-year-old Athena Strand broke down in court on Wednesday as she spoke about her son's upbringing.
The woman, only referred to in court as 'Mrs. Horner,' told jurors at her son Tanner Horner's sentencing hearing that she did drugs and drank before she knew she was pregnant with him, and how he was bullied as a child.
'I mean, he wanted to get along with people, but they just weren't interested in having conversations with him,' she testified, according to NBC DFW.
'It was hard to watch. Very sad. They didn't like him at all.'
Defense attorneys are now apparently hoping jurors will take her testimony into account as they decide whether Tanner should be executed for Strand's murder.
He pleaded guilty to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping in the case on April 7, just hours before his trial was set to start.
But Tanner denied that he raped the young girl before he strangled her to death - something his mother said she no longer believes, Fox 4 reports.
'I am so mad at him,' Mrs. Horner said of her son when she was asked by the defense if she was angry with him, given what he had pleaded guilty to.
'I want to just tear his a** up... She was just a baby,' she said.
FedEx killer Tanner Horner's mother testified about his upbringing at his trial on Wednesday
Mrs. Horner told jurors at her son Tanner Horner's (pictured) sentencing hearing that she did drugs and drank before she knew she was pregnant with him, and how he was bullied as a child
Tanner has admitted to abducting and killing seven-year-old Athena Strand from her home
Much of Mrs. Horner's testimony on Wednesday dealt with her own upbringing and the effects it had on Tanner when he was growing up.
She told jurors how she was born to a teenage mother, her parents divorced when she was just one year old and her stepfather started sexually abusing her at the age of four.
'I don't remember having dreams,' Mrs. Horner said. 'I didn't have a childhood.'
She then went on to describe years of drug abuse and mental health issues - saying she used heroin for 25 years and is now on methadone.
'I used everything I could get my hands on,' she said, according to CBS News. 'It wasn't a good lifestyle.'
The woman, whose image was blurred in the livestream of the court proceeding to maintain her anonymity, also said she has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder.
She said she first went to rehab at the age of 14, then dropped out of high school - eventually getting a job as a teenager at a strip club in Fort Worth, Texas, where she first met Tanner's father, Terry.
He raped her on the night they first met, Mrs. Horner said, but she ultimately decided to marry him when she was 19 years old.
'It wasn't for love,' she told the jury.
Much of Mrs. Horner's testimony on Wednesday dealt with her own upbringing and the effects it had on Tanner when he was growing up (pictured)
Mrs. Horner testified in court on Wednesday that her Tanner (pictured) had trouble making friends as a child and was later diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome
Tanner seemed to blame his Asperger Syndrome on his actions in November 2022
Mrs. Horner then went on to claim she did not know she was pregnant with Tanner until she was about eight and a half weeks along.
Until then, she said she continued using drugs and drank 'pretty heavily, enough to get cirrhosis.'
Even after she found out she was pregnant, though, Mrs. Horner said she continued to smoke cigarettes and marijuana.
She also testified that she kept using drugs throughout Tanner's childhood - noting that he was just two years old when she relapsed.
'I nodded out one time, on the toilet,' she recounted. 'Tanner came in. He was just a little guy and he thought I was dead.'
At times, Tanner and his younger brother would live with their mother at rehabilitation centers. But when she was arrested on drug and prostitution charges, Tanner and his brother would also live with her mother.
Throughout his childhood, Mrs. Horner said, Tanner said he had a hard time making friends and communicating with other children.
Tanner strangled Strand, abducted her and dumped her body in a creek.. The two are pictured in his FedEx truck following the kidnapping
Horner kidnapped the little girl as he delivered a parcel of Barbies that her father and stepmother bought for her as a Christmas present
At the trial, jurors were also shown letters Horner wrote to Strand's family
She said he often had meltdowns, which she assumed were just temper tantrums when Tanner was younger.
But when he started getting bullied at school, Mrs. Horner said Tanner would act out violently by hitting himself in the head - though she insisted he never hit her or other people.
Tanner was eventually diagnosed with ADHD and Asperger Syndrome - an autism spectrum disorder whose sufferers may struggle to cope if their usual daily routine is disrupted.
In a letter to Strand's heartbroken family, Tanner seemed to blame his actions on the diagnosis.
He described in the letter how he was extremely stressed by not being able to drive the exact same route in his FedEx truck every day, when he kidnapped and killed Strand.
'I'm sorry I allowed my mental state to be unstable. I'm sorry I took your little angel away from you. She didn't deserve it,' Tanner wrote, as he moaned about the impact his crime would have on his own family.
He has claimed he accidentally struck Strand with his truck when he was delivering Barbie dolls that would be her Christmas present in November 2022, and that he strangled her out of fear she would tell her parents.
He told the court he initially tried to break Athena's neck to kill her, but that it didn't work, so he strangled her with his bare hands instead while singing 'Jingle Bell Rock.'
Prosecutors, however, have called the claims an 'absolute lie' and said Athena was not hurt before he abducted her, with footage showing Athena conscious and seemingly physically unharmed inside the truck.
