Judge Rejects Athena Strand Killer's Claim That Media Coverage Made Trial Unfair — Weeks After Death Sentence

Tanner Horner, the former FedEx driver who was sentenced to death after he admitted to abducting and killing 7-year-old Athena Strand, has had his request for a new trial rejected by a judge, RadarOnline.com can report.

Horner's attorneys had tried to argue the killer was unable to get a fair sentencing trial due to the intense media coverage of the crime.

Horner pleaded guilty to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping on April 7, just as his trial was about to begin. Prosecutors earlier told jurors Horner abducted Strand while delivering a Christmas present before killing her and dumping her naked body in a creek.

In June, his attorneys filed a motion for a new trial, alleging that widespread media coverage intimidated some key witnesses who refused to testify and made it impossible for the 34-year-old to get a fair trial.

A judge had until July 20 to rule on the motion, per the law. When Judge George Gallagher opted not to sign the order for a new trial, the motion was automatically dismissed.

"We are pleased that the Motion for New Trial was denied," Wise County District Attorney James Stainton said in a statement. "Whether the Court signed the Order or it was denied as a matter of law makes no difference. It is simply a part of the process in getting justice for Athena. She is what matters, and we will continue to fight for her every step of the way until justice is finally served."

Horner originally pleaded guilty to the gruesome murder in hopes that by coming forward and sharing his life story, he could be spared the death penalty and instead be sent to life in prison without parole.

The guilty plea spared a formal trial and allowed the court to move right into the sentencing phase, where, after weeks of emotional and often graphic testimony, including the playing of Strand's struggle with her captor caught on the deliveryman's truck camera, Horner was sentenced to death by lethal injection.

Before playing the chilling audio of the young girl's final fight for her life, Wise County District Attorney James Stainton warned jurors, "You are going to hear what a 250-pound man can do to a 67-pound child. And when I say it's horrible, I mean it. I've been doing this 25 years, and I promise you, buckle up."

A forensic expert testified, "When police found Strand's body, she had markings pressed into her face that matched the floor of Horner's FedEx vehicle."

Since the sentencing, Horner has been housed in one of the most brutal death rows in the nation while he waits for his lethal injection, inside what is referred to as the "Death Watch" of the Polunsky Unit, a specialized prison outside Houston for death row inmates.

Inmates are housed in an all-solitary confinement wing and spend at least 22 hours a day in cramped 60-square-foot cells. They have no access to phones, televisions, or contact visits from the outside world.

Horner's cell consists only of a metal bunk and a thin mattress, a metal desk, and a metal toilet and sink. A steel locker box under the bed is meant to house what little personal items he has, but previous inmates have complained that rotting sewage pipes "back up all the time," spewing raw sewage across the floors and into the containers.

One inmate has described the prison as a "psychological torture chamber," with multiple "dark" purposes.

"Texas is infamous for getting the maximum amount of suffering it can out of each taxpayer dollar," the death row inmate said.