Texas Jury Brought to Tears by Audio of Young Victim’s Final Moments Before Being Strangled to Death

Tanner Horner confessed to fatally strangling 7-year-old Athena Strand, lawmen say, and the Texas jury tasked with deciding if the monster’s punishment was brought to tears by a heart-wrenching audio recording of the terrified child’s final tortured moments — before voting to give him the death sentence.

Delivery driver Horner, 34, recently pleaded guilty to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping after snatching the youngster from outside her father Jacob Strand‘s home in Paradise, Texas, on Nov. 30, 2022, while dropping off Christmas presents she’d never open.

Athena’s nude body was found two days later in a nearby river.

Prosecutors played disturbing surveillance footage from inside the slayer’s work truck during the penalty phase of Horner’s court proceedings — which were still ongoing at press time — that captured panicked Athena asking the brute, “Are you a kidnapper?” according to Page Six.

Authorities say at one point Horner covered the camera, but the device recorded his voice telling the victim, “You’re really pretty. You know that?” — and ordering the child to take off her shirt.

Athena refused and asked for her mom, and jurors sobbed as they heard slamming noises and the crying girl’s screams during the deadly attack that lasted close to an hour.

Jurors deliberated for just three hours on Tuesday, May 5, before sentencing him to death, per People.

According to KCRA, Horner initially claimed he offed Athena in a panic after accidentally hitting her with his truck.

Heartbroken mom Maitlyn Gandy, who was divorced from Athena’s dad, said, via CBS News, “I was robbed of watching her grow up by a man everyone was supposed to trust to just one simple task — deliver a Christmas present and leave. She was an amazing little girl.”