Jury watches video of Athena Strand's abduction and killing

[0:00] um rebecca uh you know we're gonna i'm gonna toss it on over to you and i want to let you [0:05] guys talk about what you saw and heard well tanya that um by far is probably one of the most uh [0:13] emotional and heart-wrenching things i've ever heard in a courtroom and the family uh did leave [0:20] the mom and father and some of the family members left and did not listen to it and then the judge [0:26] also asked the gallery if anybody cannot make it through the next uh you know through this entire [0:34] video then you may want to go ahead and leave right now because he he warned everyone um and [0:40] it is you basically hear tanner horner torturing this little girl um we're only we sat 31 minutes [0:49] of this video before they broke for lunch and the judge told us there's still another 30 more minutes [0:55] of graphic video but you you hear you see them first walk up to the wheel but she's following [1:02] him into the van and then he lifts her up puts her in the van and she's she's saying um where are we [1:09] going and um terry i'm gonna let you also kind of talk to you saw hey we're struggling to hear terry [1:25] is a little bit something something wrong with her audio uh no it might just be because we're sharing um [1:33] our ear ear pods um can you can you not hear no i can't okay let me take lit yeah let okay let me [1:42] just see if we if that can you hear her now okay sorry we're having some difficulty here we're gonna [1:54] take off the ear pods i think yeah these are the the folks this is the reality of technology go ahead [2:02] yeah can you can you hear us now tanya yes go ahead to force the story that that he you guys are still [2:21] cutting out i i i feel like we gotta she walked to the van with him he put her in and shut the door [2:30] she asked him where are we going what are you doing are you a kidnapper uh it was almost like a [2:36] conversation for a while wasn't it rebecca yeah and and he's just chit-chatting with her asking her [2:41] where do you go to school how old are you and at one point he tells her she says why are you why are [2:47] you doing this and he says because you're pretty and um he says you know that don't you and then um [2:53] they drive around for a while she keeps saying where are you going and then um then he stops the the [2:59] vehicle and that's when he gets very graphic tanya at one point he um tells her to take off her shirt [3:05] and she says why and he says um uh he doesn't really answer that um you can't really hear what [3:13] he says but then she says my mom says you somebody shouldn't be doing this to me and and and you [3:20] shouldn't be doing this to me right yeah yeah my mom said i can't do this to other people and you can't [3:25] do it to me either so you know what i think is interesting is that this the state spent a lot of time [3:32] yesterday proving up that dna evidence or trying to bring that in um and i think it's going to be [3:40] very clear that there was some very sexual deviant things going on of course by this point we can't [3:49] see we can only hear what is going on but she asked him several times what are you doing the poor child [3:57] says ouch ouch ouch multiple times asks him again what are you doing the point being is that we are we [4:08] still have 30 minutes left of this audio and she's been this is about a year an hour's worth of torture [4:17] that he has put her through it's shocking because it gets quiet and then we all assume because you can [4:24] hear the struggle and we hear her crying yes and we can all assume that she's she's passed and then [4:30] all of a sudden we'll hear a gasp and we'll hear her cry and we'll hear her mom and then it'll get [4:37] quiet and then he'll pull over like he at one point he does take off and then he hears her so he pulls [4:42] over and then tanya you hear stomping or slamming like he's trying to you know hurt her more and then [4:50] he takes off and then the most eerie thing is at one point jingle bell rock comes on because remember [4:56] this is around christmas and he and she is she is crying she is like you you can hear her crying [5:02] and and he's just singing he starts singing jingle bell rock and then and then she's crying goes shut [5:07] up he tells her multiple times shut up if you don't shut up i'm going to come out come back there and hurt [5:12] you more yeah you need to shut up i mean he tells her to shut up several times what's what's what's eerie [5:18] is that he turns on his flashers and you know it's a fedex truck how many times have we driven by [5:23] fedex trucks right in our own neighborhoods well he's turned on his flashers and you can hear traffic [5:30] pass by them and i'm thinking those drivers had no idea what horror was going on in that van it's just [5:39] it's unlike any and and the juror the jury oh they're not only crying they are sobbing some of them are [5:47] sobbing and they're glaring at him and he's sitting there at one point he's just like this holding his [5:54] hands to his face and he's just looking down i mean i don't know terry i don't know how the defense [6:01] gets past this i mean those jurors were very emotional well i think the part of the mitigating [6:07] evidence that that this the defense is going to try to to bring in i don't know how it can negate [6:14] the decisions that this man clearly made because at first you know it was questionable whether or not [6:20] he had hurt her so he put her in the van and you know didn't know what to do and he was confused and [6:25] he made bad decisions no it's very calculated and he he definitely used this child for some kind of [6:35] sexual reputation he did and you can hear that you can you can hear it you can hear it on the audio yes [6:41] even though he there wasn't an accusation in the indictment it is clear that there was something [6:47] sexual going on plus we also know that there was dna found on her body and so i think that it's going to [6:55] be very difficult for any defense expert to come in with mitigating evidence whether it's because he grew [7:05] up with a lot of trauma he had he was in alcohol fetal uh alcohol syndrome or whatever the case may be [7:12] because his mother drank when when he was in in the womb whether he has autism whether he has multiple [7:19] personality disorder which they now call um really something completely different or whether he's a [7:25] sociopath or a psychopath i don't think that a defense expert can can change the way this trial is [7:36] going to go and that is coming from uh just watching this jury and hearing for ourselves what he put her [7:44] through it's so haunting tanya because when he's walking her to the van i can't hear what they're talking and [7:53] by the way he he does drop off the barbies first and then he drops off the package and then you see [7:59] him and and when he first pulls over you see him kind of looking around almost like he does scope her [8:04] out like he he sees her you can't really see her at that point but then you see her following him and [8:10] then him hoisting her up into that truck and then um into the van and then you know she's asking where [8:18] are we going like like she's going initially she's just wondering like where are we going right and [8:23] like no big deal at first but then she realizes at some point that something's wrong well and you [8:29] want to talk about calculated and premeditated there are two cameras on this fedex van there is a dash cam [8:37] which is very similar to a police dash cam where it projects out in front of the van he covered that [8:44] up immediately that that we never saw any video from that once he got to a thing in his house then [8:50] after he brought her into the van brought her into that uh area we've seen the picture of her standing [8:58] there while he's driving at that point shortly thereafter he covers that camera and you know what's [9:05] interesting is rebecca you remember he walked around that van and he looked into the passenger side [9:12] window like he was scoping out the cameras so he it's pre it's totally premeditated it's totally [9:18] premeditated there's just not some person who freaked out and made bad decisions to me it looks very [9:26] premeditated and we certainly don't see some alter ego come out while he is doing this to athena right [9:32] it is very deliberate and he knows exactly what he's doing well she he's tortured her he tortured her [9:43] and you know they they they claim in the indictment that she could have died by suffocation strangulation [9:49] or blunt force trauma to the head stomping uh we heard it we heard it you heard it and she's still a [9:56] lot she's still a lot she's still up and we we um again the judge says there's still 30 more minutes [10:01] so we know from um the opening statements that the prosecutor says you hear him over and over and over [10:10] again attempting to kill her uh and choke her and take her life and and that's what we are hearing [10:17] because just as we think you know she's passed away you hear her gasping and crying and screaming [10:25] moaning and it is it is it is awful time and the defendant's face is this far from the defense table [10:32] i mean he is leaning over with his face just inches away from that table uh because and you know what [10:39] i thought this is just my impression is that that the audio is playing there's no video but this video [10:47] in his head oh yeah he is seeing all of that in his head and but but again a person he is totally [10:55] confident there's no issue about competency this man knows exactly what what is going on and he is not [11:02] just out of it he he knows what's happening he knows what he did he's singing jingle bell rock [11:09] with a child screaming in the back of the rat that that was the word because you i mean the whole thing [11:14] is terrible but when he the jingle bell rock comes on and and she's she's screaming the entire time and [11:20] then he starts singing over her screaming and then keeps telling her shut up shut up while jingle bell rock [11:25] is playing and he's singing like like nothing's happened it is it is um the most awful thing i've [11:33] ever heard in a courtroom and i have to i have to say just as we're watching different actors in the [11:39] courtroom we clearly saw the emotions from the jury and they're they're taking notes as well some of them [11:45] are taking notes but there was emotion from both sides of the of the table there the prosecutors were [11:53] emotional the defense attorney attorneys were emotional this is not easy for either side and i know that [12:01] they i'm thinking that tanner um has according to testimony attempted suicide several times in his life [12:12] and i'm you know as rebecca said it makes you wonder this is in the courtroom it makes you wonder if the [12:20] defense wouldn't just rest after this because it's just so bad however those defense attorneys have a job [12:28] that they have to do and i admire them it's hard they're going to do their job but i would not be [12:35] surprised if he didn't say i'm done i mean if he's truly um someone who is remorseful or um regrets what [12:45] he did and he you know he's already been suicidal in the past it makes me wonder if he would tell his [12:53] lawyers i'm done but i i know that they will continue with their case and bringing their experts because [13:01] that is what they're required to do but it's not easy on them yeah okay well thank you guys i i i can't [13:11] unimagine what it was like um for you and everybody else in that courtroom that heard that just listening [13:17] to you describe it um i personally feel physically ill uh i don't know if jingle bell rock will ever be the [13:24] same again um and um so i am horrified and um thank you for um telling us about it and explaining it to [13:35] people and uh keith do you have anything you want to add probably a lot i mean wow you know i think [13:45] the thing that really is rebecca and terry were describing it you know the questions that she asked [13:52] hey where are we going what are you doing are you a kidnapper i mean so it's the stranger danger what [13:59] we teach our kids she's processing all this unfortunately it's too late because she's already [14:05] in the van but for that to happen and i could only imagine as she the realizations coming to her like how [14:12] crazy that is but i tell you what uh his response when y'all were describing that uh you know how he says [14:19] well but i did this because you're pretty you know that right oh my goodness if the jury [14:28] isn't livid at that point i mean and the prosecution you know i think with the dna [14:34] we wondered you know well is it really does it show something and now we totally know why they put [14:40] all that stuff in and and what was going on and um you know terry you explained it well like [14:46] regarding just what was going on the play-by-play kind of of what she's saying what he's doing and [14:52] everything so right immediately after after he says to her take your shirt off and she went why [15:00] she she tells him no i mean she says she does what her mom has told her to do no my mom says you're not [15:07] supposed to be doing this to me yeah and then she asked him several times what are you doing what are [15:13] even doing well as adults we can assume we know what he was doing and i i she was confused and perplexed [15:22] she had no idea what was going on and and you know i just to hear her you can hear you can hear the [15:32] strangulation and then you can hear her gasp later on as she is um i i i don't know because i'm not a [15:43] doctor i don't know how she can she can be revived from that and he's clearly not reviving her as far [15:50] as i know no no he continues to inflict more pain on her and then and then gets angry because she was [15:56] she's because she's crying she won't shut up yeah that's what he said shut up i mean multiple times do [16:02] you want me to stop and come back there and hurt you more than that or worse yeah yeah y'all it is [16:09] it's it is uh deliberate it is meditated it is calculated it is there's there's no confusion about [16:22] it he froze and panicked no he did not freeze and panic no not at all no this is this is evil on a [16:31] level that's just painful to listen to we're going to take a break um for about a half an hour we [16:37] understand that court is going to resume at one o'clock and yes that video will uh continue to [16:44] play we will we will again not be able to live stream during that um we will keith and i will be [16:50] back at one and then we will um see you and terry after y'all finish watching the video and thank you [16:58] again for for for doing this we appreciate it