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Let me abandon my "10 Years Ago" post to bring front and center an image that was shown yesterday in the trial of Tanner Horner. Without question, it is already the most famous photo in Wise County criminal justice history.
- For detailed reporting on the Horner trial, the Messenger is providing updates throughout the day without a paywall. It's good. I'll just give you some images from yesterday:
- A packed house as the trial was about to begin. Moments later, the DA will have to give an opening statement that only minutes earlier he thought would be about guilt/innocence instead of "just" the death penalty.
- DA James Stainton gave the opening. “You’re going to hear what a 250-pound man can do to a 67-pound child. It’s horrible . . . . One thing that you can’t unhear is the level of fight in a 7-year-old girl when she’s facing certain death."
- The defense lawyer opened with a very strange NBA basketball analogy of a guy who tore his Achilles tendon.
- Paradise first grade teacher Lindsey Thompson was the first witness. She did a fantastic job.
- Elizabeth Strand, stepmom at the time of the abduction.
- The jeans that Athena was wearing at the time of her abduction.
- The FedEx package that was actually delivered at the the time of the abduction.
- If the photo at the very top becomes the lasting image at this trial, this photo by Amanda McCoy of the Star-Telegram is a close second.
- Lane Akin, the former sheriff of Wise County, was emotional on the stand.
- James McGuire, an FBI agent, was the first person to contact Horner as the investigation was unfolding.
- ADA Patrick Berry, who normally takes the lead in most murder trials, finally got into the action. I suspect we will see a lot more of him.
- WFAA does commentary on its feed.
- Today at the trial, videos of Horner police interviews will be shown.
- The War.
- After saying he would probably wipe out an entire "civilization" -- the single worse utterance of words by a president in the history of the United States -- Trump caved last night. So we learned we have a madman as president who is willing to bluff genocide as a negotiating tactic.
- When people ask how could the Holocaust happen under Hitler, yesterday you saw how. We all sat around waiting for 8:00 p.m. EST to see if Trump would destroy millions and millions of people. And we would have let it happen.
- Trump went from requiring an "unconditional surrender" to this . . .
- This morning, it appears that Iran will continue to collect a toll for the ships they allow to go through -- something that didn't exist before our attack of Iraq. And overnight, Iran fired missiles at the UAE, and Kuwait.
- One local news quick hit.
- A Johnson County sheriff's deputy was shot and injured last night. Side note: Notice how this Twitter blurb begins with "Gemini said." There is no person named Gemini in the story. Gemini is, however, the name of Google's AI.
- Back to the Horner trial, the in-truck video recording system of the FedEx truck captured the audio of the murder. It, understandably, will be horrific. I don't know how the live video feed from the courtroom is going to handle that.
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