Christopher Horne Jr. was adjudicated guilty of Second Degree Murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in the March 17, 2024 murder of a 15-year-old Cape Coral girl. The defendant was also sentenced to 15 years in prison on each of three counts of Attempted Robbery. The sentences are to run concurrently. As part of the sentence, the defendant is not allowed to have contact with any of the victims or their families.
The defendant was 16 years old at the time of the crime. The State Attorney’s Office direct filed the case against the defendant and co-defendant Thomas Stein, also 16 at the time of the crime, from juvenile court and into adult court. This allowed for adult sanctions in the case. The teens were also indicted by the Lee County Grand Jury.
The defendant was sentenced as part of a plea agreement. As part of the agreement, the defendant had to testify truthfully against his co-defendant if called as a witness at trial.
Assistant State Attorney Sara Miller of the State Attorney’s Office Homicide Unit and Assistant State Attorney Alyssa Wolf prosecuted the case. The Cape Coral Police Department led the extensive investigation into the crime.
On the night of the murder, the defendant was picked up by co-defendant Stein, in an SUV Stein’s mother had rented. Stein, who was armed with a gun, first drove through the parking lot of a North Fort Myers movie theater attempting to burglarize cars. They then went to a Cape Coral movie theater but after driving through the parking lot, considered robbing someone at a nearby bank ATM. It was then that they saw the trio of girls walking and decided to rob them.
The victim and her friends were walking to get food after watching a movie at the theater. They were walking along a dark road adjacent to Del Prado, when the SUV drove by and then circled back and drove by again. Stein flashed the high beams into the girls’ faces and stopped the vehicle in front of them. The defendants got out of the vehicle and moments later a gun went off, with the bullet going into the chest of the victim, at close range.
Stein and the defendant fled the scene as the victim’s friends, also victims of the attempted robbery, tried to save her life, applying pressure to the wound, and calling 911. A Cape Coral Police Officer arrived on scene in minutes and also tried to save the victim’s life. The victim was able to speak at first and told the officer she did not know the person who shot her. She died a short time later at a local hospital.
Stein, convicted at trial earlier this month, is scheduled to be sentenced on July 10, 2026.
Samantha Syoen – State Attorney’s Office Communications Director