By Hannah Schoenbaum
Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah man who killed his girlfriend’s mother by slashing her throat was put to death by lethal injection early Thursday in the state’s first execution since 2010.
Taberon Dave Honie, 48, was convicted of aggravated murder in the July 1998 death of Claudia Benn, the maternal grandmother of his now 27-year-old daughter, Tressa.
Honie was pronounced dead at 12:25 a.m. Mountain Time in an execution that went as planned and took about 17 minutes. He tapped his foot and mouthed “I love you” to family members watching from a witness chamber after he was given the lethal injection of two doses of pentobarbital.
Strapped to the execution table in a sterile white room at the state prison, Honie turned his head to thank correctional officers for taking care of his family before he lost consciousness, warden Bart Mortensen told reporters after the execution.
Honie let out a gasp as the drug flowed through IVs in both arms, and his torso jolted off the table. He then laid still for several minutes before he died, turning a pale shade of blue as his glasses slid back on his forehead.
His final words were, “From the start it’s been, if it needs to be done for them to heal, let’s do this. If they tell you you can’t change, don’t listen to them. To all my brothers and sisters in here, continue to change. I love you all. Take care.”
Honie was 22 when he broke into Benn’s house in Cedar City, the tribal headquarters of the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, after a day of heavy drinking and drug use. He repeatedly slashed Benn’s throat and stabbed other parts of her body. The judge who sentenced him to death also found that Honie had sexually abused one of Benn’s other grandchildren who was in the house with a then 2-year-old Tressa at the time of the murder.
Honie, who had grown up on the Hopi Indian Reservation in Arizona, spent the evening with his daughter and other immediate family before the execution. He told Tressa earlier this week that he had come to terms with his fate and hoped she could too, she told The Associated Press. His last meal was a cheeseburger, french fries and a milkshake, the Utah Department of Corrections said.
After the medical team removed Honie’s body from the chamber, his family was allowed in to perform a Native American grieving ritual with bird feathers and cornmeal that they told officers would help free his soul after death.
Outside the prison, a group of anti-death penalty protesters sang “Amazing Grace” and held signs that said, “All life is precious.”
After decades of failed appeals, Honie’s execution warrant was signed in June despite defense objections to the planned lethal drug. In July, the state changed its execution protocol to using only a high dose of pentobarbital — the nervous system suppressant used to euthanize pets.
The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole denied Honie’s petition to commute his sentence to life in prison after a July hearing during which Honie’s attorneys described his troubled childhood growing up on the reservation with parents who abused alcohol. He had started using hard drugs as a teenager and told the parole board he wouldn’t have killed Benn if he had been in his “right mind.” He asked the board to allow him “to exist” so he could be a support for his daughter.
Tressa Honie told the board she has a complicated relationship with her mother and would lose her most supportive parent if her father were to be executed. She said in an interview Tuesday that she wasn’t ready to lose her dad and felt abandoned by family on her mother’s side who had fought for his execution.
Benn’s close family argued that Taberon Honie deserved no mercy, and they said his execution was the justice they needed after decades of grief.
“He deserves an eye for an eye,” said Benn’s niece, Sarah China Azule.
She and her cousins described Benn as a pillar in their family and southwestern Utah community. She was a Paiute tribal council member, substance abuse counselor and caregiver for her children and grandchildren.
Tressa, who has few memories of her grandmother, said she understands why her cousins needed closure in this way, but it has left her feeling alone. She has found herself grieving the absence of the strong maternal role model her father stole from her life.
Correctional officers kept Honie’s immediate family separate from Benn’s as they witnessed the execution. His brutal crime drove a wedge between family members that several said will be tough to repair.
Honie was one of six people facing execution in Utah. The death sentence for a seventh person, Douglas Lovell, who killed a woman to keep her from testifying against him in a rape case, was recently overturned by the Utah Supreme Court. He will be resentenced.