Taberon Dave Honie (October 29, 1975 – August 8, 2024) was an American murderer and rapist who was

executed Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...

by the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

for murdering and raping his ex-girlfriend's mother, Claudia Benn, in 1998. He was the first person to be executed in Utah in over fourteen years, since Ronnie Lee Gardner in June 2010.

Early life

Taberon Honie was born on October 29, 1975. He was a

Native American Native Americans or Native American usually refers to Native Americans in the United States. Related terms and peoples include: Ethnic groups * Indigenous peoples of the Americas, the pre-Columbian peoples of North, South, and Central America ...

from the

Hopi The Hopi are Native Americans who primarily live in northeastern Arizona. The majority are enrolled in the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona; however, some Hopi people are enrolled in the Colorado ...

tribe. He described first having had alcohol when he was five years old, and in a later appeal, his attorneys stated he grew up in poverty and suffered multiple head injuries as a child.

Murder

Background

The murder victim, 49-year-old Claudia Marie Benn, was a member of the

Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah The Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah is a federally recognized tribe of Southern Paiute and Ute Indians in southwestern Utah. Reservation The Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah (PITU) has a reservation composed of ten separate parcels of land, located in ...

. Her family members described her as a pillar of her community. She worked as a substance abuse counselor and a caregiver to her family. One of her daughters was Carol Pikyavit, whom Honie had dated from approximately 1995 to 1998; Honie and Pikyavit had a daughter together. After breaking up with Honie, Pikyavit moved in with her mother.

Killing

On the evening of July 9, 1998, Honie called Pikyavit, demanding that she visit him immediately; he threatened to kill several of her family members if she did not comply. Pikyavit left her house to go to work and was not home at the time of the murder. Hours later, Honie broke into the house Pikyavit shared with her mother, Claudia Marie Benn, in

Cedar City Cedar City is the largest city in Iron County, Utah, United States. Located south of Salt Lake City, it is north of Las Vegas on Interstate 15 in Utah, Interstate 15. Southern Utah University is located in Cedar City. It is the home of the Ut ...

, by shattering a sliding glass door. Benn attempted to defend herself with a

kitchen knife A kitchen knife is any knife that is intended to be used in food preparation. While much of this work can be accomplished with a few general-purpose knives — notably a large chef's knife and a smaller serrated blade utility knife — there ...

. Still, Honie overpowered her and attacked her with the knife, slashing her throat four times from ear to ear, with the slashes being deep enough to reach her backbone. In the early hours of the next day, police officers came to Benn's house, responding to a 911 call from one of her neighbors. The responding officers found a smashed window and Benn's partially naked and mutilated corpse, with deep stab wounds to her anus and vagina. They found Honie in Benn's garage, arresting him after he was found with blood residue on his fingertips. During Honie's arrest, he stated, "I stabbed her. I killed her with a knife." The responding officers located Benn's three young granddaughters in the same house, covered in blood. Honie had sexually abused one of Benn's granddaughters immediately following Benn's murder, causing genital injuries.

Legal proceedings

After his arrest, Honie was charged with aggravated murder. He waived his right to a

jury sentencing A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence, make findings of fact, and render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Most trial juries are " petit juries", and ...

during his trial and opted for a

bench trial A bench trial is a trial by judge, as opposed to a jury. The term applies most appropriately to any administrative hearing in relation to a summary offense to distinguish the type of trial. Many legal systems ( Roman, Islamic) use bench trials ...

. On May 20, 1999, he was sentenced to death by

lethal injection Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person (typically a barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium) for the express purpose of causing death. The main application for this procedure is capital punishment, but t ...

after an Iron County court convicted him of aggravated murder, burglary, object rape, and forcible sodomy. On January 11, 2002, Honie lost his first round of appeals after failed attempts to challenge the constitutionality of the death penalty in Utah and claims of racially motivated prosecutors. In 2013, Honie filed another appeal, claiming that his attorneys did an inadequate job at defending him and reviewing his background. He also claimed that he suffered from

fetal alcohol syndrome Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) are a group of conditions that can occur in a person who is exposed to alcohol during gestation. FASD affects 1 in 20 Americans, but is highly misdiagnosed and underdiagnosed. The several forms of the ...

and that he suffered from brain damage due to a 30-foot fall that he experienced as a teenager. In 2014, Honie's appeal was denied by the

Utah Supreme Court The Utah Supreme Court is the supreme court of the state of Utah, United States. It has final authority of interpretation of the Utah Constitution. The Utah Supreme Court is composed of five members: a chief justice, an associate chief justice ...

Execution

On May 1, 2024, a request for Honie's

execution warrant An execution warrant (also called a death warrant or a black warrant) is a writ that authorizes the Capital punishment, execution of a capital punishment, condemned person. United States In the United States, either a judicial or executi ...

was filed by the

Utah Attorney General The Attorney General of Utah is an elected constitutional officer in the executive branch of the state government of Utah. The attorney general is the chief legal officer and legal adviser in the state. The office is elected, with a term of four y ...

. On May 24, 2024, a lawsuit challenging Utah's execution methods of lethal injection and death by

firing squad Firing may refer to: * Dismissal (employment), sudden loss of employment by termination * Firemaking, the act of starting a fire * Burning; see combustion * Shooting, specifically the discharge of firearms * Execution by firing squad, a method of ...

was denied by a judge, allowing for Honie's execution warrant to be signed. On June 10, 2024, his execution by lethal injection was scheduled to take place on August 8, 2024, with a new lethal injection cocktail consisting of

fentanyl Fentanyl is a highly potent synthetic piperidine opioid primarily used as an analgesic (pain medication). It is 30 to 50 times more Potency (pharmacology), potent than heroin and 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. Its primary Medici ...

ketamine Ketamine is a cyclohexanone-derived general anesthetic and NMDA receptor antagonist with analgesic and hallucinogenic properties, used medically for anesthesia, depression, and pain management. Ketamine exists as its S- (esketamine) a ...

, and

potassium chloride Potassium chloride (KCl, or potassium salt) is a metal halide salt composed of potassium and chlorine. It is odorless and has a white or colorless vitreous crystal appearance. The solid dissolves readily in water, and its solutions have a sa ...

. Honie filed an appeal challenging the use of the new cocktail as experimental and prone to causing severe and unnecessary pain, instead suggesting the use of a single dose of

pentobarbital Pentobarbital (US) or pentobarbitone (British and Australian) is a short-acting barbiturate typically used as a sedative, a preanesthetic, and to control convulsions in emergencies. It can also be used for short-term treatment of insomnia but ...

, which had been used in multiple executions before Honie's. On July 7, 2024, Utah officials decided to use pentobarbital in Honie's execution instead of the new three-drug cocktail. Utah officials ordered three doses of pentobarbital for a total of $200,000

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

, although they only intended to use one five-gram dose in Honie's execution unless there were complications necessitating the use of any of the additional doses. On June 18, 2024, Honie filed a petition for clemency, mentioning his childhood poverty and neglect. On June 24, 2024, it was reported that Honie's attorney filed several petitioning motions to halt his execution. Two days before Honie was executed, Honie had a hearing before Utah's

parole board A parole board is a panel of people who decide whether an offender should be released from prison on parole after serving at least a minimum portion of their sentence as prescribed by the sentencing judge. Parole boards are used in many jurisdiction ...

to request a reprieve. At the hearing, Honie expressed remorse for Benn's murder and stated, "Yes, I'm a monster. The only thing that kept me going all these years, the only thing I know 100%, this would never happen if I was in my right mind... I make no excuses." The parole board rejected Honie's request. About a dozen of Benn's family members, including Benn's granddaughter who was also Honie's daughter, planned to attend Honie's execution. Honie's mother also attended the execution. Honie's daughter stated that her maternal grandmother's side of the family largely supported Honie's death sentence and execution, while she did not. Honie's last meal was a cheeseburger, french fries and a milkshake. Honie's execution took place at midnight on August 8, 2024. In his last statement, he stated, "From the start, it's been, if it needs to be done for he victims' familiesto heal, let's do this. If they tell you you can't change, don't listen to them. To all my brothers and sisters here, continue to change. I love you all; take care." After his final statement, he thanked Randall Honey and Bart Mortensen, the director of prison operations and the prison warden respectively, for "taking care of isfamily". A dose of pentobarbital was administered at 12:04 am MT, and officials administered a second dose at 12:13 am. Honie flatlined at 12:21 am, at which point his family members were permitted to enter the execution chamber and perform a "spiritual ceremony" over his body; afterwards, a medical examiner officially pronounced him dead at 12:25 am. Honie's execution was the first execution to take place in Utah since that of Ronnie Lee Gardner, who died by firing squad in 2010 and the first to take place at the Utah State Correctional Facility, which opened in 2022.

References

! colspan="3" , Executions carried out in Utah , - ! colspan="3" , Executions carried out in the United States {{DEFAULTSORT:Honie, Taberon 1975 births 2024 deaths 20th-century American criminals 20th-century Native American people 21st-century executions by Utah 21st-century Native American people American male criminals American people convicted of burglary American people convicted of rape American people executed for murder Executed people from Utah Hopi people People convicted of murder by Utah People executed by Utah by lethal injection Executed Native American people