A Utah man who slit the throat of his girlfriend’s mother spoke one final message to his family as he was executed by lethal injection early Thursday: “I love you.”
Taberon Dave Honney was 22 when, after a day of heavy drinking and drug use, he broke into the Cedar City home of Claudia Benn, the maternal grandmother of his daughter Tressa, now 27, in July 1998. He slit Benn’s throat multiple times and stabbed other parts of her body.
Honnie was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death, with the sentencing judge also finding that she had sexually abused one of Ben’s grandchildren, who was in the home with Tressa, then two, at the time of the murder.
Honey, now 48, was strapped to the execution block at the state prison as his family watched from the witness room.
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Hony was convicted of murder for the July 1998 killing of his girlfriend’s mother, Claudia Benn. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, Poole, File)
Hony made his final statement before receiving two lethal doses of pentobarbital.
“From the beginning, it was, if that’s what it takes to heal them, then let’s do it,” Honnie said. “If they tell you you can’t change, don’t listen to them. To all my brothers and sisters here, keep changing. I love you all. Take care.”
“I love you,” Honnie told her family as they watched her execution in the witness room. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, Poole, File)
After receiving the lethal injection, he stomped his feet and mouthed “I love you” to his family watching inside the room.
As the medicine flowed through the IVs in his arms, Honnie gasped and his torso dropped off the table. He lay still for a few minutes before his glasses slid down his forehead and his face went pale.
The execution went according to plan and took approximately 17 minutes. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, Poole)
Prison warden Bert Mortensen told reporters after the execution that Horney turned his head to thank prison guards for tending to his family before losing consciousness.
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The execution took place as scheduled, about 17 minutes, and Haney was pronounced dead at 12:25 a.m. Mountain Time. According to the Utah Department of Corrections, Haney’s final meal was a cheeseburger, fries and a milkshake.
The brutal murder caused a rift between Honnie’s family and Ben’s family, with some of Ben’s family saying Honnie had no mercy despite Tressa’s pleas to the Utah Board of Pardons and Paroles to spare her father.
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Hony, who grew up on the Hopi Indian Reservation in Arizona, spent the night before his execution with his daughter and close family and told Tressa earlier this week that he had accepted his fate and hoped she had, too, she told The Associated Press.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
