Family members of 1998 Utah murder victim want 'an eye for an eye'

Family members of a woman killed in a 1998 murder pressed Utah officials Tuesday to carry on with the perpetrator’s scheduled execution during emotional testimony about a crime that still traumatizes their close-knit Native American community.

Taberon Dave Honie is asking Utah's parole board to commute his death sentence to life in prison. He faces execution by lethal injection on Aug. 8.

Relatives described the 49-year-old victim, Claudia Benn, as a pillar in their family and community — a tribal council member, substance abuse counselor and caregiver for her children and grandchildren.

“Taberon, you robbed us,” said her cousin, Betsy China. “Twenty-five years of missing out on her knowledge, her ability to read at a higher level and comprehend and help us.”

Honie, who had a volatile relationship with Benn's daughter, broke into the victim's house in Cedar City, repeatedly slashed her throat throat, then stabbed her in the genital area.

Benn's grandchildren — including Honie's 2-year-old daughter — were in the house at he time. Authorities said Honie sexually abused one of them while Honie was hiding after killing Benn.

“You showed such disrespect to a woman, any woman,” China said.

Sarah China Azule, who said Benn was her aunt, testified that she later found blood all over the house when she entered it.

“She fought for her life. She saved her grandkids, too. That's a strong Paiute woman right there,” Azule testified during the second day of the two-day hearing at the Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City.

“The way he killed her, that's just sick...An eye for an eye, as God says it. It's a sad day today,” she later testified.

On Monday, Honie's attorneys presented testimony about his childhood trauma, in part from his parents, who abused alcohol. They and others on the Hopi Indian Reservation where he grew up were put into government boarding schools that were often abusive.

Assistant Solicitor General Daniel Boyer said Honie had created more trauma by killing Benn, noting she could have helped Honie's daughter, who struggles with substance abuse as an adult.

“Imagine the intergenerational traumas from Honie's horrific acts trickling down through time," he said.

Boyer said Honie's team offered no evidence to call the death sentence into question or provide any “compelling” reason for why he should be shown mercy, such as specific examples of generosity or charity, Boyer said.

Honie told the five-member parole board that he wasn’t in his “right mind” when he killed his Benn after a day of heavy drinking and drug use. He said he wouldn't hurt anyone if his sentence was commuted to life.

He said he never planned to kill Benn and doesn’t remember much about the killing, but acknowledged that the attack made him a “monster.”

“I earned my place in prison. What I’m asking today for this board to consider is ‘Would you allow me to exist?’,” he said.

Utah Board of Pardons & Parole Chairman Scott Stephenson said a decision would be made “as soon as practical” after the parole board hearing.

Attorneys for the state have described his commutation petition as a “deflection of responsibility that never once acknowledges any of the savage acts he inflicted on Claudia or her granddaughters.”

The execution would be Utah’s first since Ronnie Lee Gardner was killed by firing squad in 2010, according to the state Department of Corrections.

Honie was convicted in 1999 of aggravated murder.

After decades of failed appeals, his execution warrant was signed last month despite defense objections to the planned lethal drug combination of the sedative ketamine, the anesthetic fentanyl and potassium chloride to stop his heart. Honie’s attorneys sued, and corrections officials agreed to switch to pentobarbital.