Utah Carries Out First Execution Since 2010

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — 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