Revealed: Death row killer’s surprising final words before becoming Utah’s first execution since 2010

Utah’s first inmate to be executed since 2010 accepted his fate moments before he was lethally injected and insisted he has changed since murdering his girlfriend’s mother 25 years ago. 

Taberon Dave Honie, 48, was executed inside a Utah state prison early Thursday morning for the 1998 murder of Claudia Benn. 

‘From the start it’s been, if it needs to be done for them to heal, let’s do this,’ he said before the injection. ‘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 pronounced dead at 12:25am MST after about 17 minutes and he tapped his foot and mouthed ‘I love you’ to his family members, who were in the witness chamber. 

Honie’s last meal before his execution was a cheeseburger, French fries and a milkshake, Utah Department of Corrections said. Honie spent the evening with his family before the execution. 

‘From the start it’s been, if it needs to be done for them to heal, let’s do this,’ he said before the injection. ‘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’

‘Today, our department fulfilled one of the most consequential responsibilities given to the Department of Corrections,’ Department Director, Brian Redd, said. ‘No one involved today takes joy in carrying out this responsibility, but we recognize it as one of our statutory duties, and we take it seriously.’ 

Honie was the first person killed in the state since Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by firing squad in 2010.  

The 48-year-old was convicted of aggravated murder in the July 1998 death of Claudia Benn, after he broke into her house in Cedar City and repeatedly slashed her and stabbed her to death while her grandchildren, including Honie’s own then-two-year-old daughter, were home. 

Cops, who were called by neighbors in the early hours of the following day, found him in Benn’s garage with her blood under his fingertips. He admitted during his arrest: ‘I stabbed her. I killed her with a knife.’

The 48-year-old was convicted of aggravated murder in the July 1998 death of Claudia Benn, after he broke into her house in Cedar City and repeatedly slashed her and stabbed her to death while her grandchildren, including Honie’s own then-two-year-old daughter, were home

Forensic investigators who swarmed Benn’s Cedar City home found that Honie had cut the tragic grandmother’s throat so deeply four times ear-to-ear that the knife reached her spine. 

They also found he had stabbed her several times in and around her genitals, as well as evidence that he had sexually abused one of her grandchildren immediately after her death.

Despite admitting two days ago that he was ‘a monster’ to the state’s parole board during his final appeal against the death penalty, he spent a quarter of a century trying to fight the sentence, which was handed down in 1999. 

Claims of racially motivated prosecutors, abuse suffered at the hands of his parents and even long-term brain damage he said he suffered from a 30-foot fall from a ladder all failed to convince appeals judges, including the state’s Supreme Court.

Honie was pronounced dead at 12:25am MST after about 17 minutes and he tapped his foot and mouthed ‘I love you’ to his family members, who were in the witness chamber

His final appeal, based on the claim that he needed to be alive to support his daughter, Tressa Honie, in any way he could given her troubled relationship with her mother, Benn’s daughter, was denied.

Her mother’s side of the family has staunchly fought to ensure Honie gets executed.

Sarah China Azule, Benn’s niece, said she was happy with the board’s decision to move forward with Honie’s execution.

‘He deserves an eye for an eye,’ she said.

But Tressa told the AP that she has always felt out of place from her mother’s family.

‘My mom’s side, they can heal together,’ she said in an interview. ‘I’m happy you guys are going to get this closure, this justice, but where does that leave me? I feel like I have to heal alone.’