Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — Taberon Dave Honie told the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole several times on Monday that he accepts complete responsibility for his crime.
But he also stressed on multiple occasions, "If I was in my right state of mind, I know this wouldn't have happened."
On Monday, Honie, 48, directly addressed the full five-member board during the first day of a two-day hearing to decide whether Honie's sentence should be commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Honie is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection just after midnight on Aug. 8 for sexually assaulting and killing his ex-girlfriend's mother, Claudia Benn, in front of her three grandchildren on July 9, 1998, in Iron County. His death sentence has been upheld in numerous legal appeals over the years. On June 10, a judge signed an execution warrant for Honie.
Monday's hearing was capped off by Honie making himself available to the board to answer questions. Although he did not have any prepared statements, he talked for more than 30 minutes about how he accepts the fact he will not be getting out of prison and how he is a changed person from 26 years ago.
"The individual that committed those crimes ain't the individual that's talking to you today. For the last 20 years I've been going by (the mantra of) culpability, accountability, responsibility. But no matter how much change I make, I can't make that right to her family," he said.
"I'm the one that did those things. I'm the one that took Ms. Benn's life. Am I proud of it? Hell no. Was it planned? Hell no," Honie continued later in the hearing. "I earned my place in prison. And what I'm asking today, this board to consider is … would you allow me to exist? I've shown that I can exist in prison. I'm not a threat to the public. I'm not a threat to anyone.
"The crime that happened is not me. It's something I did, but it's not me."
Honie noted that until the past year, he had worked his way up to the position of a plumber within the Utah State Prison, a trusted occupation, and had worked on nearly every building at the prison, including the one where Monday's hearing was held. Within the past year, however, he received his only write-up in over two decades for having a dirty urinalysis test and for getting in a fight. He attributes both incidents to the weight of his legal battles and possible execution on his mind.
Today, Honie says he wants to live to be a support for his daughter, who is a recovering addict herself. Tressa Honie also testified Monday that she's been trapped in the middle for 26 years, as it was her grandmother who her father killed.
"Twenty-six years ago I was robbed of my grandmother, and he robbed me of himself. For a long time I've been angry about it. I'm an addict, and I'm in recovery. And I am finding out now, kind of, how this all goes," she told the board.
Honie's mother, Teresita Honie, read a prepared statement to the board, talking about the trauma her son suffered as a child while also asking the board to spare his life.
"I'm told that you all would like to take his life away. To this I say, what life? Twenty-six years ago, my son's life was taken. Since then, he exists in a facility being told when to eat, when to sleep, when to get up and when he can go out and get some sun. This is not life but existence," she said. "Is it not enough suffering that I have to endure yet my son be taken as he has already been taken 26 years ago?"
A history of the mistreatment of the Hopi tribe, which evolved over the decades into rampant substance abuse in the Hopi community, was also discussed at length during Monday's hearing.
Matthew Sakiestewa Gilbert, a professor of history and head of the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona, delivered a detailed history of the Hopi Native American tribe in the Southwest. By the 1970s and 1980s, the Hopi tribe was in a "hard situation," Gilbert said. The members who were sent as children to boarding school were trained for the labor needs of the U.S. government and for industrial trades. But when they returned to their homes, there was a lack of opportunities for Hopi youth on the reservations. Domestic violence and drug and alcohol abuse became increasing issues on the reservation during that time, he said.
Dr. Victoria Reynolds, a clinical psychologist with an expertise in psychological trauma, then testified about multigenerational cultural trauma and the impact the tumultuous relationship of Honie's parents and grandparents had on him. Reynolds personally interviewed Honie in preparation for her testimony and read through thousands of documents regarding his case and family background.
"He feels enduringly responsible and guilty and sorry," Reynolds said was the feeling she got after speaking with Honie for two days. "It pained him to talk about what he'd done."
Reynolds talked about how Honie was a sensitive and caring child early in life, but due to several traumatic experiences plus alcohol use at a very early age — which later turned into drug use as a way to deal with the trauma — it made a part of him emotionally shut down.
"(Honie's) exposure to alcohol began before he even landed on his earth," Reynolds said, noting that his mother drank while she was pregnant and that Honie was raised for the first few years of his life with parents who had "very severe alcohol problems."
She believes drugs and alcohol "heavily" played a role in Honie's mindset on the day of the murder, noting that even doctors said several hours after the crime that he was still intoxicated.
"I can't, frankly, even imagine the impact of all those substances on Mr. Honie's state of mind and body; it would be extremely disorganizing," she said.
Honie says by the time he committed his crime, on a daily basis he would "get wasted and go pass out was routine, that was my plan." But on the day he killed Benn, he said he was intoxicated to the point he still can't remember much of what happened.
"I'm to be held accountable because I did this. I'm not trying to minimize anything. I'm not trying to take away from Claudia's family's pain. I put the shoe on the other foot — I would feel the same way they do. Yes, I'm a monster. ... The only thing that has kept me going all these years … this would have never happened if I was in the right mind. That's the only thing that I know 100% that's for sure. I make no excuses," he told the board. "I don't know how to feel about pleading for my life. I've shown that I can exist in prison, no doubt about that. But it doesn't erase what our family is going through."
The hearing will continue on Tuesday, at which time two "victim representatives" are scheduled to give testimony for about an hour each. Each side will then give closing arguments. Once the hearing concludes, the board will decide whether to grant or deny Honie's request to have his sentence changed. There is no timeline for making the decision, only that one has to be made before Aug. 8.
The last commutation hearing the board held was in connection with Utah's last execution in 2010 for Ronnie Lee Gardner. Despite agreeing to hear Gardner's arguments, his commutation request was denied, and he was executed by firing squad.
