‘Get this over’: Relatives of slain Utah woman want Taberon Honie to be executed

SALT LAKE CITY — One by one, relatives of Claudia Benn told the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole Tuesday what a strong, educated and exceptional woman she was.

They also, through tears, recalled her horrific killing and asked the board to reject Taberon Dave Honie’s request to have his sentence changed to life in prison without the possibility of parole and proceed with his scheduled Aug. 8 execution.

“My family didn’t choose this for you, nor did we choose this sentence. We are here because of the actions you chose to do, the life you chose to take,” Trevia Wall, one of Benn’s nieces, testified on Tuesday. “We did not ask for this. We did not ask for you to take my aunt the way you did. Nor did we ask you to hurt the girls. You did all that. And again, this sentence is what I feel is best and is what you’ve earned. You earned that sentence.”

“You have been provided 25 years of incarceration and you want more. But, personally, I think we should just close the book,” Betsy China, one of Benn’s cousins, testified. “Taberon, you admitted you’re wrong. And I’m proud you did that. I’m glad that you got knowledge while you’re here, because it’s not going to go for your personal use.

“The best thing for me, for my choice, is the death penalty. Get this over.”

Tuesday was day two of the commutation hearing for the 48-year-old Honie. The full five-member board is hearing testimony before deciding whether to commute his death sentence. 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.

On Monday, several people, including Honie, asked the board to change his sentence. Honie claimed that if hadn’t been so extremely intoxicated that night, he would never have committed his crime.

A man on death row for a 1998 murder asks Utah’s parole board for mercy

On Tuesday, four women — one of Claudia Benn’s daughters, a cousin and two nieces — told the board how Benn was a role model and someone the entire Paiute community looked up to.

“That woman was somebody special in my life. And now she’s not here no more,” one of Benn’s nieces, Sarah China, said.

Sarah China says her “auntie” was always there to help her through her troubled childhood. After Benn’s death, China says her alcoholism reached its peak. Now, seven years sober, China said she does not believe Honie can’t remember what happened that night, because she knows what being “blackout” drunk is like.

“You know what crime you’re doing. You know what you’re doing. So you can’t give that excuse that you didn’t know what you did, because you know, in your mind, you know what you were doing,” she said.

She concluded her remarks by telling the board, “I always say ‘an eye for an eye,’ like God says it. … It’s a sad day today. And you five up there, you make the right decision, please.”

One of Benn’s daughters, Benita Yracheta, told the board Tuesday how much she misses her mother.

“Every time I think of my mom I think of the aftermath of the crime scene. I can’t pick up a phone and call her anymore. I can’t wish her a happy birthday or Mother’s Day. I have to go to the cemetery for holidays, Mother’s Day, her birthday. I go down on the anniversary of her death. We can’t make no more memories with her, no more pictures with her. We just have to live with the memories we have,” she said.

In closing arguments, attorneys for the state spoke for nearly 90 minutes, reminding the board that “Utah’s death penalty is reserved for only the most serious crimes, and this was truly one of them.” The state verbally reviewed the brutal details of Honie’s crime while also noting that the board would not allow crime scene photos to be shown at the hearing because of how gruesome they are.

Daniel Boyer, with the Utah Attorney General’s Office, went on to say that Honie has not provided any compelling reasons to have his sentence changed.

“At most he has shown why he thinks he never deserved a death sentence to begin with. The board should reject that framing,” he said. “Honie’s case for commutation is not strong. It’s weak at best, adding nothing new, adding only additional immaterial color to what the judge already knew in 1999. And it does not alter the balance of aggravating and mitigating factors that the judge struck at that time. Balance remains the same. Honie deserved death then, and nothing has changed.”

Honie’s defense attorneys will present their closing arguments to the board after the lunch break. The board will then take all the information under advisement and issue a written decision at a later time.

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This story will be updated.