Commutation hearing for Taberon Honie focuses on generational trauma

SALT LAKE CITY — Day one of a two-day hearing to consider whether Taberon Honie, an inmate awaiting execution in Utah, is eligible for commutation to life without parole, focused on generational trauma both within his family and the interconnected family of his victim. 

An expert witness for Honie’s legal team laid out a life of trauma that began before Honie was born. Exposed to alcohol in utero. Removed from his family on the Hopi reservation and sent instead to government boarding schools. Subjected to violence. His own alcohol and drug addictions. A traumatic brain injury. 

Death row inmate Taberon Honie granted commutation hearing

But Honie says none of that excuses the events of July 1998. He doesn’t remember all the details, but he admits he broke into the home of his ex-girlfriend’s mother, who was also the grandmother of his then-two-year-old daughter.

A judge sentenced him to death in 1999 for the brutal murder of Claudia Benn. Three of her grandchildren were inside the home at the time, and one of them, a four-year-old, was sexually assaulted. Benn suffered a beating and mutilation, and Honie cut her throat four times. 

Tressa Honie: Caught in the middle

Monday, attorneys called witnesses to help make their case that Taberon Honie deserves commutation rather than lethal injection. They called a doctor who testified about how Honie’s violent and traumatic childhood may have affected his decision-making later in life. She also spoke about the impact of drug use and a traumatic brain injury on his behavior at the time of the murder. 

Daughter Tressa Honie described feeling traumatized on both sides of the crime. 

“That was my grandmother, and that’s my father,” Tressa Honie said. “26 years ago I was robbed of a grandmother and… he also robbed me of himself. For a long time, I’ve been angry about it. And I’ve been – I’m an addict. I’m in recovery.” 

“It’s hard on me right now, in this moment, because my mother is not a perfect mother either, and my father is there for me however he can be,” Tressa Honie continued. “Also, I feel like my life would’ve been completely different had I had my maternal grandmother alive still.” 

“I don’t know, but from what I hear, she was a pretty wonderful lady,” Tressa Honie said of her grandmother. 

A case for commutation: Taberon Honie speaks 

Taberon Honie testified in his own behalf at Monday’s commutation hearing. Acknowledging the tragedy he caused and the pain that continues to ripple through two families, he said 

“How can I come over here and ask you guys to spare me? Because I’m her helper, I’m her guiding light, I’m her pillar,” Taberon Honie told the board Monday. “She just now said that she would’ve been OK [if her grandmother had lived], and I agree. Had I not done what I did, it would’ve been a safe place for my daughter, for my granddaughter. I’m the one that took that. Me. Taberon Dave Honie, who is a member of the Hopi tribe. I killed Claudia Benn, a member of the Piute tribe, my daughter’s grandmother, my ex’s mother. Could I take it back? I wish I could.” 

Taberon Honie described a changed life 26 years after the crime, saying he’s spent the years in between sobering up and trying to atone for what he did. 

“I’m to be held accountable, because I did this,” he said. “Yes, I’m a monster, yes, I’m a P.O.S. The only thing that kept me going all these years is, the only thing I know 100 percent — this would’ve never happened if I was in my right mind.”  

The hearing continues 

Testimony will continue before the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole on Tuesday, July 23, when representatives of Benn’s family will be allowed to speak.

The board promised to make a decision as quickly as possible; currently, Honie’s execution is scheduled for August 8. 

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