Revealed: Shocking last words of death row killer before becoming Utah’s first execution since 2010

Utah’s first inmate executed since 2010 accepted his fate moments before he was to be lethally injected, insisting he had changed since killing his girlfriend’s mother 25 years ago.

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

“From the beginning, if it’s necessary for them to heal, let’s do it,” he said before the injection. “If they tell you that you can’t change, don’t listen to them. To all my brothers and sisters here: keep changing. I love you all. Take care of yourselves.”

Honie was pronounced dead at 12:25 a.m. MST after approximately 17 minutes and 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, fries and a milkshake, the Utah Department of Corrections said. Honie spent the night with his family before the execution.

“Today our department fulfilled one of the most important responsibilities ever assigned to the Department of Corrections,” said Department of Corrections Director Brian Redd. “None of those involved enjoy fulfilling this responsibility today, but we recognize it as one of our legal duties and 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 Cedar City home and repeatedly slashed and stabbed her to death while her grandchildren, including Honie’s own daughter, then two, were at home.

Police, called by neighbours early the next day, found him in Benn’s garage with her blood under his fingertips. During his arrest, he admitted: “I stabbed her. I killed her with a knife.”

Forensic investigators who raided Benn’s Cedar City home discovered that Honie had slashed the tragic grandmother’s throat so deeply four times, from ear to ear, that the knife reached her spine.

They also found that he had stabbed her several times in and around the 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 parole board during his final appeal against the death penalty, he has spent a quarter of a century trying to fight the sentence, which was handed down in 1999.

Prosecutors’ claims of racial motivation, abuse at the hands of his parents and even the long-term brain damage he said he suffered after a 30-foot fall from a ladder failed to convince appellate judges, including the state Supreme Court.

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

The mother’s side of the family has fought staunchly to ensure that Honie is 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,” he said.

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

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