Taberon Dave Honie murdered his mother-in-law during a violent attack in 1998.
Taberon Dave Honie murdered his mother-in-law during a violent attack in 1998.
WARNING: Distressing content
A man who brutally raped and murdered his mother-in-law has been executed 26 years after being placed on death row.
In 1998, US man Taberon Dave Honie made a chilling phone call to Carol Pikyavit, his ex-girlfriend and mother of his children, saying he would murder her family if she didn’t meet with him that morning.
Fearing it could be a trap and a danger to their child, she told Honie she couldn’t come over and said to leave her alone.
Pikyavit left her child at home with her mother, Claudia Marie Benn, and headed for work.
However, Honie followed through on his chilling threat and broke into their house and violently slashed his mother-in-law’s throat four times ear to ear.
During the murder, three of Benn’s granddaughters were in the house, including Honie’s own daughter.
According to police, Honie had also sexually abused one of Benn’s granddaughters immediately after murdering his mother-in-law.
Claudia Benn was murdered by her son-in-law in 1998. She tried to defend herself but was killed in front of our granddaughters.
He was sentenced to death in 1999 by lethal injection after being convicted of aggravated murder, burglary, object rape, and forcible sodomy.
During his 26-year stay on death row, Honie tried on multiple occasions to have the death penalty overturned.
He claimed his lawyers failed to adequately defend him, the prosecutors were racially motivated, and that he suffered from foetal alcohol syndrome and brain damage from a fall as a teen.
His bid failed, and his death warrant was signed on June 10.
Killer’s last words, meal before death
Just two days before his execution he admitted “I’m a monster”.
Reflecting on his crimes and emotional state, he said, “The only thing that kept me going all these years, the only thing I know 100 per cent, this would never happen if I was in my right mind … I make no excuses.”
Benn’s niece Sarah Azulem said despite his remorse that “he deserves an eye for an eye”.
The morning of his execution Honie spent the majority of his time with his daughter, who was only 2 when he murdered her grandmother.
He also spent time with his parents before his final meal.
Honie spent the day with his family and ate a last meal of cheeseburger, fries and a milkshake.
For breakfast, he ate a breakfast sandwich, and three hours before his execution his final meal consisted of a cheeseburger, fries and a milkshake.
