Utah
Utah man put to death by lethal injection in state’s first execution since 2010
A Utah man who killed his girlfriend’s mother by slashing her throat was put to death by lethal injection early on Thursday in the state’s first execution since 2010.
Taberon Dave Honie, 48, was convicted of aggravated murder in the July 1998 death of Claudia Benn, the maternal grandmother of his now 27-year-old daughter, Tressa.
Honie was pronounced dead at 12:25am local time in an execution that went as planned and took about 17 minutes. He tapped his foot and mouthed “I love you” to family members watching from a witness chamber after he was given the lethal injection of two doses of pentobarbital.
Honie was 22 when he broke into Benn’s house in Cedar City, the tribal headquarters of the Paiute Indian tribe of Utah, after a day of heavy drinking and drug use. He repeatedly slashed Benn’s throat and stabbed other parts of her body. The judge who sentenced him to death also found that Honie had sexually abused one of Benn’s other grandchildren who was in the house with a then two-year-old Tressa at the time of the murder.
Honie, who had grown up on the Hopi Indian reservation in Arizona, spent the evening with his daughter and other immediate family before the execution. He told Tressa earlier this week that he had come to terms with his fate and hoped she could too, she told the Associated Press.
After the medical team removed Honie’s body from the chamber, his family was allowed in to perform a Native American grieving ritual with bird feathers and cornmeal that they told officers would help free his soul after death.
Outside the prison, a group of anti-death penalty protesters sang Amazing Grace and held signs that said, “All life is precious.”
After decades of failed appeals, Honie’s execution warrant was signed in June despite defense objections to the planned lethal drug. In July, the state changed its execution protocol to using only a high dose of pentobarbital – the nervous system suppressant used to euthanize pets.
The Utah board of pardons and parole denied Honie’s petition to commute his sentence to life in prison after a July hearing during which Honie’s attorneys described his troubled childhood growing up on the reservation with parents who abused alcohol. He had started using hard drugs as a teenager and told the parole board he would not have killed Benn if he had been in his “right mind”. He asked the board to allow him “to exist” so he could be a support for his daughter.
Tressa Honie told the board she had a complicated relationship with her mother and would lose her most supportive parent if her father were to be executed. She said in an interview on Tuesday that she was not ready to lose her dad and felt abandoned by family on her mother’s side who had fought for his execution.
Benn’s close family argued that Taberon Honie deserved no mercy, and they said his execution was the justice they needed after decades of grief.
“He deserves an eye for an eye,” said Benn’s niece, Sarah China Azule.
She and her cousins described Benn as a pillar in their family and south-western Utah community. She was a Paiute tribal council member, substance abuse counselor and caregiver for her children and grandchildren.
Hours before Honie’s execution, a man described by his lawyers as intellectually disabled was executed in Texas for strangling and trying to rape a woman who went jogging near her Houston home more than 27 years ago.
Utah
Here’s who will lead Utah Valley University as its next president
Jon Anderson will be charged with moving the Orem school forward following the death of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk on campus last year.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Incoming UVU President Jon Anderson poses for a photo with his family after an event announcing his selection at Utah Valley University in Orem on Friday, July 17, 2026.
Utah
Beaver County residents set up thousands of sandbags ahead of flashfloods
BEAVER COUNTY, Utah — A massive community effort is underway as volunteers and Beaver County crews distribute thousands of sandbags to protect homes from the potential path of floodwaters.
After the Cottonwood Fires, residents have been waiting for weeks for relief to come in the form of rain, though officials now warn it may come all at once with an increased risk of flooding and debris flow.
Emergency Service Director Les Whitney believes that the fire has left plenty of debris to bring trouble for residents.
“We got a lot of water. We’re bringing debris with it, so tree branches, tree limbs, logs, lots of different size firewood, and that’s all in the creeks. We’re worried about that plugging up our bridges and stuff, so we have heavy equipment and excavators located in strategic places so that we can keep those bridges open,” said Whitney.
An estimated 140 homes and condominiums were spared from the flames, but remain in the paths of floodwaters.
Residents can also pick up sandbags at the Beaver County Sheriff’s Office or at the Beaver County Rodeo Fairgrounds.
Utah
Utah man arrested again for allegedly abusing dog twice in three months
EAGLE MOUNTAIN — An Eagle Mountain man currently on pretrial release in 4th District Court who is accused of abusing his dog has been arrested again for allegedly punching the same animal.
Keith Reaves Davis, 43, was booked into the Utah County Jail on Wednesday for investigation of aggravated cruelty to an animal.
Utah County sheriff’s deputies were called Wednesday afternoon to a grocery store on a report that a man was beating his dog after it had gotten off its leash and was stopped by a bystander, according to a police booking affidavit.
“I reviewed security camera footage from the grocery store, and an individual matching the description of the suspect was seen holding the dog in the air by one paw and repeatedly striking the dog on the right hind leg area. I observed the male strike the dog several times before dropping the dog from approximately 1-2 feet. The strikes appeared to be as hard as the male could hit,” the arresting deputy wrote in the affidavit. “The dog did not cry out or whimper as if the dog was accustomed to the abuse.”
When questioned, Davis “admitted to striking the dog because it was not behaving,” the affidavit states.
An animal control officer who responded to the scene to take custody of the dog noted it was the same dog he had taken from Davis exactly three months earlier during another animal abuse investigation.
In that case, Davis was charged in 4th District Court with aggravated cruelty to an animal, a class A misdemeanor; and public intoxication, a class C misdemeanor, after deputies received a tip from a neighbor that a dog was being abused at Davis’ home, according to charging documents. When questioned, Davis “acknowledged hitting his dog as punishment,” the charges state.
Deputies also reviewed videos that the neighbor had filmed. The neighbor told investigators “there was blood from the dog on the ground of the garage and (the neighbor) can hear the dog screaming as if it’s being hurt. Deputies got the videos from the (neighbor) and you can hear very loudly the dog screaming and crying with a lot of loud banging noises. In one of the videos, you can hear the dog sounding like it is being choked by a collar and is grasping for air,” a police booking affidavit states.
Davis’ next court hearing in the April case is scheduled for July 28.
In their latest booking report, sheriff’s deputies note that they “believe further harm will be inflicted on this dog if it is released back to the male a second time,” and have recommended the dog not be returned to Davis.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
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