Daughter of Utah death row inmate navigates complicated dance of grief and healing before execution

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Tressa Honie is caught between anger and grief in the lead-up to Utah’s first execution since 2010. That’s because her father is the person set to die by lethal injection, and her maternal grandmother is the person he brutally murdered in 1998.

The heinous intrafamilial crime has placed a strain on her relationships for more than two decades as she’s kept in touch with her father in prison while her mother's family has fought relentlessly for him to be put to death.

In her final 48 hours visiting Taberon Dave Honie before his execution, set for Thursday shortly after midnight, Tressa is grappling with how to carry out his dying wish: for her to move on and heal.

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

Tressa left the Utah state prison in a daze Tuesday evening as it hit her that she would only have one more day with her father, who she credits as her most supportive parent after drug use drove a wedge between her and her mother. As the 27-year-old prepares to grieve her father, she's also grieving the life she could have had if his crimes hadn't trapped her family in a cycle of self-destruction and left them mourning the matriarch she believes could have kept them all in line.

Honie, one of six death row inmates in Utah, was convicted of aggravated murder for the July 1998 death of his girlfriend’s mother, Claudia Benn. He 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 grandchildren who was in the house with a then 2-year-old Tressa at the time of the murder.

Utah’s execution is scheduled to occur a few hours after one in Texas, where a man described by his lawyers as intellectually disabled was executed for strangling and trying to rape a woman who went jogging near her Houston home more than 27 years ago.

Honie, now 48, told Tressa he has come to terms with his fate, she said.

The father and daughter spent their final days talking about anything but his crimes, sharing early childhood memories and laughing about how neither has a favorite color. After years of resentment, she's ready to replace some of the anger she's held for her father with reminders of his humanity.

But their meetings haven't always been so cordial. Tressa grew up knowing her father was behind bars but didn't know why until she approached him at 14, looking for answers. Honie struggled to look at her as he explained some of what he had done and told her where she could find the court records, she recalled.

“When I did find out fully why he was in prison or on death row, I thought, ‘Well, maybe if I wasn’t born, this wouldn't have happened,'” Tressa said. “I did kind of blame myself. I didn't know how to cope.”

Years of drug abuse followed, distancing Tressa from family members who tried to extend support while grieving Benn, who they described as a pillar in their family and community. Benn was a tribal council member, substance abuse counselor and caregiver for her children and grandchildren.

Tressa has few memories of her grandmother, but she's found herself grieving the absence of a strong maternal role model.

“Hearing the type of woman my grandmother was, I would've loved that,” she said.

Her father also started using drugs such as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine at a young age. Honie's attorneys testified about his own childhood trauma from parents who abused alcohol. They and others on the Hopi Indian Reservation where he grew up had been placed in government boarding schools that were often abusive and stripped Indigenous children of their culture as part of assimilation efforts.

Now, Tressa is determined to break that cycle of generational trauma.

She is in recovery, raising a child of her own and has developed some empathy for her father after her own addiction struggle. Honie has said he wasn’t in his “right mind” when he killed Benn and doesn’t remember much about the murder.

Trevia Wall, Benn’s niece, said she's had an “on-and-off” relationship with Tressa over the years but has tried to offer her extra support leading up to her father’s death. Wall was among those who testified in favor of Honie’s execution — an outcome she deemed necessary to get justice for her aunt. The two cousins embraced and cried together after the last hearing.

“It’s bittersweet,” Wall said in an interview. “Now we can finally move forward, we can finally heal, but it’s bitter because I hurt for my cousin, his daughter. He put her in the middle, and she was torn between her father and her grandmother.”

Randall Benn, another cousin who supported the family's push to execute Honie, said he knows it will close a painful chapter in his life but will open a new one for Tressa. He said he and other family members will be waiting with open arms whenever she’s ready.

Even though Tressa had urged the parole board to commute her father's death sentence, she plans to witness his execution. About a dozen family members are expected to attend.

“I just want to be there to the end," she said, "for me and him.”

FILE-Death row inmate Taberon Honie is cuffed during the Utah Board of Pardons commutation hearing on July 23, 2024, at the Utah State Correctional Facility, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, Pool, File)

The Utah State Correctional Facility is shown Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

FILE - Death row inmate Taberon Honie leaves the Utah Board of Pardons commutation hearing on July 22, 2024, at the Utah State Correctional Facility, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, Pool, File)

FILE-Death row inmate Taberon Honie looks on during the Utah Board of Pardons commutation hearing on July 22, 2024, at the Utah State Correctional Facility, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, Pool, File)

Tressa Honie, daughter of death row inmate Taberon Honie, looks on during an interview Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024, near the Utah State Correctional Facility, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Tressa Honie, daughter of death row inmate Taberon Honie, looks on during an interview Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024, near the Utah State Correctional Facility, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

FORT WORTH, Tex (AP) — Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark clearly expressed his displeasure about the College Football Playoff rankings while insisting Wednesday that his conference's champion should get a first-round bye over any Group of Five champion.

Arizona State and Iowa State, the 10-2 teams that will play in the Big 12 championship game Saturday, are outside the top 12 in the latest CFP rankings and behind three Southeastern Conference teams with three losses: No. 11 Alabama, No. 13 Mississippi and No. 14 South Carolina. The Sun Devils are 15th, and the Cyclones 16th.

“The (selection) committee continues to show time and time again that they are paying attention to logos versus resumes,” Yormark said to open a nearly four-minute statement during a Zoom call to preview the Big 12 title game.

The Big 12 is below No. 10 Boise State (11-1) from the Mountain West Conference. The Broncos, who play No. 20 UNLV on Friday night in the MWC title game, have a 10-game winning streak since a 37-34 loss on a last-second field goal at top-ranked Oregon, their only P4 opponent.

The five highest-ranked conference champs in the the selection committee's final top 25 ranking on Sunday are guaranteed playoff spots, and the top four getting first-round byes. There are now four potential conference champions ahead of the Big 12, which in current projected pairings would be the No. 12 seed and have to play a first-round game on the road.

“Strength of schedule should matter and wins against Power Four opponents should matter — 74% of the Big 12 wins were against Power Four opponents this season,” Yormark said. "Meanwhile, the Group of Five is 11-80. ... In no way should a group of Five champion be ranked above our champion.”

Yormark repeated that last line for emphasis, and said strength of schedule was reiterated multiple times before the season as a key metric for the CFP rankings. But he says he hasn't seen that taken into account as much as it should, then pointed out that Arizona State and Iowa State both were 7-2 in Big 12 play and won the non-conference games they played against P4 opponents.

Right below Arizona State and Iowa State in the CFP rankings is No. 17 Clemson (9-3), which plays eighth-ranked SMU in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game Saturday night. The Tigers would get in the playoff as the ACC champion with a win. No. 5 Georgia (10-2) plays No. 2 Texas (11-1) in the SEC title game.

“The committee clearly focuses on the wins and loss column. Going by that principle, no three-loss team from a Power Four conference should get a bye over a two-loss champion from the Big 12,” Yormark said, again forcefully repeating his thought.

Yormark had advocated for the 12-team playoff, and believes it has generated the expected excitement and fan engagement that made November “truly magical.”

There was a four-way tie for first place in the 16-team Big 12 at the end of the regular season. Arizona State and Iowa State advanced in a series of tiebreakers that knocked No. 18 BYU and No. 23 Colorado out of title game contention.

The Big 12 commissioner said that while he disagrees with what has transpired so far, he is hopeful that there will be some adjustments in the final CFP rankings.

“Obviously I challenge what I’ve seen to date, and again I'm going to lean on strength of schedule. I don’t think it’s played out the way it should,” Yormark said. “But I do have trust in the committee that ultimately we'll land where we’re supposed to land. And, you know, that ultimately will mean we’ll get a bye. ... It will come down to the selection committee making that decision, but I’m hopeful it will be the right one."

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

FILE - Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark speaks during Big 12 NCAA college football media days in Las Vegas, July 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Lucas Peltier, File)