Honie v. Crowther
| Decision Date | 12 June 2019 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 2:07-CV-628 JAR |
| Parties | TABERON DAVE HONIE, Petitioner, v. SCOTT CROWTHER, Warden, Utah State Prison, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Utah |
Petitioner Taberon Dave Honie is in the custody of the Utah Department of Corrections ("UDOC"), pursuant to a sentence of death for his 1999 conviction for the aggravated murder of Claudia Benn. He filed this Amended Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 and the Local Rules for the United States District Court for the District of Utah, challenging his conviction and death sentence as being in violation of his rights under the United States Constitution. Mr. Honie submits that the State of Utah has violated and arbitrarily refused to correct violations of his constitutional rights under the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, thereby resulting in his unconstitutional conviction and sentence of death. This court, for the reasons set forth below, concludes that Honie has failed to make a substantial showing of a denial of a constitutional right with regards to the claims in his Amended Petition.
On July 9, 1998, Honie broke into Claudia Benn's home and brutally murdered her. Prior to the murder, Honie telephoned the victim's daughter, Carol Pikyavit, at 8:00 p.m., asking her to come and see him. Carol refused because she needed to go to work, so Honie became upset and threatened to kill her mother and nieces. Honie telephoned twice more before Carol and her sister left to go to work at 10:30 p.m., leaving Carol's daughter and the sister's two children with Claudia. TR ROA 607:239-43, 258.1
Around 11:20 p.m., Rick Sweeney, a cab driver, picked up Honie. The driver could tell that Honie was "really drunk," but Honie was still able to give him directions to Claudia's neighborhood. TR ROA 607:267-69.
At approximately 12:20 a.m. several police officers responded to a 911 call from a neighbor and arrived at the victim's home. The officers noticed that the sliding glass door had been broken, allowing entry into the home. The officers ordered the occupants of the house to exit, and they discovered Honie leaving the home through the garage. TR ROA 607:288-92, 316-22.
An officer ordered Honie to put his hands up, and when he complied, the officer noticed that his arms—from fingertips to elbows—had blood on them. The officer asked him about the blood, and Honie replied, TR ROA 607:293, 304, 321. The officer said he asked about the blood because he was concerned about Honie's safety. He thought Honie may have been cut on the glass from the broken door. He did not see a knife. And when Honie said, the officer "didn't know who" the "her" was and did not know "what we had." TR ROA 607:319-22.
After arresting Honie, the officers inspected the victim's home. Inside, they discovered the victim's partially nude body lying face down on the living room floor. Officers observed a rockon the living room floor and saw a large blood-stained butcher knife by Claudia's body. TR ROA 607:294, 299, 314.
Assistant Medical Examiner Maureen Frikke, M.D., did the autopsy. She identified knife wounds that began under Claudia's left ear and went all the way across her neck to her right ear. She observed at least four start marks under the left ear that merged under the right "into this big, huge, deep cut." TR ROA 606:441. The wounds penetrated to the backbone, cutting everything between; skin, fat, muscle, and organs. Claudia's larynx had two, separate, horizontal cut marks. Her esophagus was severed. The carotid arteries and jugular veins were sliced. TR ROA 606:440-42.
Dr. Frikke concluded that the neck wounds were caused by something linear with a sharp edge and with enough strength and substance to cut through all the tissue, including the voice box bones, and with enough rigidity to make three cuts in the back bone behind the voice box and esophagus. TR ROA 608:442. Dr. Frikke also observed multiple blunt force injuries on Claudia's head and face, and a bite mark on her left forearm. TR ROA 608:445-49. Dr. Frikke also detailed numerous stabbing and cutting wounds to Claudia's lower body and genitals.
After his arrest, Honie was taken to the Iron County Jail where Officer Lynn Davis interviewed and photographed him. Officer Davis interrogated Honie three separate times on the morning following the murder. Honie expressed remorse for killing Claudia, stating repeatedly that she was not meant to die.
The State charged Honie with aggravated murder. TR ROA 597:59-60. Prior to trial, the State offered to stipulate to the inadmissibility at trial of three statements that Honie made whilehe was in custody. TR ROA 598:7. Honie's counsel, Stephen McCaughey, stated that he intended to admit at least two of the statements to present a more accurate account of what happened the night of the murder and to show evidence of Honie's remorse. He moved to suppress the statements, however, and asked for a ruling on their admissibility to create a record that he was aware of the issue. TR ROA 598:6. The trial court held a hearing and denied the motion to suppress.
Also, in Mr. McCaughey's opening statement, he admitted, He admitted that Honie murdered Claudia during a burglary or an aggravated burglary. McCaughey stated that Honie contested some of the aggravators, that the State had the burden of proving those beyond a reasonable doubt, and that they would be relevant to Honie's penalty, which the judge would decide. TR ROA 607:233-34.
The jury convicted Honie of aggravated murder. PL ROA IV:517. Honie waived a sentencing jury. At the penalty phase, the State relied on the circumstances of the crime; Honie's criminal history, primarily a prior violent assault on Carol; evidence of how the murder had affected the granddaughters who were in Claudia's home that night; and evidence of how Claudia's loss affected her community. TR ROA 605; 606.
Honie presented evidence about his family and personal background. He presented evidence of counseling and attempts to curb his substance abuse, and of an attempted rape by John Boone, a trusted male figure in Honie's life who was later convicted of sexually abusing more than 140 boys. Honie also presented extensive evidence from Nancy Cohn, a credentialed psychologist with forensic training. Among other things, Dr. Cohn testified that Honie's average intelligence and the absence of brain damage meant he presented a low risk for future violence.She also testified that Honie's violence coincided with intoxication, and that he would not have access to liquor in prison. Id.
The trial court sentenced him to death. PL ROA IV:543-52, 556-57. The Utah Supreme Court affirmed Honie's conviction and death sentence. State v. Honie (Honie I), 57 P.3d 977 (Utah 2002), cert denied 537 U.S. 863 (2002).
Honie sought state post-conviction relief. He filed an amended petition in 2003. PCR 19-92.2 The state district court granted the State's summary judgment on most of the petition four years later. PCR 965-1070. After discovery on the remaining claims, the State again moved for summary judgment on the outstanding claims. PCR 1266-1362. In 2011, the state district court granted summary judgment in full and denied Honie post-conviction relief. PCR 3315-48. Honie appealed that ruling. PCR 3349-51; Docket case no. 20110620-SC.
While that appeal was pending, Honie filed a motion to set aside the judgment under Rule 60(b), Utah Rules of Civil Procedure. PCR 3320-3556. After full briefing, the district court denied the motion. ECF No. 70-2, ex. B. Honie appealed that ruling as well. Docket case no. 20120220-SC. The Utah Supreme Court consolidated both appeals, and on May 30, 2014, the court affirmed. Honie v. State (Honie II), 342 P.3d 182 (Utah 2014).
Honie filed his petition for federal habeas relief on May 18, 2015. ECF No. 47. He raised 14 claims for relief. Id. Concurrent with the petition, Honie filed a motion to expand the record with 32 exhibits not considered by the State court. ECF No. 48, ex. A-FF. Respondent opposed both the petition and the motion. ECF No. 70 and 72. Honie later filed a second motion toexpand the record with seven additional exhibits, which Respondent opposed. ECF No. 75, ex. GG-LL; ECF No. 87.
After briefing on the petition and expansion motions concluded, this court denied without prejudice Honie's record-expansion motions. ECF No. 105. This court also ruled on the procedural status of the claims in Honie's petition, determining that only claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 12 were exhausted in State court. ECF No. 103 at 1-2.
Honie next moved for a stay and abeyance under the procedure approved in Rhines v. Weber, 544 U.S. 269 (2005), so that he could return to state court to exhaust claims 8, 9, and 11. ECF No. 107. This court denied the Rhines motion, concluding that claims 8, 9, and 11 were not potentially meritorious. ECF No. 120 at 1, 10-16. Honie then amended his petition, formally withdrawing claims 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, and 14 and adding additional factual allegations and argument to support his remaining claims. ECF No. 121.
A. Standard of Review
This court has determined that claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 12 were denied on the merits by the Utah Supreme Court and are thus exhausted. These claims are governed by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act ("AEDPA"), which became effective on April 24, 1996. Under AEDPA, federal habeas relief on claims adjudicated on the merits may only be granted if the State court's decision "was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application...
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