[8] On July 24, 1993, Johnson pretended to be a lost saleswoman to get into Nicholson's home, where she and Honken bound him and forced him to record a statement claiming that Honken was innocent. Death-row inmate Dustin Lee Honken, who killed a family of four, including two children and another person, was executed on Friday, July 17, at 4 pm local time, marking the government's third federal execution in a month after 17 years. The EKG would probably be to tell when hes died. She said goodbye to her friends in the evening. Lawyers for Honken requested in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia a stay of execution. gads_event = event; We are one of the worlds fastest growing The two started a romantic relationship and Johnson soon became pregnant with Honken's child. "[8] When Cutkomp asked Honken if killing people bothered him, he replied "Nope. [7], Over the next few weeks, Nicholson became extremely paranoid. The two-night hotel stay cost around $200, and the tab was picked up by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Johnson took Duncan's daughters, 10-year-old Kandace Duncan and 6-year-old Amber Duncan, telling them that they were going on a surprise trip. Termed Iowas Walter White due to the startling similarities with the popular TV character, he was arrested when his recruits and partner double-crossed him. In 1986, Honken schemed to kill one of his accomplices after stealing a car. Dustin Honken is led by federal marshals to a waiting car after the second day of jury selection in federal court in Sioux City, Iowa, on 2004. . Terry also drove a truck for Bud Ranken and Bud Schrotter. He then came back for the children and shot them, too. The agency refused to answer any questions about the money, procedures or details of what happened. "[30] She called him a "sociopath who will never admit to what he has done. Prisoner Dustin Honken is scheduled to be put to death on Friday, July 17. The agency also fed the guards and some of the other law enforcement agencies that came to help with outside security, racking up a tab of more than $3,990 for snacks and light refreshments.. He has scheduled another execution in late August. But he soon startedselling marijuana and cocaine anddecided to become both a drug manufacturer and a dealer with his knowledge of chemistry. His father, Jim, a drunken schemer, held powerful sway over his two sons, Jeff and Dustin, Honkens sister, AlyssaNelson, said during her brothers murder trial. [7] Within a year, Honken and Cutkomp managed to produce several pounds of nearly pure meth, which they sold in northeast Iowa, primarily through two dealers: Terry DeGeus and Greg Nicholson. Honken, who had been on death row since 2005, was pronounced dead at 4:36 p.m. The Archbishop of Newark, Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, had written to President Donald Trump in early July 2020 asking him to commute Honken's sentence, claiming that he had witnessed Honken's "spiritual growth in faith and compassion". Dustin Honken, 37, became the first person sentenced to death in Iowa in more than 40 years. He suspected that Honken had killed Nicholson and was afraid of being wrongfully accused of murder. Terry was lying face down in a shallow hole with a severely fragmented skull, having been shot one or more times. [5] On November 20, 2019, U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan issued a preliminary injunction preventing the resumption of federal executions. Twitter Honken reported in his pre-sentence investigation that his father struck him numerous times during his childhood, although he denied that his father was physically abusive and maintained that the emotional turmoil in his early life mostly stemmed from his father's alcoholism. Johnson and Honken drove the four to a wooded area north of Mason City where Honken first took Duncan and Nicholson to an already dug grave and shot them execution-style. But days after the still-undiscovered killings of Nicholson and the Duncans, he told the court he would stick to his not guilty plea. He said Honken was "a young man infatuated with drug manufacturing, basically a nerd.[7]. [16], On June 2, 1997, Honken pleaded guilty to attempting to distribute meth and conspiring to manufacture and distribute meth. On top of that, the bureau spent $6,594 on bottled water, $6,480 on single-serving bags of potato chips and $12,998 on disposable trays and baggies to deliver it all. The victims were related to a drug trial against Honken. He was at peace. Authorities had found almost 150 grams of pure meth in Nicholson's house, and he'd agreed to become an informant in exchange for leniency. He graduated from West Hancock High School in 1980 a record holder in pole vaulting who enjoyed being a junior high wrestling team member. Death-row inmate Dustin Lee Honken, who killed a family of four, including two children and another person, was executed on Friday, July 17, at 4 pm local time, marking the government's third federal execution in a month after 17 years. "Their mother never got to see them having a first dance, first date or walk down the aisle at their wedding," the statement read. I am sorry for what I have done, but I haven't done these heinous crimes the government accuses me of. Johnson discussed the murders in detail, which McNeese secretly recorded. Well never put our work behind a paywall, and well never put a limit on the number of articles you can read. Two others were also put to death during the week after a hiatus of nearly 20 years, including Wesley Purkey. Dustin Lee Honken (March 22, 1968 - July 17, 2020) and Angela Jane Johnson (born January 17, 1964) are American mass murderers convicted of the 1993 murders of five people in Iowa.. Because of legal delays, they ended up spending more than 12 hours there. The good-hearted Lori allowed a new friend, Greg Nicholson, to move into her home, knowing he had dealt drugs before but believing he was in rehab and willing to give him a chance in 1993. Although it was Honken who pulled the trigger, killing three adults and two children, Angela Johnson received the death penalty for four of the victims, while Honken was sentenced to death for only the . The two eventually located Nicholson. [40] On June 29, 2020, the Supreme Court denied Honken's petition for review, with Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor dissenting.[40]. In 2004, Dustin Lee Honken was . We have real reasons to question whether or not this number now is complete either, Stubbs said. However, this decision was overturned since the government had never asked McNeese to cooperate in the case against Johnson. ga('ads.send', { TERRE HAUTE, Ind. During separate trials in 2004 and 2005, Dustin Honken and Angela Johnson were each convicted of the murders and both were given the death penalty. The federal death penalty against Dustin Lee Honken, now 51, is one of four executions put on hold late Wednesday by a judge who found that a proposal from U.S. Attorney General William Barr to . When the time of death was announced, Honken, 52, became the first Iowan in more than 50 years to be put to death in an Iowa case. On one of his drug runs, Honken met Angela Johnson, who was then dating DeGeus. Honken took the adults out of the car, walked them into the woods, and executed them in front of a pre-dug shallow grave. if(document.querySelector("#ads")){ Johnson was originally sentenced to death for her part in the crime but had her sentence reduced to life in prison. Investigation Discoverys Murder in the Heartland: Invitation To Be Killed chronicles how a meth kingpin, Dustin Lee Honken, killed two informants and their loved ones to prevent them from testifying against him in his federal drug trial. Honken beat, shot, and buried DeGeus. "Honken has not demonstrated a likelihood of success on his claim that the 2019 Protocol is arbitrary and capricious based on its failure to consider the risk of flash pulmonary edema," the court of appeals wrote, citing language used in similar decisions. Honken was sentenced to death and executed by the federal government on July 17, 2020,[4] the first defendant from Iowa to be executed since 1963. The federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Ind., is shown, July 17, 2020. Upon learning that she had been tricked, Johnson attempted to hang herself. Honken an Iowa meth kingpin who kidnapped and killed five people, including two young girls, to thwart his prosecution for drug trafficking in 1993 is set to become the third federal inmate to be executed this week. We believe the defendant was involved in this. He didnt look toward witnesses behind a glass barrier, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on the ceiling. This timehis co-conspirator, Cutkomp,turned states witness, collecting Honkens musings about destroying evidence, buying a gun and eliminating investigators and others who he thought would testify against him. }); Three death row convicts, Daniel Lewis Lee, Wesley Ira Purkey, and Dustin Honken were put to death last week in a series of first federal executions in 17 years in the United States. Dustin was a chemistry wizard during his community college days in the early 90's. She told them about Honken's and Johnson's search for Nicholson and that she had seen the pistol used in the 1993 murders in Johnson's closet before it was destroyed. What they pay for on our side is the shipping of the body of our loved ones, the embalming, a suit for them to wear and the casket, said Lisa Brown, whose son Christopher Vialva was executed in September for killing two youth ministers. In recent days, prison authorities permitted Honken to make his last calls to family and friends, according to Sister Betty Donoghue, a Catholic nun whom he called Wednesday. Honkens lawyer, Shawn Nolan, said his client was redeemed and had repented for his crimes. Starting just minutes after its scheduled time, Honken recited Jesuit priest Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem, "Heaven-Haven," before saying a Hail Mary, though he tagged on an additional line: "Hail Mary, Mother of God, pray for me.". The shackles were fitted with a chain so Honken could move normally without the shackles making noise. Here's why it probably isn't coming back. A federal judge who ordered two last-minute injunctions before other death row inmates were set to be killed this month declined to do so for Honken. eventAction: 'view' Dustin Honken, convicted of killing five people, will be executed July 17, 2020. Daniel Lewis Lee, a white supremacist who killed a three-person family that includedan 8-year-old girl, and Wesley Ira Purkey, who raped, murdered, dismembered and dumped the body of a 16-year-old girl in a septic pond, were put to death Tuesday and Thursday, respectively. CST. While out on bond in his drugs case in July 1993, Honken and his girlfriend Angela Johnson kidnapped Lori Duncan and her two daughters from their Mason City, Iowa, home, then killed and buried them in a wooded area nearby. [3] His father, Jim Honken, was an alcoholic schemer who was allegedly neglectful. Attorney General William Barr relaunched executions this week for the first time since 2003. He believed he would go to heaven. Purkey, a 68-year-old on death row for rape and murders in 1998, was executed on Thursday, July 16, by lethal injection as the Trump administration carried out its second federal execution. Its weirdly laughable. Yet, Marge knew foul play was involved as she never heard from her daughter or grandchildren again. eventAction: 'click_adunit' Never. Iowa abolished the death penalty in 1965, but federal. He had worn a wire, recorded him making drug deals, and handed the recordings to the authorities in exchange for a lenient prison term. Purkey was put to death at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, at 8:19 a.m. local time. Her memoir, "Corrections in Ink", came out in June 2022. Just go in and check him., Its not clear how much the agency paid for lethal drugs themselves, a few grams of pentobarbital, and its not clear whats buried in the redacted expenditures marked confidential.. Honken,a community college drop-out who created his meth empire in the early 1990s,was the third federal prisoner executed this week. Although Iowa abolished capital punishment in 1965, the crime was a federal case since it involved a continuing criminal enterprise. The prosecution said he had every reason to kill the victims and presented 65 witnesses against him. Johnson bought a pistol on July 7, 1993. We believe that he was ready to take violent actions again. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post Magazine, the Houston Chronicle and The New York Times. But authoritiesneeded five things before they could begin to prove their case: the bodies. [7][19], Honken was charged with the murders in 2001. While studying legal documents, Dustin learned Greg had become an informant after being caught with almost 150 grams of pure meth inside his apartment. Dustin eventually released his sister. Honken was involved in the manufacturing of methamphetamine, and one of his dealers was set to testify against him, so Honken and Johnson murdered him . 2d 663", "Judge removes Iowa woman from death row", "Dustin Lee Honken - Federal Execution - July 17, 2020", "Judge temporarily stops execution of north Iowa mass murderer Dustin Honken", "Supreme Court keeps federal executions, including that of Iowa murderer Dustin Lee Honken, on hold", "Administration seeks resumption of federal executions", "Federal Executions Can Restart After Supreme Court Declines a Case", "Higher courts rebuff late legal efforts, Iowan Dustin Honken put to death", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1993_Iowa_murders&oldid=1152124538. Your subscription makes work like this possible. Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem, "Heaven-Haven,". They discovered him staying at the home of a friend, Lori Duncan, a single mother with two children, Amber, 6, and Kandi, 10. ", "The reason for us being present today was not to watch a man die. }) I was totally amazed, she said. ga('ads.send', { A statement from the Duncan family said the execution provided a degree of justice and closure to the family. The two made hundreds of thousands of dollars from several drug runs. Department of. Investigators found the Nicholson and Duncan bodies only seven years after the killings, in 2000, after Johnson scrawled out a map showing a jailhouse informant where they were buried. The first in the spate federal executions happened Tuesday, when Daniel Lewis Lee was put to death for killing a family in the 1990s as part of a plot to build a whites-only nation. Iowa abolished the death penalty in 1965, but federal prosecutors sought to execute Honken for killing government informants and children. Honken was considered so dangerous that the judge took the rare step of impaneling an anonymous jury. [6], Honken, who was proficient in math, science, and writing, earned a scholarship to North Iowa Area Community College in 1991. The Supreme Court dismissed a . [7] He and Johnson passed notes through the food slot in his door about their lives in jail and their childhoods. Angela Johnson: Where is Dustin Lee Honkens Girlfriend Now. Prison officials stated that Purkey owing to his mental illness lacked in understanding and put aside the pecan pie in his last meal for later. On October 14, 2004, Honken was convicted of all 17 counts against him, including five counts of murder in furtherance of a continuing criminal enterprise. Johnson admitted that she was involved in Honken's crimes, but blamed him for the murders and said he had manipulated her. "[20], Bennett resentenced Honken to 27 years in prison, saying the minimum sentence was sufficiently harsh. [20][21], During his resentencing hearing in January 2000, Honken, asked for leniency, saying he had successfully participated in a drug rehabilitation program and taken educational programs. Dustin Honken is a convicted murderer - currently on death row in Illionois prison. They drove the hostages to a wooded area outside the city and shot them execution-style. In 1984, Honken plotted a bank robbery in which the person he would convince to commit the robbery for him would then be killed and thrown into a pond. Honken is set to die by a lethal. Just before his death, Lee reportedly implored to the media at his execution to ask the judge about DNA evidence that was left out of his trial. After the two previous executions were repeatedly delayed amid back-and-forth legal maneuvering, Honkens began almost on the minute it had been scheduled for weeks. Dustin Honken, 52, would become the first Iowa defendant to be put to death since 1963 if he is executed as scheduled on Friday. These are the stories that you need to know about capital punishment's past, as well as its uncertain future. document.querySelector("#google_image_div").addEventListener('click',function(){ And I have asked to be, Where no storms come, Where the green swell is in the havens dumb, And out of the swing of the sea," he said. Dustin Honken was convicted of killing a family . The federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Ind., has been the site of three federal executions in a week, including Friday's of Dustin Lee Honken. Honken, 52, was sentenced to die in October 2005 after being convicted of numerous offenses, including five counts of murder among them two small children during the course of a continuing. The District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., denied a stay request Thursday as well. Days before Honken was to plead guilty, prosecutors say Honken and Johnson kidnapped Nicholson and his girlfriend, Lori Duncan, and her two daughters, Kandi, 10, and six-year-old Amber. Not only that, the police found Terry DeGeus body in a field a few miles from the crime scene. An appellate court agreed, adding that "one can easily conclude from witnesses' testimony that appellee caused the disappearance of one or more persons, including prospective prosecution witnesses, in 1993. Honken, who was known as "Iowa's Walter White", murdered government informants and two children days before he was set to enter a plea for drug charges in 1993. From meth to murder: How a small-town Iowa boy became the state's first death row inmate in 50 years, Timeline of events in the infamous 1993 Iowa murders, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. }); media-tech companies with hubs around the world. On February 7, 1996, officers executed a search warrant on Honken's house and discovered his meth lab, chemicals, equipment, books, and notes, including ones on manufacturing drugs and how to bind and gag people. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), (AP) The U.S. government on Friday put to death an Iowa chemistry student-turned-meth kingpin convicted of killing five people, capping a week in which the Trump administration restored federal executions after a 17-year hiatus. He later threatened to lock her in the basement and wondered how long it would take for her to be found, and how deep someone would need to be buried for them not to be plowed up by farm machinery. [27], During cross-examination, a defense attorney questioned why someone like Honken would confide in "a couple of crackheads who steal hogs" for a living. [13], Honken, seeking to expand his drug dealing business, studied chemistry textbooks at the library, read science journals, kept extremely thorough records, made plans to expand his business to the Internet, and considered writing his own book about how to make and sell meth in the United States. [8], The defense did not have Rickert take the stand out of the fear that she might conclude Honken was a sociopath or had narcissistic personality disorder. Honken, who had the look of a classic 1980s nerd and the smarts to back up the appearance, was talented in math and science, but was an eloquent writer, too. I have seen people get murdered here and being in a place like this makes the sentence I have now almost like a death sentence. "I've climbed far bigger hills than that little hill. "[19] Without the deduction, Honken faced 27 to 33.75 years in prison. Honken spoke on his back, strapped to a gurney under a pale-green sheet. CNN The US government on Friday executed Dustin Lee Honken, the third federal inmate to receive the death penalty this week after the punishment was revived by the Trump administration. He had a rare right-left brain combination that made him attractive enough to land a scholarship to North Iowa Area Community College in the early 1990s. Lee was injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital at 8:07 AM, just hours after the Supreme Court gave a go-ahead to the Trump administration. Maurice Chammah Without any witnesses, the government was forced to drop its case against Honken. Using a ruse to gain entry, Johnson and Honken did make a video of Nicholson denying his previous police statements, but then bound and gagged the adults, forced the children to pack bags and walked them at gunpoint to their car. hitType: 'event', [19], A judge initially barred McNeese from testifying against Johnson during her trial on the grounds that he was acting as a federal agent. After several minutes his breathing became more labored. His final words were a reciting of the poem Heaven-Heaven by Gerard Manley Hopkins: "I have desired to go, where springs not fail, to fields where flies no sharp and sided hail, and a few lilies blow. Days before each cluster of executions last summer, the Bureau of Prisons shipped in dozens of extra staff for training in preparation for the event, as it is elliptically referred to in records. Iowa-licensed. Terry Scott DeGeus was born to Edward and JoAnn DeGeus in Charles City in Floyd County, Iowa, on November 19, 1960. pg.acq.push(function() { There was no reason for the government to kill him, in haste or at all, Nolan said. [2] Honken and Johnson were in a relationship at the time of the murders, and Johnson, who had a child from a previous marriage, was pregnant by Honken. Lees execution, like Purkeys, went ahead only after the U.S. Supreme Court gave it a green light in a 5-4 decision hours before. "Finally justice is being done. Jim committed two bank robberies before getting caught and sent to federal prison. The Justice Department has executed Dustin Lee Honken in Terre Haute, Ind., the third federal inmate put to death by the government this week. While awaiting trial, Honken was released on bond. As part of an agreement, she agreed to drop all of her appeals. His biological father, Jim Honken, allegedly beat him, was an alcoholic, and served time in federal prison after committing multiple bank robberies. hitType: 'event', [7], Honken enlisted his best friend, Tim Cutkomp, moved to Arizona, and borrowed $5,000 from his brother to buy chemicals and equipment. Honken received the maximum sentence. Never nothing. The day of Lees execution, Mueller and the other witnesses arrived at the prison in the afternoon. [8], On November 5, 1993, DeGeus also disappeared. Ten-year-old Kandi and 6-year-old Amber were still in their swimsuits on the hot summer day when they were shot execution-style in the back of the head. ga('ads.send', { With the central veins you cant see or feel them, so you have to know the anatomy or use an ultrasound, said Dr. Joel Zivot, a lethal injection expert and intensive care doctor at Emory University who did not attend the execution but reviewed the documents later. [3] The two then bound and gagged Nicholson and his new girlfriend, 37-year-old Lori Ann Duncan. FILE - In this Aug. 18, 2004 file photo, Dustin Honken is led by federal marshals to a waiting car after the second day of jury selection in federal court in Sioux City, Iowa. Once he checked into the Holiday Inn, guards took him to restaurants in a special handicap rental van that cost $543.40. When the time of death was. On July 17, 2020, Honken was executed by lethal injection. He killed five people, including two young girls, in 1993. [7] Johnson told Honken that DeGeus was personally using too much meth which was supposed to be sold, and that they should deal with each other instead. [3] A few months later, the fifth victim, also a former dealer, was murdered.[3]. Department of Justice spokesperson Kerri Kupec said ending Honken's life was the culmination of "just punishment" being carried out. Follow Michael Tarm on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mtarm, FILE - In this Oct. 11, 2005, file photo, Dustin Lee Honken is led by US Marshals into the Federal Courthouse in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, prior to his sentencing.
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