let gads_event; document.querySelector("#ads").addEventListener('click',function(){ Your subscription makes work like this possible. 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. His fingers gradually stopped twitching, and his breathing became shallower until it stopped. [8], Cutkomp decided to become an informant. "[20], Bennett resentenced Honken to 27 years in prison, saying the minimum sentence was sufficiently harsh. He compared the feeling of killing someone to a football game, saying, "Once you go a certain distance, there ain't no turning back. Dustin eventually released his sister. The high cost of capital punishmentfrom trials to appeals to executionshas been a constant feature of debates about the punishment and could come up if Congress takes on the issue. Iowa meth kingpin is 3rd executed by US government this week - WUSA He also pointed to Honken's youth, saying, "The court needs to consider his age. Because of legal delays, they ended up spending more than 12 hours there. The spending records from July and August offer glimpses of not only the cost but the logistics of how the government puts prisoners to death. Mueller uses a wheelchair, which he said can complicate the logistics of plane travel, so he decided to drive to Indiana from his home in Arkansas. The portable restrooms cost $1,605. I had just returned to my cell from a hospital stay when I first learned that Lee, and three othersWesley Purkey, Dustin Honken and Keith Nelson had been given execution dates. 3d 937", "From meth to murder: How a small-town Iowa boy became the state's first death row inmate in 50 years", "FindLaw's United States Eighth Circuit case and opinions", "Witnesses Testify about Honken's Drug Operation", "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA vs. ANGELA JOHNSON", "184 F3d 961 United States of America v. Dustin Lee Honken", "Fred Tokars, lawyer who set up murder of his wife, dies in prison", "OPINION: Maybe wife-killer Fred Tokars got a fate worse than death", "Iowa meth kingpin is 3rd executed by US government this week", "Johnson v. United States, 860 F. Supp. Iowa chemistry student-turned-meth kingpin is 3rd federal inmate [7], McNeese got Johnson to confess to the murders by claiming he could find another inmate who could take the blame. According to court documents, Angela bought a gun on July 7, 1993, and she and Dustin began hunting Greg down, with him divorcing his ex-wife and moving in with Lori and her children. They recruited two drug dealers Terry DeGeus and Greg Nicholson to sell their meth in northeast Iowa. Bumming around before starting at North Iowa, Honken fell into selling marijuana and cocaine, quickly building a list of customers who paid thousands for their fix. The Bureau of Prisons said Dustin Honken, 52, was pronounced dead at 4:36 p.m. Dustin Honken was convicted of killing a family . She offered a measure of apology at her first sentencing in 2005, saying she wanted to tell law enforcement about the killings, but feared for her life. } Honken had earlier informed the judge in his drug case that he would plead guilty at the end of July. In 1963, Victor Feguer, who kidnapped and killed a Dubuque doctor, was executed by hanging at the Iowa State Penitentiary. hitType: 'event', But what Honken didnt know in early 1993 was that Nicholson had decided to cooperate with federal investigators, wearing a wire toa meet and recordingHonken makinga $3,000 deal for a future meth pickup. 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. window.googletag.pubads().addEventListener('slotRenderEnded', function(event) { Between 1986 and 1989, Honken was involved in a conversation which mentioned the possibility of killing his brother's business partner to collect a million dollar life insurance policy. }); Honken's execution was the last one in this weeklong spree. Honken would become the first defendant from Iowa to die from capital punishment since 1963 if his lethal injection takes place as scheduled on Friday, July 17, 2020 in Terre Haute, Ind. I am deeply sorry. The clock is ticking: Execution date approaching for convicted - KWWL He was very upset with the way Danny died, said Donoghue, who visited Honken regularly over the past decade. [7], Over the next few weeks, Nicholson became extremely paranoid. Never. A prison official in Terre Haute, Indiana, reportedly told the New York Post: "We will not be providing details of Mr. Lees last meal.". While in jail, Honken confessed to fellow inmates that he'd killed witnesses from an earlier case. Dustin Honken, who killed 5 people in 1993 to be executed - KARE When the time of death was. [19], A judge initially barred McNeese from testifying against Johnson during her trial on the grounds that he was acting as a federal agent. At his sentencing in 2005, Honken recognized the victims families had suffered a senseless destruction of human life in losing their loved ones, but also declared that their vengeance toward me is misguided.. Honken received the maximum sentence. [7], During Honken's capital murder trial, his mitigation expert, Lisa Rickert, wrote to his lawyers that not only had she struggled to find any possible mitigation, what she discovered only further cast Honken in a negative light. He later said that he had initially planned to become a pharmaceutical lawyer. 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. The two used a blowtorch to cut and melt the gun into multiple pieces, which they discarded in ditches along a country road. In Lewis Lees case, his victims family had requested his sentencebe reduced to life in prison; in Purkeys, his lawyers asserted that dementia and schizophrenia meant he was not competent to be executed. ga('ads.send', { Knowing that youre behind us means so much. But unlike the two executed earlier this week, Honken lacked headline-grabbing mitigating circumstances. 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 . Their attraction was mutual, and she would shortly dump her current boyfriend, Honkens dealer,DeGeus, for the boss. "I have desired to go, Where springs not fail, To fields where flies no sharp and sided hail, And a few lilies blow. While in prison, Angela Johnson confessed to the murders to another prisoner who became an informant, supplying all the details and a hand-drawn map of the bodies location all handed over to the authorities. A second bank robbery would land himin prison, where he would regale his frequently visiting sons with tales of his criminal exploits. In any case, they failed. Their mother never got to see them having their first dance, first date or first walk down the aisle at their wedding., We will continue to live with their loss, it said. Although details of his last meal were not revealed, Honken, in his last words, recited a poem by an English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ called Heaven-Heaven. Dustin Honken, an Iowa meth kingpin who kidnapped and killed five people to thwart his prosecution for drug trafficking in . Not only that, the police found Terry DeGeus body in a field a few miles from the crime scene. Prisoner Keith Nelson's execution is set to take place on August 28.] Theyre willing to go to extraordinary lengths in terms of spending our money and then hiding the footprints of it.. }); Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem, "Heaven-Haven,". The crime Honken was executed for started as a missing-persons case tangentially connected to a federal drug trafficking charge. Dustin Lee Honken: US government executes 3rd federal inmate this week So, who were Dustins victims, and what happened to the drug kingpin? [7][19], Honken was charged with the murders in 2001. ga('create', 'UA-67136960-15', 'auto', 'ads'); He was pronounced dead at 3:36p.m. Courtney Crowder, the Register's Iowa Columnist, traverses the state's 99 counties telling Iowans' stories. Whoopi Goldberg interrupts 'The View' live segment, raises her voice and hits co-host, Demi Moore has not left Bruce Willis's side and is doing everything to make his 'last moments happy', 'Liza took a final breath and sighed': Liza Burke, 21, dies 6 weeks after stage 4 cancer diagnosis, Baywatch star Jeremy Jacksons ex-wife Loni Willison spotted looking for food in LA waste, 'Go for a size bigger': Honey Boo Boo slammed for flaunting 'tight' prom dress with boyfriend Dralin Carswell. She is the organization's first formerly incarcerated reporter. [9], Johnson was born in Forest City, Iowa. Iowa abolished the death penalty in 1965, but federal. Moments before being sentenced Honken maintained his innocence, accusing the judge in his case of having a "death agenda." Honken was convicted in October 2004 of murder in the 1993 deaths of five North Iowans. Dustin Lee Honken is led Aug. 18, 2004, by federal marshals to a waiting car after the second day of jury selection in federal court in Sioux City. In 2005, Tokars stopped an attempted escape by Honken, in which he plotted to escape with the help of white supremacists and murder witnesses. is a former staff writer whose work focuses on prisons and jails. is a staff writer whose book, "Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty," won the 2019 J. Anthony Lukas Work-In-Progress Book Award. As a result, Honken and Johnson were federally charged with all five murders. Dustin earned a scholarship to North Iowa Area Community College in 1991 and had initially planned to become a pharmaceutical lawyer. [6][10] Honken's defense presented testimony from his family, and pointed to his age and lack of prior violent convictions as mitigating factors. Acting on a tip that Johnson might be skipping town, authorities indicted her with aiding and abetting the murders of Nicholson, Duncan, Kandi, Amber and her ex-boyfriend DeGeus. [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. She said goodbye to her friends in the evening. [41][42], Honken leaving a federal courthouse after being sentenced on October 11, 2005, Guilty plea to manufacturing and distributing meth, Johnson's trial, sentencing, and commutation, Murder in furtherance of a continuing criminal enterprise, Conspiracy to commit murder in furtherance of a continuing criminal enterprise, Conspiracy to tamper with witnesses and to solicit the murder of witnesses, Attempting to manufacture methamphetamine, Conspiracy to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine, United States Federal Sentencing Guidelines, United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Capital punishment by the United States federal government, List of people executed by the United States federal government, List of people executed in the United States in 2020, List of serial killers in the United States, "Dustin Lee Honken: US government executes 3rd federal inmate this week", Judge vacates Angela Johnson's death sentence, "Iowa Drug Kingpin Who Killed 5 People in 1993 to Be Executed", "July execution scheduled for Iowa native Dustin Lee Honken, convicted in 2004 of murdering 5", "Infamous Iowa murderer Dustin Honken to be executed in 2020", "Honken v. United States, 42 F. Supp. But his lawyer, Shawn Nolan, countered, saying that Honken had been "redeemed" and that he "recognized and repented for the crimes he had committed. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), "For years now, the government has made these terrible accusations against me," he said. 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. 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. He worked for Holland Construction in Forest City and later drove a semi for Schmidt Trucking of Britt. When I get out, he's still dead." Soon, he would meet Angela Johnson, a woman who shared his ruthless worldview. During one of their drug runs, Dustin met Angela Johnson, Terrys erstwhile girlfriend, and the two struck up a business relationship that soon evolved into a romantic one. media-tech companies with hubs around the world. ga('ads.send', { He killed five people, including two young girls, in 1993. The family of Terry DeGeus, one of two government witnesses Honken was convicted of killing, said attending Friday's execution was the "least they could do. [7], In March 1993, Honken and Cutkomp were arrested on federal drug trafficking charges. Honken was pronounced dead after 30 minutes longer than the other two executions. CST. hitType: 'event', Honken, whose crimes struck at the foundation of the U.S. justice system, always seemed the least likely to win a reprieve from the courts. }); Iowa meth kingpin is 3rd executed by US government this week - Yahoo News He can be rehabilitated. He suspected that Honken had killed Nicholson and was afraid of being wrongfully accused of murder. hitType: 'event', 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. While Honken's execution is the last one in this weeklong spree, Keith Dwayne Nelson, who kidnapped and raped a 10-year-old girl, is scheduled to be executed Aug. 28. [3] Johnson was also sentenced to death, the first woman sentenced to death by a United States federal jury since the 1950s, but the sentence was overturned in 2012,[5] and she was resentenced to life without parole in 2014. "They are people who have no future," referring to the inmates. She could not breathe and swallowed water. Iowa-licensed. At the time of his death, Honken had served more than 22 years in an Indiana prison. [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. A coroner pronounced him dead by lethal injection at 4:36 p.m. [37][38], While in prison, Honken converted to Catholicism. While the rest of the prison put everything on hold, officials prepped Leesentenced to death for killing Muellers father, his wife and her daughterfor the lethal injection, using some specially purchased medical supplies. Lori Ann Milbrath Duncan was born to Marge Milbrath in Mason City in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, on November 22, 1961. Dustin was a chemistry wizard during his community college days in the early 90's. Other van rentals for shuttling around staff and witnesses totaled at least $4,500 over the five executions, while a bus rental cost $6,330. }); More: From meth to murder: How a small-town Iowa boy became the state's first death row inmate in 50 years. [7], Honken said he planned to plead guilty, and a hearing was scheduled for July 30, 1993. He has scheduled another execution in late August. The government paid for snacks, drinks and pizza. During that first execution and those that followed, the prisoners ate sack lunches and box meals after the mess hall closed for the lockdown. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), [8], In the winter of 1993 or 1994, Honken went to Cutkomp and said he needed to destroy a pistol. 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. Iowa drug kingpin who killed 5 set for execution Friday - NBC News No state would commit the resources I did to the defense of a death Witnesses: Honken, girlfriend strangled little girls to keep them quiet While awaiting trial, she met Robert Gene McNeese, a career criminal and informant who was serving a life sentence. Iowa drug kingpin who killed 5 people in 1993 to be executed 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. The federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Ind., is shown, July 17, 2020. After a two-month-long trial, the jury found him guilty on all 17 counts. With no witnesses, the government dropped their drug case in 1995 and Honken went back to making meth. There are some small expenses that appear to be absent, such as last meals for three of the prisoners. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), Honken had threatened Nicholson in the past, saying he could order a hit on him or anyone else if he wanted. 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. [40] Circuit Judge David S. Tatel dissented, arguing the statute explicitly requires the federal government to follow state execution protocols. After inadvertently learning that Nicholson had turned states witness, Honken and Johnson set out to find him and force him to recant his statements. Purkey, the night before he was put to death, saw Bill Clinton on television and said that he intended to vote for him in November elections. Iowa meth kingpin Dustin Honken executed, third federal execution this He wore a wire to a meeting and recorded Honken making a future $3,000 deal. A review of the expenses for five executions in July and Augustincluding at least $9,376 for plane tickets and rental vans, more than $25,000 for kosher food and roughly $6,590 for tentspaints a stark and intimate picture of the practicalities of death, shedding light on a secretive process typically hidden from the public and shielded under law. Lori Duncan didnt know Nicholson was an informant and she wasnt involved in drugs. The governments approach still stung months later: We feel that they go out of their way to not accommodate us.. Dustin's last meal was Pizza Hut his bill came to $33.11 Dustin Honken, was convicted of five counts of Continuing Criminal Enterprise murder. }); PDF 100 moments - Iowa Department of Public Safety On the other hand, Greg and Lori were bound, gagged, and shot multiple times, including once in the head. They sentenced him to death specifically for the brutality and senselessness of the childrens killings. Moreover, Terry informed his mother that he was meeting his former girlfriend, Angela Johnson. Later that month, she was re-sentenced to life in prison without parole. Outside the facility, protesters held press conferences, waved signs and live-tweeted every court development. Among them were many of the inmates to whom Honken had confessed, including Fred Tokars. He had been found guilty of murdering five people, including two. The attorneys of each convict tried to block their clients' executions in last-ditch attempts to save their lives, two of them nearly succeeded only for the Supreme Court to ultimately give the green light to the Trump administration to go ahead. Email On another occasion, Honken tried to drown Alyssa in a hotel pool. He never returned, and his body was found seven years later in a field outside Mason City in 2000. Terry Scott DeGeus was born to Edward and JoAnn DeGeus in Charles City in Floyd County, Iowa, on November 19, 1960. She was visiting Wildwood, New Jersey, on Memorial Day Weekend with friends in 1990. },false) However, what he ultimately ate may remain a mystery. While preparing for his trial, Honken discovered through legal documents that Nicholson had turned witness. He claimed he had nothing to do with the 1993 disappearances. [10][11] Johnson was raised by extremely religious grandparents who would hold her down, wave Bibles over her head, and speak in tongues in an attempt to exorcise demons from her. We believe that he was ready to take violent actions again. This page was last edited on 28 April 2023, at 10:41. He had worn a wire, recorded him making drug deals, and handed the recordings to the authorities in exchange for a lenient prison term. They found no signs of a struggle inside no blood or furniture in disarray except for an unfinished dinner on the kitchen table. 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. Terrys hobbies included playing pool, hanging out with his friends, and spending quality time with his children.
Kenny Greene Funeral,
Can A Thoracic Herniated Disc Heal Without Surgery,
Bentonite Clay Bath While Breastfeeding,
How Much Is $1 In Robux?,
Cook County Mask Mandate 2022,
Articles D