After several minutes his breathing became more labored. Lori Ann Milbrath Duncan was born to Marge Milbrath in Mason City in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, on November 22, 1961. 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. However, this decision was overturned since the government had never asked McNeese to cooperate in the case against Johnson. ga('ads.send', { NPR's Carrie Johnson contributed to this report. In July 2000, Johnson was charged with five counts of murder in furtherance of a continuing criminal enterprise. 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. Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty. 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. But he soon startedselling marijuana and cocaine anddecided to become both a drug manufacturer and a dealer with his knowledge of chemistry. hitType: 'event', 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.. On July 24, Dustin and Angela broke into Loris home, forced Greg to record a statement claiming Dustin was innocent, and abducted him and the Duncan family at gunpoint. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. [] The maximum sentence sends a message to this defendant and other defendants who are thinking about taking things into their own hands that that conduct is unacceptable. Maurice Chammah eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), Other security measures included fitting Honken with a stun belt under his clothes to prevent him from trying to escape. ga('ads.send', { It was announced on Thursday that Iowa drug kingpin Dustin Lee Honken, who killed five people in the early 90s, has been scheduled to be executed 15 years after receiving his [] Once he checked into the Holiday Inn, guards took him to restaurants in a special handicap rental van that cost $543.40. "Their mother never got to see them having a first dance, first date or walk down the aisle at their wedding," the statement read. [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. The murders took place in Iowa in July and November 1993. Iowa outlawed the death penalty 55 years ago. When the time of death was. I am deeply sorry. 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. [13][31], In March 2012, federal judge Mark W. Bennett vacated Johnson's death sentence, citing a failure by her attorneys to introduce evidence about her mental state from an "alarmingly" dysfunctional defense team. However, this is a step toward healing of broken hearts and shattered lives.. 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. Her memoir, "Corrections in Ink", came out in June 2022. [19], A judge initially barred McNeese from testifying against Johnson during her trial on the grounds that he was acting as a federal agent. To minimize potential prejudice, the court ordered for officers not to move Honken in the presence of the jury and that table skirts be placed on the counsel tables so the jury would be unable to see the shackles. McNeese gave the notes and map to the authorities, and the victims' bodies were recovered shortly after. And there are some potentially larger expenses, like whatever might be included in the 28 pages of records officials admitted to withholding. When I get out, he's still dead." Dustin Honken, a convicted murderer of 5 people, sits on death row. Like, you need that? He can be rehabilitated. According to court testimonies, Marge Milbrath last saw her daughter on July 25, 1993, while driving to the grocery store. We believe the defendant was involved in this. Dustin Honken, convicted of killing five people, will be executed July 17, 2020. He said Honken was "a young man infatuated with drug manufacturing, basically a nerd.[7]. On October 27, 2004, jurors recommended life sentences for Honken for killing the adult victims and death sentences for killing the children. Records providing details of the spending, which the American Civil Liberties Union estimates totaled nearly $4.7 million over two months, were released under the federal Freedom of Information Act. He plotted to murder Cutkomp and gave a fellow inmate directions to Cutkomp's house. Honken had physically and verbally abused his sister, Alyssa. She is the organization's first formerly incarcerated reporter. [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. "[30] She called him a "sociopath who will never admit to what he has done. 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. . 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. They drove the hostages to a wooded area outside the city and shot them execution-style. [40] On June 29, 2020, the Supreme Court denied Honken's petition for review, with Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor dissenting.[40]. He was very upset with the way Danny died, said Donoghue, who visited Honken regularly over the past decade. "I didn't kill anyone and even though that hasn't been proven, the accusations have repeatedly been used against me. Alyssa was unable to breathe and was scared that her brother would kill her, but he stopped, apologized, and started crying when he realized what he had done. On top of that, the staff hotel rooms cost at least $35,000a number that is likely far short of the total, since many of the hotel-related line items in the spending records dont specify whose bills they covered. With no witnesses, the government dropped their drug case in 1995 and Honken went back to making meth. The EKG would probably be to tell when hes died. Dustin Honken, who prosecutors said killed key witnesses to stop them from testifying in his drugs case, received a lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana.. But as Honken'soperation grew, so too did his dependence on meth and his singular focus on success no matter the cost. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), 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. Dustin Honken, 52, was sentenced to death for killing government informants and children in his effort to thwart his drug trafficking prosecution in 1993. 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. Read More:Angela Johnson: Where is Dustin Lee Honkens Girlfriend Now? The victims' family is expected to provide a written statement to the public at some point soon. The Bureau of Prisons refused to comment on the payment records or to answer questions about the operations outlined in the documents. But the authorities could not find the bodies to prove they had been murdered. Upon learning that Nicholson had disappeared, the government turned to Honken's former dealer, DeGeus. It amounted to a small fraction of the more than $107,000 the agency spent on hotels for the witnesses and staff who flocked to western Indiana last summer for the federal governments first executions in nearly two decades. 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. Iowa abolished the death penalty in 1965, but federal prosecutors sought to execute Honken for killing government informants and children. 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 . }); 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. Early Friday morning, a federal appeals court denied Honken's last-ditch request to block the execution. As the trio was executed, they expressed their views for the final time, with one even maintaining his innocence till his last breath. (The records list only $33.11 for Dustin Lee Honken' s dinner from Pizza Hut, and $0 spent when Keith Dwayne Nelson refused a meal .) 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. The governments approach still stung months later: We feel that they go out of their way to not accommodate us.. (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. However, she panicked when she drove by Loris apartment the following day, on July 26. Law enforcement had enough evidence to believe Johnson had something to do with the murders, though Honken remained their suspected triggerman. [19], In 2000, Johnson's friend, Christi Gaubatz, decided to talk to the police. } But nearly seven years after five people went missing, including witnesses scheduled to testify against Honken regarding his meth operation, a mobbed-up jailhouse informant would lead investigators to the victims bodies and a murder plot would unravel. During this time, he plotted to murder Cobeen, police officers, and chemists, and to destroy evidence against him. He was formally sentenced to death on October 11, 2005. [28], In 2005, Johnson was found guilty of five counts of murder in furtherance of a continuing criminal enterprise. Dustin earned a scholarship to North Iowa Area Community College in 1991 and had initially planned to become a pharmaceutical lawyer. Angela Johnson: Where is Dustin Lee Honkens Girlfriend Now. While preparing for his trial, Honken discovered through legal documents that Nicholson had turned witness. He suspected that Honken had killed Nicholson and was afraid of being wrongfully accused of murder. 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. Then she learned that her Jewish congregation and her sons friends had pooled donations to pay for her gas and hotel room. 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.. Dustin Honken is a convicted murderer - currently on death row in Illionois prison. The man they killed today was a human being, who could have spent the rest of his days helping others and further redeeming himself. Subscribe today at DesMoinesRegister.com/Deal. I deeply regret the pain I caused to my daughter, who I love so very much. The hotel was nice enough, and only a 10-minute drive from the federal execution chamber in Terre Haute where the man who killed Muellers father would take his last breath. We believe that he was ready to take violent actions again. Referring to the 1993 disappearances, Bennett said that while the government had made a compelling case for Honken likely being responsible, his view was that if the government believed Honken was a murderer, they should charge him with murder. Honkens execution was the last one in this weeklong spree. However, he and Tim were arrested on federal drug trafficking charges in March 1993. 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. [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. "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. ga('ads.send', { Marge and her husband drove by later and let themselves in after feeling convinced something was wrong. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post Magazine, the Houston Chronicle and The New York Times. He added: "There was no reason for the government to kill him, in haste or at all. [8], For his cooperation, Cutkomp was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison. When Scott Mueller drove to Indiana in July to see Daniel Lewis Lee die, he stayed at a Holiday Inn. [] Thought I'd have nightmares. [40] Circuit Judge David S. Tatel dissented, arguing the statute explicitly requires the federal government to follow state execution protocols. Families for two of Honken's victims provided public statements, differing in tone and length, but each rife with emotion. She was formally sentenced to death on December 19, 2005. Honken,a community college drop-out who created his meth empire in the early 1990s,was the third federal prisoner executed this week. "I have desired to go, Where springs not fail, To fields where flies no sharp and sided hail, And a few lilies blow. Seconds later, officials announced the time of death. }); Born into a life of uncertainty, Honken grew up in Britt, a small town west of Mason City in north central Iowa. Honken is set to die by a lethal. [7] Another inmate said Honken killed "rats" and children "raised by rats". Using this evidence, and testimony from a collection of prisoners Honken told in not-so-subtle terms that he killed a handful of people in 1993, prosecutors brought murder charges against the former underworld honcho. 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. [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. The two-night hotel stay cost around $200, and the tab was picked up by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. 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. [5] On November 20, 2019, U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan issued a preliminary injunction preventing the resumption of federal executions. It will bring a sense of closure, but we will continue to live with their loss. [37][38], While in prison, Honken converted to Catholicism. media-tech companies with hubs around the world. Honken had threatened Nicholson in the past, saying he could order a hit on him or anyone else if he wanted. }); Donations from readers like you are essential to sustaining this work. An officer outside the the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, where the federal government was preparing to execute Daniel Lewis Lee in July 2020. two more men to death this week before he leaves office, Christopher Vialva was executed in September. She described Honken as a meth kingpin, who in 1993, "kidnapped, fatally shot, and buried Lori Duncan, a single, working mother, Duncan's two young daughters 10-year-old Kandi and 6-year-old Amber and Greg Nicholson, a government informant who testified against Honken on federal drug trafficking charges.". Dustin Lee Honken was born in Britt, Iowa, on March 22, 1968, and suffered from an abusive childhood. 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. Some were shut in their cells and others were forced to spend the night in the gym, where they couldnt see the witnesses or the condemned man entering the death chamber. Around seven years later, the police found the Duncan family and Gregs bodies buried in a single hole, which was located in a wooded area outside Mason City in 2000. [22] As a reward for his testimony, a judge reduced McNeese's sentence, and he was released from prison on November 14, 2017. An execution date of January 15, 2020, was set for Honken. His lawyers contended he had dementia and didnt know why he was being executed. The prison food during executions cost more than $77,000 over the course of the summer. 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. Upon appeal, Angela Johnson's death sentence was reduced to life in prison. 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. "Finally justice is being done. 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. He killed five people, including two young girls, in 1993. Its unclear what that training involved, but records show it cost thousands of dollars. So, who were Dustins victims, and what happened to the drug kingpin? gads_event = event; He and Lori Duncan were bound and gagged and shot multiple times. }) The drapes were drawn, and cars near the house were parked chaotically, which was uncharacteristic of her daughter. Dustin Lee Honken (March 22, 1968 July 17, 2020)[1] and Angela Jane Johnson (born January 17, 1964)[2] are American mass murderers convicted of the 1993 murders of five people in Iowa. 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. [8], In the winter of 1993 or 1994, Honken went to Cutkomp and said he needed to destroy a pistol. The Justice Department has executed Dustin Lee Honken in Terre Haute, Ind., the third federal inmate put to death by the government this week. Purkey, from Lansing, Kansas, wasgiven the death sentencefor raping and killing a 16-year-old girl, Jennifer Long, in Kansas City, Missouri, 1998. Theyre willing to go to extraordinary lengths in terms of spending our money and then hiding the footprints of it.. "[14], Honken was recorded calling Cobeen a "rat" and saying he would kill him no matter what. Honken has rarely spoken publicly since his sentencing, but until Friday's statement from his lawyer maintainedhis innocence. The day of Lees execution, Mueller and the other witnesses arrived at the prison in the afternoon. His then-wife, Leslie Olson, said he prevented her from going outside or staying near windows for very long. Johnson discussed the murders in detail, which McNeese secretly recorded. The agency refused to answer any questions about the money, procedures or details of what happened. } Within a year, Honken and his childhood friend, Tim Cutkomp, had moved to Arizona, built a sophisticated methamphetamine cooking setup and all but perfected a recipe for pure meth, which they sold mainly through two dealers in northeast Iowa: DeGeus, 32, and Greg Nicholson, 34. [1], In April 2020, a divided panel of the D.C. Its also not clear how many prison workers flew to Indiana or how many nights they stayed, but Mueller said at least a few guards were at the Holiday Inn with him and other witnesses in July. He was also ordered to serve five years of supervised release and fined $1,100. A statement from the Duncan family said the execution provided a degree of justice and closure to the family. [3] The two then bound and gagged Nicholson and his new girlfriend, 37-year-old Lori Ann Duncan. 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. Iowa abolished the death penalty in 1965, but federal. 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. The crime Honken was executed for started as a missing-persons case tangentially connected to a federal drug trafficking charge. President Donald Trump has overseen more federal executions than any president in decades, and his Justice Department has asked courts to overturn a decision so it can put two more men to death this week before he leaves office. Honken was pronounced dead after 30 minutes longer than the other two executions. Honken told Cutkomp that he was worried about DeGeus turning on him. The federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Ind., is shown, July 17, 2020. Honken spoke on his back, strapped to a gurney under a pale-green sheet. Dustin Honken was convicted of killing a family . Honken beat, shot, and buried DeGeus. [33] Johnson is currently serving her sentence at FCI Waseca. 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