Page 1 of 7 123 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 61

Thread: Dustin Lee Honken - Federal Execution - July 17, 2020

  1. #1
    Administrator Michael's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    1,515

    Dustin Lee Honken - Federal Execution - July 17, 2020


    Gregory Nicholson


    Terry DeGeus


    Lori Duncan


    Kandace Duncan


    Amber Duncan


    Dustin Lee Honken


    Summary of Offense:

    On October 27, 2004, a federal jury voted to sentence Honken to death for the murder of two girls, ten-year-old Kandi and six-year-old Amber, in Iowa in 1993. Honken was also given three life sentences: one for the murder of the girls' mother, Lori Duncan, and two more for the murders of two other adults, Greg Nicholson and Terry DeGeus, who were to have testified against Honken in a federal drug case. The children were witnesses to the murder of their mother.

    Co-defendant Angela Johnson was also sentenced to death, although her sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment.

    For more on Johnson, see: http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...ohnson+federal

  2. #2
    Administrator Michael's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    1,515
    September 12, 2008

    The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the conviction of Dustin Honken in the drug-related slaying of five people in 1993.

    Honken, 40, of Britt, was convicted in 2004 of the slayings of three adults and two children from Mason City. The jury recommended the death penalty for the murders of the children.

    Prosecutors say Honken was running a multistate methamphetamine operation during the early 1990s when he committed execution-style slayings of two former dealers turned informants, Greg Nicholson and Terry DeGeus.

    He also was found guilty of killing Nicholson's girlfriend, Lori Duncan, and her two young daughters, 10-year-old Kandi and 6-year-old Amber.

    The St. Louis-based court affirmed the conviction in a 47-page ruling.

    Source

  3. #3
    Administrator Michael's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    1,515
    December 16, 2009

    Honken Conviction Won't be Reviewed

    Dustin Honken's request to have his convictions and death sentences reviewed is being denied.

    The US Supreme Court denied Honken's petition on December 14.

    In 2004, a federal jury convicted the former Britt man, of several counts including murdering five witnesses.

    At the time, the jury determined that Honken should receive death sentences for involvement in deaths of two young girls, Kandi Duncan (10 years old) and Amber Duncan (6 years old).

    In 2005, Honken's girlfriend, Angela Johnson, was convicted of aiding and abetting the same murders and was also sentenced to death.

    Honken had appealed his convictions and sentences to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals but was denied. He then filed a petition for review by the United States Supreme Court. In a one-line order, the Supreme Court stated "The petition for writ of certiorari is denied."

    Johnson's appeal to the Supreme Court was denied a year ago.

    Honken now has a year to file a post-conviction relief petition in order to constitutionally challenge his convictions and sentences. Until a challenge is exhausted the United States Department of Justice will not schedule an execution date.

  4. #4
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    On December 14, 2010, Honken filed a petition for post-conviction relief in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/iow...cv03074/35222/

  5. #5
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    November 25, 2012

    Notorious Atlanta convict turns prosecution witness

    Fred Tokars helped win convictions from inside prison after sentencing for wife’s murder, lawyers say.

    By Bill Torpy
    The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

    Twenty years ago, Fred Tokars destroyed his family and turned Atlanta upside down when he had his wife shot to death in front of his two young sons.

    The sensational case dominated the headlines in 1992 and electrified Atlanta’s legal community: Tokars was a high-profile attorney who was a fixture inside the courtroom and a recognizable name outside of it, thanks to advertisements peddling his legal skills.

    After his 1993 arrest, Tokars’ sons moved to Florida to live with relatives, never to speak with their father again. Tokars went to the bowels of the federal prison system, a marked man because he started his legal career as a prosecutor and part-time judge.

    Now, prosecutors say Tokars has deliberately, even courageously, acted to rewrite the end of his sordid story.

    Over the last decade, Tokars has helped solve six murders, providing testimony that sent one man to death row and another to prison for life. Tokars, said one prosecutor, testified so his sons would one day learn he was capable of good.

    “One of the reasons Fred said he did this was to leave a good legacy for his children,” said Noel Levy, an ex-Marine and retired Arizona prosecutor who, with Tokars as his star witness, convicted a man named Robert Ortloff in 2008, for the 1984 murder of a young woman.

    “He was critical to the prosecution,” said Levy. “If it wasn’t for him, that cold case wouldn’t have been filed.”

    Four years earlier, in Iowa, Tokars’ testimony helped send Dustin Lee Honken to death row. Honken, a large-scale methamphetamine manufacturer, was convicted of two separate killings of men who he feared would testify against him. One of those crimes was the nightmarish killings of a drug-dealing partner, that man’s girlfriend and her two young children.

    Honken, a vicious psychopath, justified killing the kids because “they were rats being raised by rats.”

    Today, Tokars’ exact location is a closely guarded secret. He is in the federal government’s witness protection program and his name has been expunged from the prison database.

    He lives alone in a cell where he watches cable TV, reads the Wall Street Journal to keep up with current events and sometimes calls friends to reminisce on good times from long ago, according to one friend who has stayed in touch with him.

    He has become an observant Jew and his hair is said to be long, as is his beard. He is confined to a wheelchair due to a mysterious neurological disorder and spinal problems. Tokars, 59, also longs to re-connect with his two sons. Not surprisingly, they grew up resenting him.

    A double life

    Tokars landed in prison because he worried his wife would reveal his double life as a kind of consigliere to Atlanta drug lords.

    On on Nov. 29, 1992, Sara Tokars walked into her Cobb County home after driving back from Florida with her two young sons. She was immediately confronted by a shotgun-wielding man who ordered the family back into her car. A few miles away, the man ordered her to pull over and then fired a shot point blank into her head.

    Six-year-old Ricky Tokars reached across his mother’s body, turned off the engine, grabbed his 4-year-old brother, Michael, by the hand and then ran across a field to a house with lights on.

    The killing of a beautiful blond woman from an upscale suburban neighborhood in front of her two small boys fueled a media frenzy. Her husband was a lawyer who advertised on TV and had political connections in high places. The morning after the killing, a state Supreme Court judge who was a friend hugged the grieving Tokars in the driveway of his home as news crews arrived.

    But soon, it became apparent Tokars had a secret life filled with a host of unsavory characters. He represented drug dealers and helped them incorporate businesses that hid their earnings. Tokars was arrested after one of his business partners, Eddie Lawrence, told police Fred had him hire a hit man to kill his wife because he feared Sara would go the police with his secrets.

    Tokars was convicted in federal court in 1994 of racketeering charges and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Three years later, he sobbed with relief after a jury convicted him of the state murder charges but failed to give him the death penalty.

    But Tokars’ twisted belief that he had to silence his wife to save his own skin, a prominent detail in his trials, was to become a key reason other convicts were willing to unburden secrets of their own.

    Witness for the prosecution

    After his second conviction, Tokars went to the U.S. Penitentiary in Florence, Colo., the high-security facility. It was there he met Honken, who had been convicted on a meth distribution charge. Honken asked the former lawyer to help him appeal his case.

    Tokars, in a later interview with an investigator, said Florence was a dangerous place where prisoner attacks were frequent. He was no stranger to prison violence; he once was attacked with a Molotov cocktail in another prison. Despite the danger, prisoners in Florence looked up to him, he said.

    “They know I got a life sentence, they know I didn’t testify against anybody. They know I’m not a rat,” Tokars told the detective. “People think I’m a stand-up guy on the one side, who’d be willing to kill a witness. But then on the other side, they’d like to kill me because I’m a former prosecutor or a judge.”

    Honken was insistent Tokars help him. Honken was impressed that Tokars was convicted of killing his wife, who was a potential witness. During more than 100 conversations over several months, Tokars said Honken bragged to him about beating an earlier meth distribution case by eliminating his witnesses. During those conversations, Tokars later testified, Honken spelled out details of the murders, even describing his victims’ shallow graves.

    Honken’s attorney, Alfredo Parrish, said Tokars talked about his own wife’s murder to draw information from his client. Parrish repeatedly asked Tokars to admit he had his wife killed. “It goes to his candor as a witness,” Parrish told the judge.

    Repeatedly, Tokars evaded question.

    “Are you telling us, Mr. Tokars, that you were convicted of something you didn’t do?” an exacerbated Parrish asked.

    “I was convicted,” said Tokars, a response he gave time after time.

    The judge never demanded that Tokars answer the question.

    In 1999, Tokars was transferred to a prison in Wisconsin, where he immediately met Robert Ortloff, who was convicted of a mail bombing and had been long suspected of a 1984 murder. Ortloff knew of Tokars’ past and urged him to help appeal the bombing case, Tokars said.

    Ortloff claimed he was convicted in the bombing case because authorities couldn’t get him on the murder. Tokars said he discovered that Ortloff lied to him several times and demanded he be honest with him. Then, Tokars said, Ortoff admitted he killed the woman. Tokars said Ortloff confided in him because he felt a kinship, because Tokars was convicted of killing his wife.

    Levy, the prosecutor, said Tokars simply outsmarted an inmate “who thought he was bulletproof.”

    Tokars made a fine witness who was unrattled during cross-examination, Levy said. “He displayed an inner strength,” he said. “His voice never weakened. Not only was he sincere but he was persuasive.”

    Tokars may have been persuasive, but not everyone saw him as sincere. One juror called Tokars “a real creepy crawler.”

    Paul Rubin, a private detective who covered the trial when he was a journalist, said Tokars manipulated Ortloff. “Fred was masterful in seducing Ortloff,” said Rubin. “Ortloff was a fine jailhouse lawyer himself but Tokars convinced him he needed help. He spun a great web and Ortloff fell right into it. I have no doubt if he has access to other prisoners, he’ll turn out more snitch cases.”

    Resigned to life in prison

    Alan Bell, who is Tokars’ best friend, said Tokars is rarely in contact with other prisoners and won’t testify again. Bell, who attended the University of Miami with Tokars, still talks with his old friend, making small talk about their alma mater’s football team, “the good old times” or maybe even current events.

    He said Tokars has not asked for any benefits from his testimony. It is difficult to know if he received anything. Tokars is not listed in the Bureau of Prisons roster of prisoners. A BOP spokesman said he doesn’t have the clearance to know where Tokars is being held. Neither his defense attorney in Atlanta, Jerry Froelich, nor his prosecutor, Buddy Parker, know where he is. Bell said all he knows is Tokars told him it gets cold during winters in his cell.

    Rick Tokars is 26, and Mike is 24. In an on-line posting, Mike complained his family can get no information about his father.

    Tokars’ sons were raised in Bradenton, Fla., by Sara’s parents and sisters. Rick went to San Diego State University and lives in California, studying to be a paramedic. Mike lives in New York and wants to become a journalist.

    Bell said Tokars has written to his sons several times but has gotten no response. Sara Tokars’ family said the boys never received any letters from their father.

    Bell said Tokars is also resigned he will die in prison.

    “He knows he’ll probably never get out,” said Bell. “He’s beaten up and ill. Life hasn’t gone his way. He’s hopeful, but not expectant.”

    http://www.ajc.com/news/news/notorio...-witnes/nTFKt/

  6. #6
    Junior Member Stranger babosula23's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    Tulsa
    Posts
    16
    Nice find Moh, thanks. I think I first learned of Tokar on a 'City Confidential' episode.

  7. #7
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    You're welcome. Glad you found it interesting!

  8. #8
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    Federal judge upholds death sentences for Iowa kingpin Dustin Honken

    Rules Honken received a fair trial

    A federal judge Friday in a 404-page ruling upheld the death sentences for Dustin Honken, an Iowa drug kingpin, who was convicted for the 1993 murders of three witnesses and two children.

    U.S. District Chief Judge Linda Reade in her ruling concluded Honken received a fair trial and effective legal counsel. She said the court took every “safeguard” to uphold Honken’s constitutional rights.

    “The trial court skillfully, faithfully and impartially followed the law when overseeing (Honken’s) case,” Reade said in her ruling.

    Reade said none of Honken’s arguments provide a basis to “disturb the jury’s determination that death is the appropriate punishment in this case.”

    “In sum, (Honken’s) convictions and sentences of death withstand scrutiny even in light of the heightened standards that are applied in capital cases,” Reade said.

    Reade also said Honken’s attorney’s representation “exceeded professional standards” because they re-investigated the case by examining the facts underlying the convictions and sentences, including prosecutorial misconduct and the court’s role.

    Honken, along with his then girlfriend Angela Johnson, were convicted of killing the adults and children in an attempt to prevent a federal investigation into his sophisticated, multistate drug business. The victims were two former dealers for Honken who turned informants, one of their girlfriends, and her two children, ages 6 and 10, who were home when Honken and Johnson came to find the adults.

    http://thegazette.com/2013/10/04/fed...dustin-honken/

  9. #9
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    On February 13, 2014, Honken filed an appeal before the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/cir...ts/ca8/14-1329

  10. #10
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Honken's petition for certiorari.

    Lower Ct: United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
    Case Nos.: (14-1329)
    Decision Date: May 2, 2014
    Rehearing Denied: July 18, 2014

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/search.a...es/14-7733.htm

    Theoretically, Honken's appeals are now exhausted. Unfortunately, litigation over the federal government's lethal-injection protocol has continued to be bogged down in the District of Columbia District Court since 2006.

Page 1 of 7 123 ... LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •