The life and death of Dustin Honken.

Dustin Honken was executed July 17, 2020 for the murders of two children. He was also serving life sentences for the murder of three adults. He was born in Britt, Iowa. This town is 11 miles from my hometown and where I went to high school. Honken also attended the same college as me. I did not know him personally due to the fact that I was 10 when this started and 16 when it ended, but it was a huge deal for this area while I was growing up and when he was finally executed. This is his story.

Early Life

Details on the internet are a little thin and due to the fact I am currently working 50+ hours a week, I didn't do any interviews, just relied on the internet. Honken was born March 22, 1968. His father was an alcoholic and career criminal. Honken's first taste of crime was copying a bank key for his father, who then robbed the bank. He was later arrested for 2 bank robberies and sent to prison. He would reportedly brag to his kids about his criminal exploits when they visited. Despite this, Honken was a great student and very, very smart. He was considered nerdy by his peers. He focused on math/science and was very good writer. He confirmed his nerd/good student rep when received an academic scholarship to attend NIACC in 1991. While there, Honken began selling cocaine and marijuana to cover expenses. He received an A- in Chemistry his freshman year which would be his last year in college.

The birth of a drug kingpin

After his first year of college, Honken dove headfirst into the drug world. He borrowed $5,000 from his brother and moved to Arizona with his best friend, Tim Cutkomp, to learn how to cook methamphetamine. This is where Honken's genius revealed himself. He spent hours at the local library reading sales and chemistry books. Honken and Cutkomp experimented with the recipe and Honken kept meticulous records. This was a real life Breaking Bad situation. They perfected a recipe to produce almost pure meth and started taking it to Iowa to sell. I'm going to take a little bit of a left turn here and discuss the drug situation/culture in Iowa from early 90's to mid 2000's. Meth was everywhere. Everyone knew a guy, or a guy that knew a guy. If you were the guy that knew a guy? You were king. I would conservatively put the amount of money floating around in the millions. If your the one who know a guy to get weed? You buy an ounce for $80 or $100 and sell eighths for $25 a pop. If you know a guy to get meth? You buy a half ounce for $600 bucks, sell half of it by the gram and you have made your money back. The rest is free drugs or profit. The amount of drug traffic was absurd. The amount of money was absurd. Ok, back to Honken. He was so involved in studying and perfecting his method he considered writing a how-to book on selling/producing high quality meth. The guy knew his shit. Honken and Cutkomp started moving meth to Iowa pounds at a time. (1 pound = 16 ounces, 16 ounces = 32 half ounces, $600 per half ounce x 32 half ounces = $19,200) They got rich. Hundreds of thousands dollars were made. Honken met, and started dating, Angela Johnson on one of these delivery runs. He had arrived and was living the high life.

The beginning of the end

Things started to come apart in 1993. Honken and Cutkomp did most of their business with Greg Nicholson and Terry DeGeus. Nicholson was arrested after police found 150 grams of meth and $5000 dollars cash in his home. He quickly agreed to turn state's evidence and wore a wire while completing a drug deal with Honken. Honken was then arrested in March of 1993. While preparing for his trial, Honken saw documents that identified Nicholson as the informant for the prosecution. He then arranged a deal with the prosecution to plead guilty with a court date of July 30, 1993. On July 25th, 1993 Nicholson disappears along with his girlfriend, Lori Duncan and her two kids. July 30th rolls around, Honken appears in court and changes his plea to not guilty. He also presented, via his lawyer, a video of Nicholson recanting all his testimony against Honken. The state's case falls apart without their lead witness and Honken and Cutkomp go free. On December 5th, 1993 Terry DeGeus disappears. There are no leads. 

The middle of the end

Upon their release, Honken and Cutkomp begain working at a local factory packing Kraft pudding. They would work by day and deal meth by night. Cutkomp became increasingly worried about Honken's paranoia. He was also convinced that Honken had something to do with disappearing witnesses and turned state's evidence. Honken was arrested in 1996. This time, the prosecution did not reveal their source and Honken was sentenced to 27 years in prison. 

The end

In 2000, Angela Johnson (Honken's girlfriend) was arrested and charged with aiding and abetting murder. The police arrested her based on information from jail house snitch, Robert McNeese. This guy was something else. He was serving life in prison for attempting to smuggle $5 million in heroin and morphine into the US while in prison for bank robbery. He attempted to coordinate drug smuggling across the border WHILE IN PRISON. He also was head of a Cedar Rapids area drug ring for a New York mob family, also while in prison. Angela Johnson was in the cell next to McNeese while awaiting trial. McNeese informed her that he knew a lifer that would plead guilty to the murders if she gave him enough information to make the confession believable. Johnson then provided information to McNeese, including a map to the location of the bodies. McNeese then provided this information to authorities. 

The murders

According to Johnson via McNeese this is what happened. Johnson posed as a lost sales consultant to gain access to Nicholson's house and Honken followed her in. Honken then forced Nicholson to record a video at gunpoint recanting all his testimony against Honken. I'm not gonna spend to much time on what happened next because it involves kids and makes me sick. If you want to know more Google it. Basically, Honken and Johnson loaded everyone into a vehicle, drove them out to an abandoned farm, and executed them. On December 5th, 1993 Johnson approached DeGues at a country club and implied that she wanted to sleep with him. She then took him to the same abandoned farm where Honken murdered him. This information resulted in Honken facing 17 counts including murder and witness tampering.

The Trial

At the time of trial, Dustin Honken was considered the most dangerous man in Iowa. He appeared in court fully restrained with a stun belt around his waist. The judge was given 24 hour security guards. The jury was anonymous. Anonymous juries are rare and reserved for criminals on the level of El Chapo and people associated with ISIS. The trial lasted 2 months. Several people currently serving time testified to Honken's bragging about the killings. The most chilling quote I found was "The choice was between killing or my family, and that ain't no choice at all." Honken was convicted and became the first person since 1963 to receive the death penalty in Iowa. Angela Johnson also received the death penalty, but it was later commuted to life in prison because of questions regarding her mental capacity.

This is a brief summary of probably the biggest crime involving the area I grew up in. Feel free to Google and read some of the more in depth articles. It is a fascinating case about the beginnings of the drug war in Iowa. I will end with Dustin Honken's last words before he died. "Hail Mary, Mother of God, pray for me."