Florida set to execute man convicted of raping and killing a woman 3 decades ago
A man convicted of raping and killing a woman three decades ago after kidnapping her from a supermarket parking lot in Florida is scheduled to be executed Tuesday.
Anthony Wainwright, 54, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was convicted in the April 1994 killing of 23-year-old Carmen Gayheart, a mother of two young children, in Lake City.
Wainwright would be the sixth person put to death in Florida this year. The state also executed six people in 2023, but only carried out one execution last year. There are four executions scheduled around the country this week, including another one on Tuesday in Alabama. On Monday an Oklahoma judge granted a temporary stay of execution for a man scheduled to be put to death Thursday.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied several of Wainwright’s appeals Monday. His lawyers filed a last-minute effort to seek a stay of execution Tuesday morning, focusing on claims that he was improperly barred from hiring a lawyer of his choice under state law.
Richard Hamilton, the other man convicted in Gayheart’s killing, was also sentenced to death. He died on death row in January 2023 at the age of 59.
Wainwright awoke around 3:30 a.m. Tuesday and was offered a last meal, which he “politely declined,” Florida Department of Corrections spokesperson Ted Veerman said. He received visits from his fiancee and a spiritual adviser.
Gayheart’s sister, who planned to attend the execution, said three decades was too long to wait for justice.
“It’s ridiculous how many appeals they get,” Maria David told The Associated Press, adding that each step of the appeals process reopened her family’s wounds. “You have to relive it again because they have to tell the whole story again.”
Wainwright and Hamilton escaped from prison in North Carolina, stole a green Cadillac and burglarized a home the next morning, taking guns and money. Then they drove to Florida, and when the Cadillac began to have problems in Lake City, they decided to steal another vehicle.
They confronted Gayheart, a community college student, on April 27, 1994, as she loaded groceries into her blue Ford Bronco, according to court documents. They forced her into the vehicle at gunpoint and drove off. They raped her in the backseat and then took her from the car and tried to strangle her before shooting her twice in the back of the head, court filings say. They dragged her body several dozen yards from the road and drove off.
The two men were arrested in Mississippi the next day after a shootout with police.
A jury convicted Wainwright in 1995 of murder, kidnapping, robbery and rape and unanimously recommended he be sentenced to death.
Wainwright’s lawyers have filed multiple unsuccessful appeals over the years based on what they said were problems with his trial and evidence that he suffered from brain damage and intellectual disability.
Since his execution was scheduled, his lawyers have argued in state and federal court filings that his execution should be put on hold to allow time for courts to hear additional legal arguments in his case.
In a filing with the U.S. Supreme Court, his lawyers argue that his case has been “marred by critical, systemic failures at virtually every stage and through the signing of his death warrant.” Those failures include flawed DNA evidence that wasn’t disclosed to the defense until after opening statements, erroneous jury instructions, inflammatory and inaccurate closing arguments and missteps by court-appointed lawyers, the filing says.
The filing also says a jailhouse informant who testified at Wainwright’s trial admitted last month that he and another informant had testified in exchange for lighter sentences, a fact that had not been disclosed to the defense.
David, Gayheart’s sister, said she feels cheated that Hamilton died before the state could execute him.
She was “overcome with emotion” when she heard the governor signed a death warrant for Wainwright. Her parents both died while waiting for justice to be served, she said, but she plans to be there to witness the final chapter of her family’s tragedy.
“There’s nothing that would keep me from seeing this all the way through,” she said.
Her sister loved animals and surprised her by training to become a nurse rather than a veterinarian, David said. Gayheart was two years younger but became a mother first, and David said she marveled at her sister’s patience with her young children.
“She was here, she mattered, she should be remembered, and she was loved,” David said of Gayheart.
Over the years, David has kept a book with every court filing, from the initial indictment through the latest appeals.
“I’m looking forward to getting the last pieces of paperwork that say he’s been executed to put into the book and never having to think about Anthony Wainwright ever again,” she said.
By KATE BRUMBACK
Associated Press
