STARK, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of raping and murdering a woman 30 years ago was executed in Florida on Tuesday after luring her out of a supermarket parking lot.
Anthony Wainwright, 54, received a fatal injection at a Florida prison near Stark. He murdered 23-year-old Carmen Gayhart, a nursing student and mother of two young children in Lake City in April 1994.
The run began around 6:10pm, Wainwright’s shoulder shaking several times, then blinked several times and took a deep breath after 6:14pm.
Wainwright was declared dead at 6:22pm, according to Baran Griffin, a spokesman for Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Wainwright issued a final statement, but the words were not heard from the witness room.
He is the sixth person to die in Florida this year, with another execution scheduled for later this month. The state executed six people in 2023, but last year it ran one. Four executions are scheduled nationwide this week, including another Tuesday’s execution in Alabama. A temporary stay was issued on Monday for the execution scheduled for Thursday in Oklahoma.
Richard Hamilton was also convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Gayhart. However, he died on death row in January 2023 at the age of 59.
Before his execution, Gayheart’s sister said 30 years was too long to wait for justice.
“It’s ridiculous how much they appeal,” Maria David told The Associated Press, adding that each step in the appeal process has resumed the wounds of her family. “They have to tell the whole story again, so you have to relive it again.”
Wainwright and Hamilton fled from a North Carolina prison, stole a green Cadillac, and robbed the house the next morning, taking guns and money. They then headed to Florida and when Cadillac began to have problems in Lake City, they decided to steal another vehicle.
Court documents show that she confronted Gay Hart, a community college student, on April 27, 1994, and on April 27, 1994 she packed her blue Ford Bronco with groceries. They pushed her into the car at the muzzle and kicked her out. They raped her in the back seat, then took her out of the car and tried to shoot her twice in the back of her head, the court application states. They dragged her body down the road dozens of yards and drove.
The two men were arrested in Mississippi the following day after a shootout with police.
A 1995 ju judge recommended that Wainwright be convicted of murder, tricking, robbery and rape, and that he unanimously be sentenced to death.
“It closes the legal chapter, that’s all,” David told reporters after the execution took place. “I’ll carry this with me for the rest of my life. I’ll never get over what happened to Carmen.”
When David witnessed the execution, he said, “I just kept thinking about what he did to my sister.” She said 17 families were witnesses, including Gayheart’s husband, son and stepmother.
Around 20 friends and family, mostly wearing “Carmen Gayheart’s Justice” T-shirts, accepted each other as they piled up from their cars in the fields near the prison for a subsequent press conference.
Gayhart’s mother-in-law, Gayhart, called Wainwright a “collective” and said, “He was ultimately made justice today.” She added that she hoped that the deceased family was there today to have that feeling of closure.
Wainwright’s lawyers have filed multiple failed appeals over the years based on what he said was the matter and evidence of his trial that he suffered from brain damage and intellectual disability.
After his enforcement was scheduled, his lawyers argued in state and federal court filings that he should hold off his enforcement so that the court could hear additional legal arguments in his case.
In his filing before the U.S. Supreme Court, his lawyers argued that his case was “through a serious and systematic failure at almost every stage and signature of his death warrant.” These failures include false ju judge instructions, inflammatory, inflammatory closed arguments, and defective DNA evidence that was not disclosed to the defense until after the failure by a court-appointed lawyer, the filing states.
The filing also said the prison informant who testified at Wainwright’s trial ultimately confirmed last month that he and another informant testified in exchange for a lighter sentence.
The Supreme Court on Monday denied some of Wainwright’s final appeals without comment.
His lawyers filed last-minute efforts to seek enforcement stays Tuesday morning, focusing on allegations that he was inappropriately banned from hiring an attorney of his choice under state law. The High Court denied his request just before enforcement began in the evening.
David said her sister loved animals and surprised her with her training to become a nurse rather than a veterinarian, David said. Gay Heart was two years younger than her younger sister, but she became her first mother.
“Carmen was a devoted wife, mother, sisters, daughter and friend,” David said after the execution.
Over the years, she has placed books to file in every court, from her first indictment to her latest appeal.
“I look forward to getting him executed in a book and getting the final document that says he doesn’t have to think about Anthony Wainwright again,” David said.
