Carmen Gayheart was loading groceries into the back of her blue Ford Bronco when she was ambushed in the parking lot of a Florida Winn-Dixie.
The 23-year-old mom of two, a straight-A nursing student with a bright future, was about to set off to collect her five-year-old daughter and three-year-old son from daycare – but she would never see her children again.
Two recently escaped convicts from North Carolina spotted the pretty brunette alone and, in a moment of opportunistic evil, bundled her into the back of her own car at gunpoint and drove her to a secluded area, where she was raped and killed.
Now, 31 years on, one of her killers – Anthony Wainwright – is set to die by lethal injection Tuesday evening at Florida State Prison.
Sitting front and center to watch him take his final breath will be Gayheart’s older sister, Maria David, who told the Daily Mail she hopes Wainwright is gripped by the same terror her sibling must’ve felt in her final throes of life.
‘Carmen was so scared for her life in her final moments, thinking, “This is it. I’m gonna die.” And I can only hope that fear is something he’s feeling now, too,’ shared David.
‘She died in a horrific way… it kills me what they did to my baby sister. So I’m glad this is the last time I’ll ever see him, and the last time I’ll ever have to think about Anthony Wainwright.’
Carmen Gayheart, 23, was brutally raped and murdered by two recently escaped convicts in April 1994
Wainwright’s death is scheduled for 6pm.
The 54-year-old is one of two death row inmates set to be executed in the US tonight. The second, fellow killer Jeremy Hunt, 65, will be suffocated by nitrogen gas in Alabama.
Wainwright’s accomplice in the murder of Gayheart, Richard Hamilton, died from natural causes behind bars in January 2023.
The two men escaped from prison in Newport, North Carolina, on April 24, 1994, where Wainwright was serving 10 years for breaking and entering, and Hamilton 25 years for armed robbery.
They stole a Cadillac and burglarized a home the following morning, stealing money and guns, before heading south towards Florida.
It was when the Cadillac started having mechanical issues that the men decided to steal another car. That’s when they spotted Gayheart.
Her remains would be found five days later, on May 2, 1994, off a dirt road in Hamilton County. She had been shot twice in the back of the head with a bolt-action rifle.
Wainwright and Hamilton, meanwhile, continued on the lam in Gayheart’s blue Bronco before they were eventually snared 520 miles away in Mississippi the day after her murder following shootout with police.
Both were shot but survived.
Initially, Wainwright told police that he raped Carmen and that Hamilton killed her. They led police to her body.
At their trial in 1995, each attempted to point the finger of blame for the rape and murder at the other.
Both men were convicted of murder, kidnapping, robbery and rape, with the jury unanimously recommending they be sentenced to death by the electric chair.
Anthony Wainwright is set to die by lethal injection Tuesday evening at Florida State Prison, more than 31 years after killing Gayheart
Gayheart was about to set off to collect her five-year-old daughter and three-year-old son from daycare when she was ambushed and abducted by Wainwright and his accomplice
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 last month, 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 US 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.
David said she isn’t buying Wainwright’s latest revision of events. She said she heard the evidence against him first-hand and there is no doubt in her mind that he both raped and killed her younger sister.
If anything, David said the killer should be grateful that he’s being given the lethal injection, rather than the electric chair as was previously ordered.
‘He’s getting off easy,’ David told the Daily Mail. ‘I’m sad it’s not the electric chair.
‘He’s going to get an injection that puts him off to sleep like you’d do for your family’s sick dog, the dog you loved with all your heart.
‘Carmen suffered… but he’s taking the easy way out. He’s had 31 years breathing, phone calls, letters, all of that – everything he robbed Carmen of.’
Carmen Gayheart is pictured on her wedding day with her sister Maria David (left). Tonight, Maria will watch her sister’s killer take his final breaths from the front-row of an execution chamber
Wainright is due to die by lethal injection at 6pm, at Florida State Prison
Wainwright is set to become the sixth person executed in Florida this year after the US Supreme Court denied several of his appeals on Monday.
His lawyers unsuccessfully 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.
David said that the three decades she has been waiting to see Wainwright held ‘accountable’ is far too long.
During that time, she lost both of her parents. Her father died in 2013, and her mother died in 2023. Both had wanted to witness Wainwright’s death, she said.
‘I know they’re going to be with me in spirit today, for both me and Carmen, so we can see this through together,’ David said.
Before her sister’s callous murder, David held no strong opinions about the death penalty. It was only after Gayheart was killed that she says she understood the ‘need’ for capital punishment.
‘When you are so closely tied to the victim of a horrific crime like Carmen, you change your opinion. You want to see it happen because they deserve it,’ added David.
‘We didn’t ask to seek the death penalty. The state came to us and told us they were going to go for it…I absolutely have to see this through.’
David said she is anxious to witness Wainwright’s execution but eager to stare him down one last time.
She doesn’t know what emotions she will feel when the fateful moment comes, but shared that she isn’t taking the occasion lightly.
‘It’s a serious thing; death is final. It doesn’t matter who is dying.
‘But I will continue to remember what he did to my sister, and that will help me to be strong and push through.’
Gayheart was a gentle soul and lover of all creatures, her sister told the Daily Mail
Her children were just five and three when she was killed
One thing Wainwright should not expect from David or her family is a parting gift of forgiveness, she continued.
Addressing her sister’s killer directly, David said: ‘Mr. Wainwright, you had choices, starting from when you walked away from that prison, when you were in your stolen Cadillac, and you needed to get another car. You made a choice there.
‘When Hamilton jumped out, you knew anybody would know when you’re approaching a victim like Carmen that something bad was going to happen. He could have gone the other way. He didn’t. He followed along. He got into the truck.
‘Every step he took, he made a choice – and unfortunately for him, that choice is the ultimate consequence.’
Today, David remembers her sister as a warm and loving individual and a doting mother and wife who never met a stranger.
She was a lover of all creatures, big and small, so much so that she would refuse to even kill a cockroach.
But Carmen wasn’t afforded the same kindness she extended to the world in her final moments – a fact that continues to haunt David.
Over the years, she has kept a binder with every court filing, from the initial indictment through Wainwright’s latest appeals, tracking his case in meticulous detail.
‘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 him again.’
Through tears, she added: ‘The victims are the ones to remember on these kinds of days.
‘I’ll keep talking about my brilliant sister until I’m no longer here.’
