A death row inmate executed for the 1994 rape and murder of a young mother declined his final meal before being put to death by lethal injection, his spiritual adviser tells the Daily Mail.
Anthony Wainwright, 54, had been so terrified of dying in the days leading up to his execution that Reverend Jeff Hood flew from Arkansas to Florida to be by his side in his final hours.
It was during those hours that Wainwright found ‘perfect peace’ with his impending fate, no longer seeing his death as a definitive end but rather as a new beginning.
‘He was ready to get out of prison,’ Hood told DailyMail.com. ‘I kept on telling him that this was his release date.’
After finding his inner peace, Wainwright decided to forgo the long-standing ritual of a last meal.
In Florida, death row inmates are permitted a final feast worth up to $40, but the food must be prepared in the prison kitchen. Takeout, alcohol, and cigarettes are all forbidden.
‘He just wanted to focus on pushing through and how he was feeling,’ explained Hood. ‘He was very much concentrating on staying in a place of peace, and he felt like anything like that would distract him; distract him from his family and the people he loved.
‘It was quite beautiful that he wanted to go out that way.’
Death row inmate Anthony Wainwright, 54, declined a final meal after coming to peace with his unavoidable fate (his wife, Samantha, is pictured with him)
Wainwright did not apologize to the family of Carmen Gayheart (pictured), the 23-year-old mother-of-two he and an accomplice raped and killed in 1994
Wainwright was executed at Florida State Prison in Raiford on Tuesday evening, becoming the sixth inmate to be put to death by lethal injection in the state this year.
He – along with his accomplice Richard Hamilton – was convicted in 1995 of raping and murdering Carmen Gayheart, a 23-year-old nursing student and mom-of-two, after abducting her from a Winn-Dixie parking lot in April 1994.
The two men committed the horrific crime days after escaping from prison in Newport, North Carolina, where Wainwright was serving 10 years for breaking and entering, and Hamilton 25 years for armed robbery.
They spotted Gayheart alone as she was loading groceries in the back of her blue Ford Bronco, snuck up on her, and forced her into her own vehicle at gunpoint, before driving away.
Gayheart was driven to a secluded area in Hamilton County, where she was raped by the two men, strangled, and then executed with two rifle shots to the back of her head.
Wainwright and Hamilton were caught the following day, 500 miles away in Mississippi, following a shootout with police.
They led investigators to Gayheart’s body and were each later convicted of murder, kidnapping, robbery and rape – with the jury unanimously recommending they be sentenced to death by the electric chair.
Hamilton died in prison from natural causes in 2023. But Wainwright lived long enough to be executed Tuesday just after 6pm via lethal injection.
In addition to Hood, Wainwright was visited by his wife, Samantha Hill, in the hours before his death.
Wainwright made a final statement, but it was inaudible from a viewing room where 27 witnesses, including members of Gayheart’s family, were watching on.
Hood shared Wainwright’s parting remarks with DailyMail.com.
Wainwright and Richard Hamilton (pictured right) were convicted of murder, kidnapping, robbery and rape, with the jury unanimously recommending they be sentenced to death by the electric chair
Wainwright was executed at Florida State Prison in Raiford on Tuesday evening, becoming the sixth inmate to be put to death by lethal injection in the state this year
Wainwright spoke directly to his wife and thanked her for her loyalty and support through all of his legal appeals.
‘My beautiful wife Samantha, you are the love of my life. I’m so blessed we found each other. The years we have spent together have been beyond wonderful,’ Wainwright said.
‘They’ve been downright magical. Love is stronger than death, and I know our love will last for eternity.
‘I wanted to thank everyone who has supported my wife, Samantha, and I. It has truly been overwhelming. It has meant so much to us both,’ he added.
He concluded with a quote from The Princess Bride, specifically a statement uttered by the character Westley, played by Cary Elwes, to his romantic interest Buttercup, played by Robin Wright.
‘Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while,’ the convicted murderer and rapist told his wife.
Wainwright stopped short of apologizing to Gayheart’s family, but said he hopes ‘my death brings you peace and healing.’
He also railed against what he deemed a broken court system.
‘The court system is broken, especially in Florida. Please continue the fight. Because I can promise you they are not going to let up. They will continue to murder if we continue to let it happen,’ Wainwright said.
He thenn criticized his attorney, Baya Harrison, who has represented other death row inmates in Florida.
‘I hope that nobody forgets how terrible of an attorney Baya Harrison has been to all of us guys on the row and how terrible he represented me for so many years. He might be Florida’s worst attorney,’ he said.
Carmen Gayheart is pictured on her wedding day with her sister Maria David (left). David watched her sister’s killer take his final breaths from the front-row of the execution chamber
None of Wainwright’s friends or family were present for his death, Hood said.
The execution began at 6:10pm, and witnesses noted Wainwright’s shoulders visibly shuddering after the injection was administered.
Hood said that ‘this was not as clean of a lethal injection as the others that I’ve seen,’ but ‘it was not bad enough to say that it was botched.’
Wainwright blinked and took several deep breaths before going completely still at 6:14pm. He was officially pronounced dead eight minutes later at 6:22pm.
Gayheart’s older sister, Maria David, sat front and center when Wainwright took his last breaths on Tuesday.
Ahead of the execution, she told DailyMail.com she hoped Wainwright was gripped by the same fear and terror he subjected her younger sibling to in her last moments 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,’ David said,
‘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.’
Hood said that Wainwright’s execution was incredibly emotional, likening witnessing his death to being ‘kicked in the nuts.’
‘This is the tenth execution I’ve been to. It’s really like being kicked in the nuts,’ he said.
‘I’ve been close with Anthony for four years now. He’s not somebody I just met. He mattered a great deal to me… and then to have to watch them be murdered right in front of you… It’s horrifying and it’s enraging.’
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, Richard Hamilton
A last-minute request for a stay in Wainwright’s execution was denied by the Supreme Court.
Over the years, his lawyers have filed multiple unsuccessful appeals 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 death should be put on hold to allow time for courts to hear additional legal arguments in his case.
In a filing with the Supreme Court, his lawyers argued 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 called Wainwright’s attempts to revise the past shameful.
If anything, David said the killer should be grateful that he was being given the lethal injection, rather than the electric chair as originally prescribed.
‘He’s getting off easy,’ David said. ‘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.’
