Carmen Gayheart’s murderer executed after 31 years

RAIFORD — Across from the Florida State Prison stood a small crowd donning white “Justice for Carmen Gayheart” T-shirts underneath the shade of a tall tree. Just after 6:22 p.m. on Tuesday, the supporters erupted into applause and cheers.

<br/><br/>Anthony Wainwright<br/> (1102x1348, AR: 0.8175074183976261)

Anthony Floyd Wainwright was dead.

On April 27, 1994, Wainwright and Richard Hamilton murdered 23-year-old Carmen Gayheart. On that day, the two men came across Gayheart and her 1987 blue Ford Bronco in a Lake City Winn-Dixie parking lot. Pointing a sawed-off shotgun at her, investigators later said the men forced her into her vehicle and drove away. She was crying. They both raped her in the back of the car, according to court records, then removed her and shot her in the back of the head twice before leaving her body in the woods. They threw away her jewelry.

“We planned to kill her and we didn't want anything to be found, any jewelry to be found on her body,” Wainwright said, according to court documents.

On Tuesday, friends and family of Gayheart crossed the large field near the prison to the supporter’s section with signs, t-shirts, candles and ribbons.

John Scholler, 56, was a childhood friend of Gayheart.

“We’re family. It doesn’t matter if you’re not blood.”

“She was a beautiful soul, beautiful woman, beautiful everything,” he said.

He spoke about her kindness, her love and her life.

“Somebody took that away from her. Somebody took that away from her for no reason,” he said. “If you hurt people, innocent people, you deserve to get the full justice.”

Tommy Richards, 59, also knew Gayheart growing up.

“I think we all hold a piece of Carmen in our hearts. She’s just a sweet, sweet girl,” he said.

“This evil can be put behind us now. We can walk on now knowing that it’s final, that it’s done.”

Philip Egitto, 66, is a pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes in Daytona Beach. Members of his church arrived in a bus to protest the execution.

“Even someone who did a horrible crime has life, and that life always has dignity,” he said of Wainwright’s execution. The church has been attending executions for 25 years.

Wainwright was declared dead at 6:22 p.m., according to Ted Veerman, the director of communications for Florida Department of Corrections. Wainwright’s fiancée was his only visitor, and he declined having a last meal.

Philip Egitto, 66, leads protestors in prayer outside of Florida State Prison. (Hannah Miller/WUFT News) (6000x4000, AR: 1.5)

The supporters arrived in cars to the press tent. Family and friends embraced, holding each other tightly.

Gale Gayheart, the victim’s mother-in-law, spoke at the press conference, saying Wainwright showed no remorse.

“My son Rick feels that he is getting off easy with the lethal injection instead of the chair,” she said.

David spoke at the press conference as well.

“He has gone to where punishment is instant and eternal,” she said afterwards in an interview with WUFT.

Jennifer Smithhart, 53, was Gayheart’s best friend. They met taking prerequisites for nursing school when she was 20 years old. They both applied for the same nursing program, got accepted and attended together. She is now a registered nurse.

“I think any time someone passes away, people always remember the best things about them, I just think that’s typical. They always say, ‘Oh they were a kind soul, and they were a sweet person.’ People said those things about Carmen when she was alive,” she said.

Still, the group reflected on the abruptness of the murder in contrast to the years that followed.

“With great love, right, comes great, great grief, especially when your person was taken so horrifically. We didn’t have time to say goodbye,” David said in an interview with WUFT.

Maria Totora David, Carmen Gayheart's sister, speaks at the press conference following the execution on Tuesday night. (Hannah Miller/WUFT News) (6000x4000, AR: 1.5)

But before the five-day search for her body and the jury’s eventual 12-0 vote that led to Wainwright receiving the death penalty on Tuesday night, her life was brimming with opportunity.

Carmen Gabriella Totora Gayheart was born on Sept. 2, 1970, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Gayheart’s sister, Maria Totora David, reflected on their childhood together in an interview with WUFT News. Growing up, David and Gayheart would play with Barbies together and swim in the warm Fla. heat. They would visit a resort in the Florida Keys and sunburn their backs snorkeling, watching the fish glide through the water below. The pair went to Disney World, which David has since visited with her children and appreciates how the park remains unchanged like a relic from the past. David loved being with her younger sister. They were just two years apart.

David couldn’t recall if Gayheart had a favorite subject in school because she excelled in every one. She was a straight-A, honor roll student and dedicated to her studies. If she received even a B, she was upset.

Gayheart had a devoted love for animals. She desperately wanted a dog growing up, and although the family tried on two occasions, it was not a good fit. Eventually, the family moved to a home on the water, which the young sisters loved. Gayheart had a deep compassion for animals big and small. Her affection even extended to large predators.

“I remember her sitting out back, clapping for the alligator to come over. Oh my God, what are you doing?” David said.

She was a bright, energetic young woman with big brown eyes. She had a deep passion for everything in life. David said she was a care-free spirit who was never angry and never met a stranger. She was happy-go lucky, beautiful, patient and kind.

Gayheart was a country girl through and through. She and her sister would go mudding together and spent nights circled around campfires with friends. They valued togetherness, David said. The first concert they saw together was Alabama with a group of friends. The song “She and I,” an upbeat tune by Alabama reminds David of her baby sister and her husband, Ricky Gayheart.

Carmen Gayheart, right, walks down the aisle on her wedding day. (Courtesy of Maria Totora David) (1422x940, AR: 1.5127659574468084)

Sometimes, David has to change the station listening to the song, but music can be therapeutic for her. “I’m gonna sing it, I’m gonna feel it,” she said with tears in her eyes in reference to the Alabama song.

The song goes, “She and I live in our own little world, don’t worry about the world outside.”

The Gayheart couple had their first child, Chad Gayheart, shortly after she graduated high school. They were married, had their daughter Jessica Gayheart and lived in Lake City. They moved onto a 5-acre property and began to build their own little oasis. They lived in a beautiful trailer on the property, which Gayheart kept very neat. David recalls that she would clean constantly, even when friends were over. Lysol lays next to Gayheart in her coffin.

Her husband built the young couple a beautiful home, and friends and family moved on to the street. The property looked like a ranch on the outside and was fenced in with a gate. A sign that read “Welcome to the Gayheart Corral” hung over the entrance.

She was juggling the responsibilities of nursing school, raising her children and helping her husband with her business. Her sister said she handled it all with grace and the ability to appreciate both the beautiful and difficult times. She finally got the animals she always dreamed of – two dogs and a horse.

But the house went undecorated, and the brick on the outside of the home remained unfinished at the time Gayheart was murdered. Her friends who moved across the street from her sold the property shortly after.

“It was gonna be her own little neighborhood,” said David.

The entire town of Lake City attended her funeral and brought food every day, multiple times a day to her family, according to her sister.

Holidays became difficult for David. “It was like hard for me to be there and look around for her, she’s not there,” she said, thinking back on past Christmas celebrations.

Every moment after Gayheart’s death is tinged with sadness for her sister.

“So, for every happy thing that happens in my life, the birth of my children, when I got married, just anything good, there’s always that little bit of shadow. She should be here. She belongs here. It’s just not fair,” she said.

Gayheart’s daughter, Jessica, was her maid of honor at her wedding at 7 years old, “…because it should’ve been Carmen.”

Her sister never stopped fighting for Wainwright’s execution after Hamilton died on death row. “I did push very hard. When we came up on the 31-year anniversary on April 27, I started, you know, writing again. I was emailing almost every day in this little box where you can only write 500 characters,” she said.

On May 9, Governor Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant for Wainwright’s execution to be carried out.

Gale Gayheart, Carmen Gayheart's mother-in-law, speaks at the press conference on behalf of herself and her son, Ricky Gayheart. (Hannah Miller/WUFT News) (6000x4000, AR: 1.5)

Gayheart’s supporters rallied around each other at the end of the press conference. They lingered as the sun began to move towards the horizon before goodbyes at car windows and driving away. The field cleared as the shirts and signs were loaded into vehicles.

For David, the night was a relief and represented justice for her and Gayheart’s parents, Joanne and Richard Totora, who have since died.

“I’m glad to be at the end of a 31-year legal journey and be able to put the final paperwork into the book that says he has been executed, close that book, nothing’s gonna come to my house again with the name Anthony Wainwright on it,” she said. “I won’t ever have to think about him again, and I can focus on the healing journey.”

Friends, family and supporters cheer as they hear Anthony Wainwright had been executed. (Hannah Miller/WUFT News) (6000x4000, AR: 1.5)

Maria Totora David, Carmen Gayheart's sister, is pictured at left wearing necklaces memorializing her sister. Other friends and family, right, wore small ribbons pinned to their shirts with Carmen Gayheart's name, date of birth and date of death. (Hannah Miller/WUFT News) (2956x1390, AR: 2.126618705035971)