b: 1970
Anthony Floyd Wainwright
Summary
Name:
Anthony Floyd WainwrightYears Active:
1994Birth:
October 22, 1970Status:
Awaiting ExecutionClass:
MurdererVictims:
1Method:
Strangulation/ShootingNationality:
USAb: 1970
Anthony Floyd Wainwright
Summary: Murderer
Name:
Anthony Floyd WainwrightStatus:
Awaiting ExecutionVictims:
1Method:
Strangulation/ShootingNationality:
USABirth:
October 22, 1970Years Active:
1994Date Convicted:
May 30, 1995bio
Anthony Floyd Wainwright was serving a 10-year sentence for burglary at a minimum-security prison in Carteret County, North Carolina. On April 23, 1994, he escaped alongside fellow inmate Richard Eugene Hamilton, who was serving a 25-year sentence for armed robbery. Following their escape, the duo stole a vehicle and committed a burglary, acquiring firearms before traveling to Florida.
murder story
On April 27, 1994, 23-year-old Carmen Gayheart, a nursing student and mother of two, was abducted at gunpoint from a Winn-Dixie parking lot in Lake City, Florida, while loading groceries into her Ford Bronco. Wainwright and Hamilton forced her into her vehicle and drove her to a secluded wooded area in Hamilton County, Florida.
There, they sexually assaulted her. Hamilton later claimed that Wainwright strangled Gayheart and then shot her twice in the head with a .22 caliber rifle to ensure her death.
The following day, April 28, 1994, the two men were apprehended near Brookhaven, Mississippi, after a shootout with a state trooper. Both sustained non-fatal gunshot wounds. During interrogation, Hamilton confessed to the crime and provided a map leading to Gayheart's body, which was discovered on May 2, 1994.
In May 1995, both men were tried separately and found guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping, sexual battery, and robbery. They were sentenced to death on June 12, 1995. Hamilton's death sentence was affirmed by the Florida Supreme Court in 1997. He remained on death row until his death from natural causes on January 13, 2023. Wainwright's execution is scheduled for June 10, 2025.