An Alabama death row inmate who butchered a hitchhiker and severed her fingers before tossing her body off a cliff chose Mexican fare for his final meal.
Carey Dale Grayson, 50, had soft tacos, beef burritos, a tostada, chips and guacamole, and a Mountain Dew Blast, leading up to his execution Thursday evening, according to AL.com.
Afterward, the convicted killer used his final moments to curse out the prison warden.
"For you, you need to f--k off," Grayson, who also waved his middle finger, told the warden following the reading of his death warrant, according to the outlet. The outburst prompted the warden to redirect the microphone.
"He's cussed out most of our employees tonight so we were not going to give him the opportunity to spew that profanity," Commissioner John Hamm said in response.
Grayson's attorney and spiritual advisor Kacey Keeton, who was in the death chamber with him, said following the microphone's removal, he also spoke about how sorry he was for the crime he committed.
Moments later, the state used nitrogen gas to kill Grayson at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, marking its sixth execution of the year.
The inmate spent the last 30 years on condemned row for his part in the 1994 tortuous murder of 37-year-old hitchhiker Vicki Deblieux, who was on her way to visit her mother in Louisiana that February.
Grayson, then 19, Kenny Loggins, 17, Trace Duncan, 17, and Louis Mangione, 16, lured her into their vehicle with the promise of a ride, but instead kidnapped, tortured, and tossed her body off a cliff in St. Clair County, Alabama, where it was found four days later.
An autopsy revealed she was stabbed more than 180 times, with her chest sliced open and fingers severed off. She died from blunt force trauma to the head and possible asphyxiation, a coroner determined, according to the outlet.
Grayson was sentenced to death for first-degree intentional murder during a kidnapping and intentional murder during a robbery, the Alabama Reflector reported. Loggins, Duncan, and Mangione, were each sentenced to life in prison.
"An eye for an eye," Deblieux's brother, Mike Deblieux, told AL.com Wednesday. "What they did to her, I think they all should have been put to death."
Originally published by Lawyer Herald.
