JUST IN: Missouri Executed John E. Winfield for Killing 2 Women | Last Words & Last Meal

On June 18th, 2014, after spending nearly 16 years on death row, John E. Winfield was executed by lethal injection at the Eastern Reception Diagnostic and Correction Center in Bontter, Missouri. He was 43 years old. In this video, we will talk about what happened, his last words, and his last meal.

 But to uncover the events of that fateful night and why Jon ended up being executed, we have to go back to a September evening in 1996 and a confrontation fueled by jealousy that would end with two women dead and another permanently blinded. September 9th, 1996, a Monday evening in University City, St. Louis County, Missouri.

 The sun had already set and the street lights cast long shadows across the quiet residential neighborhood. John Winfield, a 26-year-old man consumed by jealousy and rage, sat in his car outside a residence where he knew his ex-girlfriend Carmelita Donald would be. Carmelita was the mother of two of his children, and their on-again, off-again relationship had finally ended. She had moved on.

 She was dating someone new, and John Winfield couldn’t handle it. That night, armed with a handgun, Jon would confront Carmelita in front of her home. He would execute two innocent women in cold blood. He would shoot Carmelita in the head at pointblank range, leaving her permanently blinded. And all of it would happen because a man couldn’t accept that a woman no longer wanted to be with him.

 Three women would be shot that night. Two would die at the scene. One would survive but lose her sight forever. And the killer would later claim it was all a tragic accident that he never meant for any of it to happen. To understand how John Winfield became a murderer, we have to understand his relationship with Carmelita Donald. John was born on August 18th, 1970 in St.

Louis, Missouri. He grew up in a household where he was forced to be the man of the house from a young age. His childhood was marked by responsibility beyond his years. He had to babysit younger cousins, help care for his family, take on adult duties while still a child himself. Friends and family members would later say that Jon never really had a childhood, that he had been forced to grow up too fast, that the weight of responsibility had shaped him into someone who needed control over every aspect of his life.

By the time John reached his 20s, he had met Carmelita Donald. They began a relationship that would last for years, though it was tumultuous from the start. Carmelita and John had two children together. On the surface, they looked like a family. But behind closed doors, the relationship was toxic and dangerous. Jon was controlling.

 He was possessive. He was violent. And Carmelita was trapped. Carmelita would later testify in court about the abuse she endured during her relationship with Jon. She described incidents where Jon put a gun to her head. She told the jury about times when he forced her to submit to his sexual demands under the threat of violence.

 She explained how he monitored where she went, who she talked to, what she did. He needed to control every aspect of her life. And when she tried to assert her independence when she tried to make decisions for herself, Jon would punish her. Friends and family members noticed the signs. They saw bruises. They heard arguments. They knew something was wrong.

 But like many victims of domestic violence, Carmelita felt trapped. She had two children with Jon. She was financially dependent on him. And most terrifyingly, she was afraid of what he would do if she tried to leave. But by 1996, Carmelaitita had finally had enough. She ended the relationship with Jon and began dating another man.

For Carmelita, this was an act of courage and independence. She was taking control of her life. She was moving forward. She was trying to build a future without John Winfield. But for Jon, this was an unforgivable betrayal. In J’s mind, Carmelita belonged to him. She was the mother of his children. She had no right to date anyone else.

 She had no right to move on. She had no right to be happy without him. And if he couldn’t have her, if he couldn’t control her anymore, then he would make sure she paid the price. In the weeks leading up to September 9th, 1996, Jon’s behavior became increasingly erratic. He would show up unannounced at places where Carmelita was.

 He would call her repeatedly. He would make threats. He would demand to know where she was, who she was with, what she was doing. Carmelita was frightened, but she tried to stand her ground. She told Jon it was over. She told him to leave her alone. She told him she had moved on. But Jon wouldn’t listen. In his mind, Carmelita’s new relationship was a temporary phase, something she would eventually abandon.

 He believed that if he just applied enough pressure, if he just reminded her of what they had, if he just showed her that he was still in control, she would come back to him. But Carmelita wasn’t coming back. And on September 9th, 1996, John’s anger and jealousy would explode into deadly violence. That evening, Carmelita Donald was at home in University City.

 With her were two of her friends, Artha Sanders and Shaunie Murphy. The three women had spent time together earlier in the day, and now they were back at Carmelita’s residence, just talking, relaxing, enjoying each other’s company. There was no indication that anything was wrong. No emergency calls had been made. No threats had been reported that evening.

The women felt safe. They had no reason to believe they were in danger. But John Winfield knew where Carmelita lived. He knew she would be home that evening and he had made a decision. He was going to confront her. He was going to make her understand that she couldn’t just walk away from him.

 He was going to remind her who was in control. Jon arrived at the residence sometime in the early evening. He was armed with a handgun, a weapon he had brought with a clear purpose. This wasn’t a spur-of-the- moment decision. This wasn’t a crime of passion that erupted out of nowhere. John had brought a gun because he knew he might use it.

 He had brought a gun because violence was always an option in his mind. He had brought a gun because he had already decided that if Carmelita wouldn’t come back to him willingly, he would make her suffer. John approached the residence and saw Carmelaitita standing outside with Artha Sanders and Shaunie Murphy.

 The three women were near the entrance, possibly saying goodbye, possibly just talking. They didn’t see Jon coming. They didn’t have time to react. Jon walked up to them and within seconds the confrontation began. According to trial testimony and witness statements, Jon immediately became aggressive.

 He demanded to know why Carmelita was dating someone else. He demanded to know why she had left him. He demanded to know why she thought she had the right to move on. Carmelita tried to stay calm. She tried to deescalate the situation. She told Jon it was over, that he needed to leave, that he needed to move on with his life. But Jon’s anger was boiling over.

 He wasn’t there to have a conversation. He was there to punish her. And when Carmelita refused to back down when she stood her ground and told him she would never come back to him, Jon’s rage exploded. He pulled out the handgun. Artha Sanders and Shaunie Murphy, who had been standing nearby, saw the gun. They screamed. They tried to move.

 They tried to run, but it was too late. Jon raised the gun and pointed it directly at Artha Sanders. She barely had time to react before Jon pulled the trigger. The gunshot shattered the quiet evening air. The bullet struck Artha in the head at close range. The impact was catastrophic.

 Artha collapsed instantly, her body crumpling to the ground. Blood poured from the wound. She didn’t scream. She didn’t cry out. She was dead before she hit the pavement. Shaunie Murphy, who had been standing just feet away, froze in terror. She saw Artha fall. She saw the gun in J’s hand. She knew she was next. She tried to run, tried to scream, tried to do anything to save herself.

 But Jon turned the gun on her. He fired again. The bullet struck Shaunie in the head just like it had struck Artha. Shaunie fell to the ground next to her friend, her body motionless. Her life extinguished in an instant. Two women were dead within seconds. Two women who had simply been spending time with a friend.

 Two women who had no connection to John Winfield’s jealousy and rage. Two women who died because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. But Jon wasn’t done. He turned to Carmelita. She was screaming now, backing away, trying to escape. She knew what was coming. She had seen Jon execute her two friends in cold blood. She knew he was going to kill her, too.

Carmelita turned and tried to run, but Jon was faster. He raised the gun and fired. The bullet struck Carmelita in the head. She fell to the ground, her body convulsing, blood pouring from the wound. But Carmelita didn’t die. The bullet had entered her skull, but it hadn’t killed her. Instead, it had caused catastrophic damage to her eyes and optic nerves.

Carmelita was alive, but she was drowning in blood and darkness. She couldn’t see. She couldn’t understand what had happened. All she knew was that she was in unimaginable pain, that she couldn’t see anything, that everything had gone black. John Winfield stood over her, the gun still in his hand. He looked at the three women lying on the ground. Two were dead, one was dying.

And then, without another word, John turned and walked away. He got into his car and drove off, leaving the bodies of Artha Sanders and Shaunie Murphy on the pavement, leaving Carmelita Donald bleeding and blind, leaving behind a scene of horror that would haunt everyone who witnessed it. Neighbors had heard the gunshots.

 Multiple 911 calls flooded the emergency dispatch center within minutes. People were screaming into the phone saying there had been a shooting, that multiple women were down, that blood was everywhere. Police and paramedics arrived at the scene within minutes. What they found was a nightmare. Artha Sanders was lying on the ground, a gunshot wound to her head, clearly deceased.

 Shaunie Murphy was next to her, also with a gunshot wound to the head, also deceased. And then there was Carmelita Donald. She was still alive, still breathing but barely. Blood covered her face. Her eyes were opened but unseeing. She was moaning, crying, trying to speak, but the words wouldn’t come. Paramedics rushed to her side. They checked her vitals, assessed her injuries, and realized the severity of the situation.

 Carmelita had been shot in the head at close range. The bullet had entered her skull and caused massive trauma to her eyes and optic nerves. She was alive, but the damage was catastrophic. They loaded her into an ambulance and rushed her to the hospital, racing against time to save her life. At the hospital, doctors worked frantically to stabilize Carmelita.

 They performed emergency surgery, removing bone fragments, stopping the bleeding, trying to repair the damage. But the prognosis was grim. The bullet had destroyed her optic nerves. Even if she survived, even if they could save her life, Carmelita would never see again. She would be permanently blind. Hours later, Carmelita regained consciousness.

 She was in a hospital bed surrounded by machines, tubes, and wires. She could hear the beeping of monitors, the voices of doctors and nurses, the sound of footsteps in the hallway, but she couldn’t see any of it. Everything was black. She tried to open her eyes, but there was nothing. No light, no shapes, no colors, just darkness.

A doctor gently explained to her what had happened. She had been shot. The bullet had damaged her eyes. She was alive, but she was blind. Carmelita broke down. She cried. She screamed. She couldn’t comprehend what had been taken from her. She would never see her children’s faces again. She would never see a sunrise, a photograph, a smile.

John Winfield had taken her sight, and with it, a fundamental part of her life. The investigation into the shooting moved quickly. Carmelita identified John Winfield as the shooter. Witnesses confirmed his presence at the scene. Ballistics evidence matched the bullets recovered from the victims to a handgun registered to John.

 The crime scene showed no signs of struggle or self-defense. The shootings were sudden, targeted, and brief. Within 24 hours on September 10th, 1996, police arrested John Winfield. He was charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Artha Sanders and Shaunie Murphy and one count of assault for the shooting of Carmelita Donald.

 John initially denied any wrongdoing. He claimed he had acted in self-defense, that the shooting had been an accident, that he had never intended to kill anyone. But the evidence told a different story. This wasn’t self-defense. This was execution. John had brought a gun to the scene. He had shot three women at close range.

 He had fired at their heads, the most lethal target, and then he had fled, leaving them to die. The case against John Winfield was overwhelming. John’s trial began in 1998 in St. Louis County. The prosecution painted a clear and damning picture of what had happened. This was a crime of jealousy and rage.

 John Winfield couldn’t accept that Carmelita had moved on. He went to her residence armed with a handgun. He confronted her in front of her friends. And when she refused to submit to him, when she stood her ground and told him it was over, he decided to destroy her life. He shot Artha Sanders in the head because she was there because she was a witness, because she was in the way.

 He shot Shaunie Murphy in the head for the same reason. And then he shot Carmelita in the head, not to kill her, but to punish her, to take away something she could never get back. The evidence against Jon was overwhelming. Witnesses placed him at the scene. Ballistics matched the gun to the bullets recovered from the victims, and most damning of all, Carmelita Donald herself testified.

Even though she could no longer see, even though she had been left permanently disabled, Carmelita took the stand and told the jury exactly what Jon had done to her. She described the abuse she had endured during their relationship. She told the jury about the time Jon put a gun to her head and forced her to submit to sex.

 She explained how he had controlled her, threatened her, hurt her for years. And then she described the night of September 9th, 1996. She told the jury how Jon had confronted her at her home, how he had been furious that she was dating someone else, how he had pulled out a gun without warning. She described hearing the gunshots that killed Artha Sanders and Shaunie Murphy.

She described the terror she felt as John turned the gun on her. She described the moment the bullet struck her head, the pain, the confusion, the darkness. and she described waking up in the hospital and realizing she would never see again. Carmelita’s testimony was powerful and heartbreaking. The jury listened in silence as she spoke as she described the horror of that night as she explained what it was like to lose her sight because a man couldn’t accept rejection.

There were tears in the courtroom. Even the judge appeared moved by her words. When Carmelaitita finished her testimony, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind. John Winfield was guilty. The defense tried to argue that Jon had not intended to kill anyone, that the shooting had been a tragic accident born out of a heated argument.

They claimed Jon had only meant to scare Carmelita, that he hadn’t meant for things to escalate the way they did. They brought in family members who testified that Jon was a good father, that he had been a provider for his family, that he was otherwise a law-abiding man who had made a terrible mistake.

 But the prosecution dismantled that argument piece by piece. You don’t accidentally shoot someone in the head at point blank range. You don’t accidentally shoot three women. You don’t accidentally execute two people and attempt to kill a third. This was premeditated. This was intentional. this was murder. The jury agreed. On September 18th, 1998, John Winfield was found guilty of two counts of firstdegree murder and one count of assault.

 The penalty phase of the trial began immediately. During the penalty phase, the state presented evidence of J’s prior conviction for receiving stolen property. They presented testimony about his history of abusing Carmelita, about the time he had put a gun to her head, about the pattern of violence and control that had defined their relationship.

The prosecution argued that John Winfield deserved the death penalty because he had committed a crime of extreme cruelty because he had killed two innocent women and permanently disabled a third because he had shown no remorse for his actions. The defense tried to portray Jon as a man who had snapped, a man who had been under stress, a man who deserved mercy.

But the jury wasn’t buying it. They had heard Carmelita’s testimony. They had seen the crime scene photos. They knew that Artha Sanders and Shaunie Murphy were dead because John Winfield couldn’t control his jealousy and rage. The jury deliberated and returned with a recommendation. John Winfield should be sentenced to death. The judge agreed.

John Winfield was sentenced to death by lethal injection. He was taken to the Possi Correctional Center in Missouri to await his execution. For the next 16 years, John would sit on death row filing appeal after appeal, trying to overturn his conviction, trying to save his life. But every appeal was denied.

 The Missouri Supreme Court upheld his conviction. The federal courts refused to intervene. John’s attorneys argued that he had been poorly represented at trial, that his sentence was disproportionate, that he deserved a new trial. None of it worked. The evidence against Jon was too strong. The crime was too heinous.

 The jury had made the right decision. In the years leading up to his execution, John’s case attracted attention for another reason. In May 2014, just weeks before his scheduled execution date, reports emerged that prison officials at Possi Correctional Center had allegedly intimidated a staff member who had wanted to support a clemency petition for Jon.

 The staff member had written a letter in support of clemency describing Jon as a model inmate who had shown remorse and had been rehabilitative during his time on death row. But according to reports, prison officials had pressured the staff member to retract the letter, threatening disciplinary action if they continued to advocate for Jon.

 This led to a temporary stay of execution as the allegations were investigated. J’s attorneys argued that the intimidation of a potential clemency supporter violated J’s rights and that the execution should be delayed until a full investigation could be conducted. But the stay was short-lived. After reviewing the allegations, the courts determined that the intimidation, if it had occurred, did not rise to the level of a constitutional violation that would warrant delaying the execution.

The stay was lifted and J’s execution was rescheduled. As the execution date approached, J’s daughter, Simone Winfield, made a public plea for her father’s life. Simone was one of the children Jon had with Carmelita Donald. She had grown up without her father, visiting him on death row, writing him letters, holding on to the belief that he was still her dad, that he still loved her, that he deserved to live.

Simone told reporters that she loved her father unconditionally. She said that losing him to execution would devastate her. She begged the governor to grant clemency, to spare her father’s life, to let him live out his days in prison instead of being put to death. But Carmelita Donald, the woman John had shot in the head, the woman he had left permanently blind, had a different perspective.

Carmelita supported the execution. She believed Jon deserved to die for what he had done. She had lived with the consequences of his actions every single day since September 9th, 1996. She had lost her sight. She had lost her independence. She had lost the ability to see her own children’s faces. And she believed that Jon needed to be held accountable.

 The clemency petition was denied. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon refused to intervene. The execution would proceed as scheduled. June 18th, 2014, John Winfield’s final day on Earth. In the hours leading up to his execution, John was moved to a holding cell adjacent to the execution chamber at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic, and Correction Center in Bonta, Missouri.

 He was given the opportunity to request a final meal, but John declined. He did not eat anything before his execution. He was also given the opportunity to make phone calls to family members. Jon spoke with his mother and his daughter Simone. The conversations were emotional. Simone cried. John told her he loved her. He told her to be strong.

 He told her he was sorry. At 11:30 p.m. on June 17th, just after midnight on June 18th, Jon was escorted from the holding cell to the execution chamber. The execution was scheduled for 12:01 a.m. and the state of Missouri was determined to carry it out on time. Witnesses began gathering. Among them were family members of the victims, Artha Sanders and Shaunie Murphy.

 Also present was Carmelita Donald, the woman Jon had tried to kill, the woman who had been left permanently blind. Carmelita couldn’t see Jon, but she was there. She wanted to be there when he died. She wanted to know that justice had been served. Also among the witnesses were Jon’s mother and his daughter Simone along with two friends who had remained loyal to him throughout his time on death row.

 Jon was strapped to a gurnie, his arms extended, IV lines inserted into his veins. Prison officials had learned from previous executions where IV placement had been difficult. They were prepared this time and the process went smoothly. At 12:01 a.m., the warden asked John if he had any final words. John turned his head slightly toward the window where his family was watching.

 He did not make a formal statement. He declined to speak to the assembled witnesses. But according to witnesses, John appeared to mouth the words, “I love you,” to his mother and daughter. Those were the last words John Winfield would ever communicate. At 12:01 a.m., the warden gave the signal and the execution process began.

Missouri used a single drug protocol for executions. At that time, the drug was Pentoarbital, a barbiterate that acts as a sedative and in high doses stops the heart and breathing. A single syringe of penttoarbital was injected into J’s IV line. The drug entered his bloodstream and began to take effect immediately.

John’s eyes closed. His breathing slowed. Within minutes, his chest stopped rising and falling. His heart stopped beating. At 12:10 a.m., just 9 minutes after the execution began, John Winfield was pronounced dead. The witness curtain was closed. The execution was over. After the execution, Carmelita Donald spoke to reporters.

 She said she felt a sense of relief, a sense of closure. For 18 years, she had lived with the knowledge that the man who had taken her sight was still alive. Now he was gone. Justice had been served. She said she hoped that Jon’s death would bring peace to the families of Artha Sanders and Shaunie Murphy, the two women who had been executed simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 Family members of the victims also spoke. They said they were grateful that the execution had finally taken place, that the years of waiting were over, that Jon had been held accountable for his crimes. But not everyone felt relief. Simone Winfield, John’s daughter, was devastated. She had lost her father. She had spent years visiting him on death row, holding on to the hope that maybe, just maybe, he would be spared.

Now that hope was gone, her father was dead and she would never see him again. The case of John Winfield raises difficult questions about domestic violence, about jealousy, about the cycle of abuse that too often ends in death. Carmelita Donald had tried to leave. She had ended the relationship. She had moved on.

 And Jon couldn’t accept it. In his mind, Carmelita belonged to him. She had no right to date anyone else. And when she defied him, when she refused to come back, he decided that if he couldn’t have her, he would destroy her. Artha Sanders and Shaunie Murphy were collateral damage. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 They died because they were friends with a woman who had dared to leave an abusive man. Their deaths were senseless, preventable, and tragic. Carmelita survived, but at an unimaginable cost. She lost her sight. She lost her independence. She lost the ability to see her children grow up. John Winfield took that from her, and no amount of justice could ever give it back.

 Jon spent nearly 16 years on death row. During that time, his attorneys and family members claimed he had shown remorse, that he had changed, that he deserved mercy. But the prosecutors and victims families disagreed. They said Jon had never truly taken responsibility for what he had done, that he had always minimized his actions, that he had never expressed genuine remorse for the pain he had caused.

 Whether John experienced true remorse or simply said what he thought people wanted to hear is something we’ll never know. What we do know is that on June 18th, 2014, at 12:10 a.m., John Winfield’s life ended. The families of Artha Sanders and Shaunie Murphy, who had waited 18 years, finally saw the man who murdered their loved ones held accountable.

 Carmelita Donald, who had been left permanently blind, said she felt peace knowing that Jon could never hurt anyone again. and Simone Winfield, who had loved her father unconditionally, was left to mourn. The case of John E. Winfield is now closed. A man consumed by jealousy who couldn’t accept that his ex-girlfriend had moved on.

 A domestic abuser who escalated from control and threats to execution style murder. A killer who shot three women in the head at pointlank range, killing two and permanently blinding the third. All because he believed he had the right to control another person’s life. Nearly 16 years on death row. Multiple appeals, all denied.

 No final meal, no formal final statement, just the words, “I love you,” mouthed to family members through a window. And finally, on a Wednesday morning in June 2014, a needle in the arm and a heart that stopped beating. justice such as