Killer’s shocking final act before his execution

A killer who has spent almost three decades on death row for the gruesome murder of a mother has shocked onlookers with a chilling final act.

A convicted killer has used his final moments to spew out profanities and put his two middle fingers up in the air before his execution.

After sitting on death row for almost three decades, Carey Dale Grayson has finally met his fate in an Alabama prison.

The 50-year-old was only the third person to be executed via nitrogen gas in US history. The method is highly controversial and is currently only allowed in a handful of states.

It involves putting a gas mask on the inmate and forcing them to breathe pure nitrogen, depriving them of the oxygen needed to maintain bodily functions, causing them to die.

Grayson reportedly began swearing and putting his middle fingers up before his death. Picture: Alabama Dept of Corrections

As he was strapped to the gurney, the wardens asked Grayson if he had any final words. Speaking into the microphone, he said “for you, you need to f**k off” with the rest of his statement “going unheard” by witnesses.

As he began breathing in nitrogen through the blue mask strapped to his face, he reportedly raised two middle fingers in the air.

Grayson shook, rocked his head and pulled against his restraints as the gas flowed for the next fifteen minutes before he was pronounced dead.

He had requested a decadent last meal of a seafood platter, soft tacos, beef burritos, tostadas, chips with guacamole and a mountain dew blast, which was delivered by local restaurants.

While his lawyers attempted to block the execution, arguing that nitrogen hypoxia inflicts unconstitutional levels of pain. However, the US Supreme Court denied their request.

Louis Manigone was 16 when he took part in the horrific crime. Picture: Supplied

Kenneth Loggins was just 17 at the time of the murder. Picture: AL

“I would submit to the court that being conscious and being suffocated for a period of time constitutes terror that is superadded to this protocol that does not have to be there, as acknowledged by the fact that the state is willing to, if he requests it, give Mr. Grayson a sedative,” said his lawyer John Palombi, who is with the Federal Defenders Program.

Robert Overing, Alabama’s deputy solicitor general, disagreed with this assessment and countered that nitrogen hypoxia is not akin to suffocation “like drowning or smothering with a plastic bag or paralysing the lungs.”

“This is really apples and oranges trying to use the term ‘suffocation’ to evoke a sense of fear and pain that doesn’t exist with this method,” he told the court.

Grayson was the sixth person executed in Alabama this year.

He was executed at Alabama's Holme prison. Picture: Supplied

Gruesome crimes

Back in February 1994, mother Vicki Delieux had decided to hitchhike from Chattanooga, Tennessee to her mother’s house in West Monroe, Louisiana.

The 37-year-old was picked up by a group of four youths, including the then 19-year-old Carey Grayson.

He was driving with his three friends Kenneth Loggins, 17, Trace Duncan, 17, and Louis Mangione, 16. All four of the men had been drinking and taking drugs.

As they were making their way, the gang deviated from the original route and instead took the mother to a heavily wooded area, on the pretence that they were going to pick up another vehicle.

But when they got there, they began throwing their beer bottles at Deblieux. As she tried to escape, they tackled her to the ground and restrained her.

Loving mother Vickie Deblieux was killed in a gruesome slaying by four teens. Picture: Supplied

The pack of men kicked her repeatedly and Loggins stood on her throat, which caused her to gurgle blood and die.

After the brutal murder, the four kept her body and her luggage in the back of their pick-up truck and drove to the nearby Bald Rock Mountain, where they stole her ring and clothes.

In a grotesque act, they also sexually abused her before throwing her body off a cliff. In a final disgusting act, they mutilated her corpse by stabbing and cutting her 180 times, also amputating her fingers, thumbs and even taking part of her lung out.

Four days later, Delieux’s heavily mangled body was discovered by three rock climbers, with an autopsy revealing that her cause of death had been blunt force trauma to the head and asphyxiation.

Sentenced to death

The four teenagers quickly became the top suspects after a witness claimed one of them showed them the mother’s severed finger and bragged about the crime.

By April 1994, all four of the youths were arrested and charged with the torture and murder of Deblieux.

Trace Duncan was 17 when he participated in the murder. Picture: Supplied

Between November 1995 and February 1996, each member of the pack were tried in separate state courts in Alabama.

Duncan, Loggins and Grayson were sentenced to death, while Mangione was to be jailed for life.

However, after multiple appeals, Duncan and Loggins sentences were commuted to life without parole in 2005 and 2006 respectively.

Due to his age, Grayson’s punishment was upheld and he was the only one out of the four to be sentenced to death.

He was executed on November 21, 2024.

“Some thirty years ago, Vicki Deblieux’s journey to her mother’s house and ultimately, her life, were horrifically cut short because of Carey Grayson and three other men,” Alabama Governer Kay Ivey said in a statement following the execution.

The victim's daughter said she does not agree with capital punishment. Picture: WKRG

Grayson was 19 when he committed the horror acts. Picture: Supplied

“She sensed something was wrong, attempted to escape, but instead, was brutally tortured and murdered.

“Even after her death, Mr. Grayson’s crimes against Ms. Deblieux were heinous, unimaginable, without an ounce of regard for human life and just unexplainably mean.”

She added that Grayson’s death by nitrogen hypoxia bore no comparison to the violent murder and dismemberment of his victim and offered her condolences to the victim’s surviving kin.

Jodi Haley, Deblieux’s daughter who was just 12 at the time of her mother’s murder, condemned the execution and expressed her distaste at capital punishment.

“Society failed this man as a child, and my family suffered because of it,” she told reporters.

“Murdering inmates under the guise of justice needs to stop. No one should have the right to take a person’s possibilities, days, and life”.