At 80 years old, Teena Ambrose was a widow who cherished her independence, living a quiet life in her own apartment in Lakeland, Florida. Her peaceful existence was brutally shattered on September 15, 1986, when a career criminal on parole broke into her home, turning her sanctuary into a scene of unimaginable violence. The attack on the vulnerable woman was not a random act of cruelty but the final chapter in the violent saga of a proven serial killer.
The man responsible was John Price
Hayter Jr., a predator who had been in and out of the justice system for decades. His violent criminal history began more than thirty years prior. In 1953, while serving a two-year sentence for auto theft in Texas, Hayter stabbed a fellow inmate, Leroy Oscar Martin, to death with a pitchfork during an argument. He was convicted and sentenced to life but was paroled after 21 years. Freedom for Hayter meant terror for others. Shortly after his release in 1974, he kidnapped, raped, and shot 17-year-old Linda Ruth Pibil. A month later, he attempted to abduct another woman and her baby before being caught after a police chase. Convicted of Pibil's murder and the attempted kidnapping, he was again sentenced to life, only to be paroled once more in June 1986.
Drifting across the country and supporting himself through theft, Hayter arrived in Lakeland that September. He later told Polk County detectives he was driving along Interstate 4 when he spotted Teena’s home and decided to burglarize it, believing it to be empty. After stealing jewelry from a bedroom, he was in the living room when he saw Teena pull into her driveway. As she entered her home, he ambushed her. What followed was a brutal home invasion that included sexual assault and murder.
Hayter bound and gagged the elderly woman with such force that he broke her larynx. The instrument of her death was the plastic tie from a rain bonnet, which he used to strangle her. After the murder, he stole her 1966 Plymouth Fury and fled. He drove to Delray Beach, where he abandoned her car and committed another home invasion, tying up an elderly couple at gunpoint and stealing their 1986 Mercury Marquis. It was in this stolen car that his cross-country crime spree finally came to an end.
Hayter was arrested in Grants, New Mexico, for auto theft. During questioning, he confessed to the crimes he had committed in Florida. A distinctive tattoo on his forearm—an outline of Texas with the state's name inside—helped positively identify him to other victims. Extradited to Florida, he stood trial for the murder of Teena Ambrose.
During the trial, prosecutors presented a taped conversation between Hayter and a detective where he admitted to the robbery and assault. He claimed, however, that he had left Teena alive, suggesting she must have choked on the gags after he fled. This claim was systematically dismantled by the testimony of Dr. James Holimon, a forensic medical examiner. Dr. Holimon explained that the restraints were so tight they had crushed her larynx, making it impossible for her to breathe. The deliberate and premeditated nature of the killing was evident. In February 1987, a jury found John Price Hayter Jr. guilty of first-degree murder, burglary, and robbery.
While the brutal nature of the crime made Hayter eligible for the death penalty, a sentence Teena Ambrose's family had hoped for, the court handed down another sentence of life in prison. Hayter, who chewed on cough drops and showed no emotion as the verdict was read, would spend the rest of his days behind bars. He died in a Jacksonville prison on February 21, 1995, at the age of 61, closing the final chapter on a life defined by violence and the pain it inflicted on so many.
