Wade Wilson (30) has recently been convicted of the murders of two women in Florida in 2019 – Kristine Melton and Diane Ruiz. Wade has garnered a lot of attention due to his courtroom demeanour. He is currently awaiting sentencing and may receive the death penalty.
As some background into the victims, Kristine Melton was 35 when she was murdered.
Kristine loved cats and was said to be a great friend. Kristine had moved to Cape Coral, Florida with her friend Stephanie Sailors. The two worked as servers in the same restaurant.
Kristine’s cousin Samantha said that she always made everyone feel safe and understood. Kristine always wanted to have children. “Kristine will never experience motherhood, a role she was born to play,” Samantha said through tears.
The second victim, Diane Ruiz was 43 when she died. She was the mother of two sons, Brandon (29) and Zane (19). Zane said that his mother’s death happened just days before he was meant to debut in the high school marching band. She had been excited to watch her son. “I never got to see her in the crowd,” Zane said. “My mom will never get to see me get married.”
Diane worked in a bar and her coworkers said that she was very reliable and never missed a shift in five years. Her coworker Linda Giancola said “Diane was the heartbeat of the bar. She always had everybody’s back. She just had that personality that was really magnifying. She has this really loud laugh that you could hear it like a mile away.
Wade’s full name is Wade Steven Wilson. He was born on May 20, 1994. For anyone who is a fan of Marvel, Wade Wilson is the alter ego of Deadpool.
‘Because Deadpool, who is played by Ryan Reynolds in the movies, had cancer during Weapon X, his cancer cells regenerate as fast as his normal cells, leaving his body heavily scarred and the reason he wears a full face mask.”
I haven’t seen anything to say if Wade Wilson is his birth name, but I assume it is as there has been no mention of him changing it.
It seems like in 2019, his violent tendencies were escalating rapidly. This information is from a court document from July 2019 regarding an ex of his, Melisa Montanez.
Read court documents here:
Melisa would end up dropping the charges against Wade. “He blamed it on drugs, alcohol,” she said. “And he did mention that he needed to be back on his lithium, that he was bipolar. I always give second chances.”
Melisa would later speak to the media and she said “I describe him as two different people. I see him as one way — kind, caring, funny, compassionate — and then the monster.”
On the night of October 6, 2019, Wade met Kristine at a live music venue called Buddha Bar. Kristine was with a friend of hers, Stephanie Sailors.
“There was live music there that night, so we wanted to go see a band play,” Stephanie said. It was a Sunday night.
Stephanie said that Wade jumped out at her and Kristine as they walked to the upstairs bar. Stephanie said that Wade was ‘friendly, charming.’ He told the women that his name was JR. At this point, he did not have any facial tattoos (I believe he got these while in prison).
Stephanie said they were ‘doing lines of cocaine and drinking.’ She also said she ‘didn’t think anything suspicious of it.’ Stephanie said ‘Everybody was cheerful, intoxicated. There was nothing scary.’
The group met another man at the bar, Jayson Shepard. When the bar closed, the four of them went back to Jayson’s home where they stayed for a few hours. Jayson had only met Wade that night and would later describe him as ‘cool.’
While they were there, Kristine and Wade had a ‘consensual sexual encounter’.
Kristine, Stephanie, and Wade ended up going back to Kristine’s home after this. They all took an Uber there. Wade inadvertently left his cellphone behind at Jayson’s place. They spent time there together until Stephanie had to leave to go to work. She hugged Kristine and said ‘See you tomorrow.’ This meant Kristine and Wade were alone.
Stephanie tried texting her throughout the day but heard nothing back. Kristine was not scheduled to work that day, so Stephanie thought she may have been sleeping. She would find out about Kristine’s death after the Cape Coral police called her later that day. ‘It was devastating.’ Stephanie said.
We now know that Wade strangled Kristine and left her body in her home. He left the home in a vehicle that he stole from Kristine.
A witness named Josh Lukitsch said that Wade ran into his business a few hours after the murder. Josh said Wade was covered in blood and was missing a few teeth. Wade backed a vehicle up to the business and asked Josh to help him get ‘a bus ticket, plane ticket, or something to leave town.’ Josh said that Wade was ‘frantic’ and that he continued to ‘talk crazy’. He was telling Josh that he killed someone. Josh said ‘he was pacing around, kind of manic.’
Diane encountered Wade on that same day, October 7. She was walking to work at the bar when Wade drove past in Kristine’s vehicle and stopped and asked for directions.
Diane got into the car with Wade. According to the News-Press, Wade lured her into the car and when she tried to leave he beat and strangled her before pushing her out of the car and running her over 10 to 20 times,” Wade has said that he ‘ran her over until she looked like spaghetti.’
Wade would dump her body in a field behind a Sam’s Club and he would dump her purse near a Cape Coral school. Diane’s body would be found days later, on October 10, 2019. When Diane was found, her nose was broken and her neck was fractured.
Police would later say that Kristine was found tied and wrapped up. Her skin had turned blue and she had broken fingernails.
At some point during this day, Wade went to the home of his ex, Melisa. Melisa said that Wade stole her $80,000 car but she also gave him the keys to it. Melisa said that before Wade left, he insisted that she stop by a ‘stranger’s home.’ He did this at least three times and she declined each time. Melisa said that his eyes at the time were ‘black holes. There’s nothing behind those eyes.’ Melisa spoke about how Wade beat her that day. “Then he goes to the rear back to punch me,” she said. “He gets a really good punch in, and then the blood splatters everywhere. And I think it even surprised me how much blood came out of me, and it gave me seconds to run down the stairs.”
“It’s 8:45 in the morning, and I didn’t even get to call my son and wish him a happy birthday, and I’m about to die on his 15th birthday,” Melisa described her immediate fear. “That’s the only thing you think about as a mom, how you’re going to leave your child, and how badly that would mess him up for the rest of his life.”
After the murders, Wade broke into another home. In a deposition, the woman who lives there told defense attorneys she had just returned from a yoga class and noticed the gate was closed, which is not typical, and that there was a car she did not recognize on the other side of the gate.
She remembers saying hello, but did not see anyone.
Right before unlocking the back door of her home to enter, she paused and decided to call her oldest child to find out whose car was there. Before making the call, she heard a man’s voice. She saw Wade approach her from a detached garage with his hands in the air apologetically.
The witness said, “No. No, this is my house. You just need to get out of here.” She described Wade as a tall man with dark hair and tattoos.
“It looked like he had a rough night,” she told attorneys.
As Wadeleft in his car, she took photos of his license plate, and he asked why she did that.
“Because I don’t know who the f— you are,” she told him. “Now, get out of here.”
Wade backed out, stopped for a moment, looked back and apologized before driving away.
At one point, Wade broke into the home of the Amlin family. It is believed he stole food and supplies and drank White Claws while there.
He also called his father three times on that day. At one point, he asked for an Uber. He told his father that he ‘needed to leave town.’ He described the murders to him. Assistant State Attorney Andreas Gardiner would later explain this and said “He wants his dad to feel the excitement.”
Wade’s father said “He called me in the afternoon. Early afternoon in a panic.”
The third and final time Wade called, he told his father everything about the murders. This info about that is from Winknews.com:
“He said that he went to some bar. Met a girl. And went home with her. That they hung out for a while. Went to sleep. And he got on top of her. And choked her until she died,” Wilson’s dad told investigators. “He said that he stayed in the house through the night, and he took her body and rolled it up in a rug. He was going to try and put her in her car, but she was too heavy, so he left the scene.”
Wilson left in the victim’s car. Hours later, he told his dad he was “Driving down the road and saw a lady walking. She asked for directions. He stopped, and she got in the car. He reached over with one hand as he was driving and choked her.”
Wilson’s dad told investigators, “He thought she was dead and pulled into some woods where was going to put her body,” but said when he pulled her out of the car, Wilson realized she was still alive.
Wilson’s father states, “He said to me that he got back in the car, and he ran her over like spaghetti. Got out and moved her to the woods after that.”
Wade’s father asked him why he carried out the crimes. Wade replied “I don’t know, dad. I don’t know why I did it. I just wanted to do it.”
Wade’s stepmother heard the entire call. They informed police about what they had heard and gave them Wade’s location.
Wade left DNA at all scenes. He had battery and burglary charges laid against him after he broke into Melisa’s home. I believe a witness named Ryan Gentile saw Wade leaving Kristine’s home. Ryan said that the car had been driving erratically and he called police. From these clues, combined with the information from Wade’s father, police pieced together their case against Wade in relation to the murders of Kristine and Diane.
Around six weeks after the murders, Wade was charged.
“These two women were preyed upon by the defendant and their murders impacted their families and shook our community,” State Attorney Amira Fox said.
Wade was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder, battery, grand theft of a motor vehicle, burglary of a dwelling and first degree petty theft.
Soon after his arrest, Wade contacted Melisa from inside prison. “Even after this, you’re still the best thing ever. You know that,” he said to her over the phone.
“Very narcissistic,” Melisa explained. “He’s always gotten by with his looks and his charm, and he’s hoping that it’ll work just one more time.”
n October 2020, while awaiting trial, Wade and his cellmate Joseph Katz tried to make a plan to escape.
When their roughly 10-foot-by-10-foot cell was checked, the only window in the unit showed signs of tampering with the metal frame holding the window removed and the thick security glass window showed several cracks.
The sheriff’s office report said Wade was the primary planner and instigator and that Joseph could not have been ignorant of the attempt or not have taken part in it. Both men refused to make a statement to deputies.
While awaiting trial, Wade contacted news outlets multiple times. In 2020, he told them “that he used to be connected to a high-level human trafficking ring and that he would groom women for them.” Wade claimed the group was framing him for the murders as punishment for trying to leave.
Wade’s trial started on June 10, 2024 and it ran for five days.
Since being in prison, Wade has acquired many new tattoos including a swastika on his face. His attorneys were granted motions that he be allowed to wear street clothes and to cover any tattoos ‘that might be objectionable to members of the potential jury pool’ with makeup. It doesn’t seem like he did that though as all the pics I have seen show his tattoos in their ‘glory’.
Joshua and Stephanie both testified on day one. Joshua told the court about Wade said that he had ‘killed people’ and that he needed to leave town.
Stephanie spoke about meeting Wade at the bar with Kristine. Stephanie also said that everything seemed find when she left Kristine and that ‘Kristine would have never let me leave the house if she was scared,’
Medical Examiner Dr Hernandez also testified about Kristine’s cause of death – asphyxia due to compression of the neck.
On day two, Wade’s father spoke about the calls he received after Wade carried out the murders. Steven Testasecca spoke to the court about how Wade had been adopted out as a baby because both he and the mother were teenagers. He told the court that they had only sporadic contact after they reconnected when Wade turned 18.
When Wade called Steven, he said ‘I’m a killer.’ Steven said that Wade was a good storyteller and he did not believe him at first. After Wade called him again, Steven realized he was telling the truth.
Both sides rested on day two and the closing arguments were set for day three.
On Day three, the prosecution closed by saying that the murders were premeditated and planned by Wade. The defense claimed that Wade was ‘just wacked out of his mind.’
The jury left and deliberated for two hours. They returned and found Wade guilty of all charges.
First-degree murder (Kristine Melton): Guilty
Grand theft of motor vehicle (belonging to Kristine Melton): Guilty
Battery (Melissa Montanez): Guilty
First-degree murder (Diane Ruiz): Guilty
Burglary of a dwelling (home of Fannie Amlin): Guilty
First-degree petit theft (property of Fannie Amlin in home): Guilty
On day four, Wade spoke twice in court. He told the judge that he would not testify. He also replied ‘No, I’m good’ when asked if he wanted more time to speak with his attorneys. The proceedings on this day were held to determine what Wade’s sentence would be.
Wade’s team called experts to speak.
The first defense expert, forensic neuropsychologist Dr. Hyman Eisenstein, said that Wade suffered from neurocognitive brain impairment that was likely caused by adolescent sports injuries and vehicle wrecks in his early adulthood. The trauma “compromised” Wade’s executive functioning skills and hindered his ability to function “like a normal healthy individual” and his substance abuse exacerbated the negative effects.
The second defense expert, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Mark Mills, said that Wade suffered from “some kind of psychotic disorder” based on Eisenstein’s interview and testing. Wade’s tests delivered invalid results because he exaggerated symptoms, Dr Mills said.
Dr Mills said he was unable to fully diagnose Wade because one of their interviews was cut short by him,based on the belief that corrections staff was spying on him. Dr Mills said that in his opinion Wade was suffering from paranoid delusions that could point to schizoaffective disorder, although Wade showed no signs of delusions or hallucinations while talking to experts.
The State’s rebuttal expert, forensic psychologist Dr. Michael Herkov, said he did not believe there was enough evidence to support a diagnosis of a psychotic disorder. Dr Herkov said that thoroughly documented and self-reported drug abuse was a more likely explanation for Wade’s delusions and repeated criminal conduct.
The following day, the jury deliberated for around 90 minutes before reaching their decision. They decided that Wade deserved death for the murders of Kristine (a vote of 9-3) and Diane (a vote of 10-2).
The jury found the State proved these aggravators beyond a reasonable doubt:
Wilson was previously convicted of a felony and was on probation during the murders – MELTON AND RUIZ
He committed two murders at once (contemporaneous conviction) — MELTON AND RUIZ
The offense was heinous, atrocious and cruel — MELTON AND RUIZ
The offense was cold, calculated and premeditated – JUST RUIZ
Wade’s formal sentencing is scheduled for July 23.
SOURCE LIST
https://www.courttv.com/news/fl-v-wade-wilson-strangled-women-murder-trial
https://www.newsweek.com/wade-wilson-florida-verdict-victims-1917621