Wade Wilson, a Florida killer, received a death sentence. What takes place at this point?

Wade Wilson, a Florida killer, received a death sentence. What takes place at this point?

Wade Wilson of Fort Myers, Fla. convicted of murdering two Cape Coral women in 2019, was sentenced to death on Tuesday. A jury found Wilson, 30, guilty on June 12 of murdering Kristine Melton, 35, and Diane Ruiz, 43, and after weighing aggravating and mitigating circumstances, recommended the death penalty. Judge Nicholas Thompson accepted the jury's recommendation and imposed two death sentences on Wilson, one for each murder. Wilson's legal team had filed a motion on July 3 seeking a new trial or acquittal of the murder and several other charges. Thompson denied the motion on August 15.

Sentencing was originally scheduled for July 23, but a defense motion for a delay due to scheduling conflicts for expert witnesses was granted and sentencing was delayed.

Here's what you need to know. Wade Wilson's crimes, his trial and what happens next:

Wade Wilson's crimes

Wilson, then 25, met Kristine Melton, 35, and her friend Stephanie Sailors on October 7 2019, at Buddah LIVE, a bar in Fort Myers. After the bar closed, Wilson and the two women went to Jayson Shepard's house where they stayed for several hours before leaving in the morning.

Wilson, Melton and Sailors then went home of Melton. Cape Coral. After the sailors left, Wilson strangled Melton to death while she slept in her bed and stole her car.Shortly after, Wilson saw Diane Ruiz, 43, walking down a street in Cape Coral, asked her for directions to a nearby school and threw her in the car. When Ruiz tried to get out of the car, Wilson attacked her, beating her and choking her before pushing her out of the car and hitting her 10 to 20 times. After the murders, Wilson. the biological father Steven Testasecca several times to confess and tell the gruesome details of his crimes.




After initially dismissing the calls and attributing the confession to Wilson being a "good storyteller," Testasecca, 46, put her phone on speakerphone with Wilson's birth mother listening in and relaying the information to police. Testasecca asked Wilson where he was and told him he would send him an Uber. French, his location was reported to the police who arrested Wilson on October 8, 2019.

Wade Wilson, Kristine Melton and Diane Ruiz victimsKristine Melton grew up in Illinois and moved in with a friend to Cape Coral where he worked. as a maid.She was godmother to her cousin Samantha Catomer's child, owned a cat and lived in a duplex in Cape Coral.Melton liked to dress up and her favorite holiday was Halloween, she Catomer testified at Wilson's trial. . Melton was insightful, made everyone around her feel safe and understood and "she was precious, not just to me, but to everyone who knew her," Catomer said.

Melton was 35 years old. when he met Wilson at Buda LIVE, a bar in Fort Myers. After leaving the bar and spending several hours at Jayson Shepard's house, Melton, Sailors, and Wilson went to Melton's duplex.

After the Sailors left, Wilson strangled him to death in the my sleep.

Diane Ruiz, 43 years old, mother and girlfriend. , was described as nice and hard-working.He works as a bartender at the Moose Lodge in Cape Coral and hasn't missed a shift in five years.

Ruiz was on his way to work for his shift at 10 a.m. , when he met Wilson.Shortly after killing Melton, Wilson saw Ruiz walking down a Cape Coral street and lured him into the car after asking for directions.

When he tried to drive away , Wilson beat and choked Ruiz. , pushed him out of the car and hit him several times.His body was found in a field three days later.


Wade Wilson tied to white supremacy prison gang Unforgiven

Court records in the attempted escape case connect Wilson to the Unforgiven, a white supremacy prison gang.

Wilson sports several swastika tattoos, including on the right side of his head and below his right eye.

The swastika was adopted in 1920 as the symbol of Adolf Hitler's Nazi party, and since 1945 has "served as the most significant and notorious of hate symbols, anti-Semitism and white supremacy," according to the Anti-Defamation League.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, the Unforgiven gang was founded in the Florida prison system in 1986 and is the largest white supremacist prison gang in the state.

Wade Wilson gets death sentence

On June 25, 2024, the jury in Wilson's trial recommended he receive the death penalty for each of the murders.

During the penalty phase of the trial, jurors had the option of recommending life in prison without parole or death.

Florida juries were required to vote unanimously for a death sentence recommendation until April 2023 when Gov. Ron DeSantis lowered the threshold by signing into law a bill allowing juries to recommend death with as few as 8 votes.

After considering aggravating and mitigating circumstances, the jury voted for death – 9-3 in Melton's murder and 10-2 in Ruiz's murder.

On Tuesday, August 27, 2024, Judge Thompson imposed a death sentence for each of the murders.

Where is Wade Wilson being held now?

Wilson is being held at the Lee County Jail in Fort Myers, Florida. Once unrelated charges, including the escape attempt, are resolved, he'll be transferred into the Florida prison system.

Inmates under death sentences are housed on Florida's death row at Union Correctional Institution.

Where is Florida's death row, Union Correctional Institution?

Florida's death row is inside Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, about 45 miles southwest of Jacksonville.

What is life like on Florida's death row?

According to the Florida Department of Corrections, inmates on death row are allowed snacks, radios and 13” TVs, but do not have cable or air-conditioning.

They wear orange T-shirts to set them apart from other inmates and the same blue pants worn by regular prisoners.

Death row inmates are served three meals a day – at 5 a.m., from 10:30 to 11 a.m. and from 4 to 4:30 p.m.. Food is prepared by prison staff and transported in insulated carts to the cells, where inmates are given sporks to eat from the provided trays. They have the right to shower every two days.



Visitors must be approved in advance and inmates can receive mail every day, except for holidays and weekends.Prisoners are not allowed to stay in a common room together.Death row inmates they are counted at least every hour. They wear handcuffs everywhere except in their cells, in the training canteen and in the shower. They are in their cells except for medical reasons, for exercise, for social or legal visits, or for media interviews.A Death Watch cell is 12x7x8.5 meters long.After signing an order d 'execution by the governor, the prisoner is placed in a Death Watch cell and allowed to make a legal and social call.

Does Florida still use the electric chair? What are the methods of execution?

In 1923, the legislature passed a law replacing hanging with the electric chair. That year, an oak chair was built by inmates at the prison.Florida's current three-legged electric chair, nicknamed "Old Sparky," was built from oak by staff at the Department of Corrections. Correctional Services was installed at the Florida State Penitentiary in 1999.A law approved in 2000 allows lethal injection as an alternative to the electric chair. The person sentenced to death has only one option: electrocution. The choice must be made in writing and given to the prison director.