Killer sporting Nazi faces tattoos sentenced for the murdering two women following an the parents’ emotional plea

Wade Wilson appeared motionless in the Florida courtroom

By Michelle Del Rey

Aug 27, 2024 10:38 PM

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A killer with Nazi face tattoos who brutally murdered two women was sentenced to death on Tuesday.

Wade Wilson, 30, appeared to be in a tense the courtroom located in Lee County, Florida when his sentence read out as applause and cheers were erupting from the crowd. Wilson was not scheduled to appear before on the bench earlier that afternoon.

Then, in June of this year Wilson had been found guilty on two counts of second-degree criminal murder and two counts of premeditated first-degree killing in connection with the murders of Kristine Melton 35 as well as Diane Ruiz, 43. The women were strangled within hours of one another on the 6th of October, 2019 at Cape Coral.

The jury voted for an appeal to the the death penalty 9-3 in the case of Melton as well as 10-2 for Ruiz’s murder. In Florida the state of Florida, only eight of 12 jurors must suggest the death penalty in order for it to be taken into consideration by a judge.

The jury was also required to establish that the crime involved aggravating factors. This time, the jury concluded that the crimes were atrocious or atrocious and committed by someone who was who was convicted of a different crime and who was previously found guilty of a crime while in prison.

 

In a motion hearing Wednesday morning, Wilson’s lawyer, Lee Hollander, requested that the court issue two life sentences in lieu of the death sentence.

Hollander requested county circuit judge Nicholas R Thompson to consider whether the client was able to recognize the criminal nature of the crime or was significantly impaired at the time the crime occurred.

“We’d ask the court to take into consideration that death is permanent,” Hollander declared, an opinion that the Assistant State Attorney Andreas Gardiner agreed with.

 

“Mr Wilson’s decisions were not only pitiless and consciousness less, but they amounted to tragically reducing Ms Melton, as well as Ms Ruiz, to nothing more than memories and photographs,” Gardiner declared in the hearing on motion.

Prosecutors say Wilson had a conversation with Melton at the live music venue prior to killing her with a strangler at her residence at Cape Coral, where her body was found.

Wilson quit the home and spotted Ruiz walking down the Cape Coral street. He approached her with an automobile he taken from the home of Melton. Wilson demanded Ruiz for directions, and she climbed into the vehicle. The woman attempted to exit the car, Wilson strangled her and “ran her over until she looked like spaghetti,” the court was told. The two women weren’t familiar with one another.

Through the entire trial jurors saw evidence of the numerous injuries that the women suffered. Melton was afflicted with bruises to her body and face and neck, as well as hemorrhages and lungs, as well as contusions to the as well as the liver, bladder and colon, in addition to other. The injuries Ruiz was afflicted with included nasal bone fractures and a laceration of the breast of her left, bruises to both the sides of her body as well as numerous fractures to her ribs.

 

Judge Thompson was the sole judge in determining whether the defendant should be sentenced to life or death within the prison system without parole. In order to impose the death penalty the judge had to take into account every aggravating factor determined by the jury as well as any other circumstances that could mitigate.

“Given the facts of the case, nothing in defendant’s background or mental state would suggest that a death sentence is inappropriate,” Thompson declared prior to sending Wilson to die.

Before the sentencing hearing three women wrote Judge Thompson letters asking Wilson to not take his life. They highlighted the victim’s history of mental illness, substance abuse, and the alleged absence the parental backing.

“With regards to the Wade Wilson case, it appears clearly documented that Mr Wilson suffers with mental health issues that appear to be severely aggravated by the use of drugs,” Lindsay Brann the mother of two boys from Alberta, Canada, wrote in a letter Lee County Circuit Court records reveal.

In the course of legal proceedings Wilson’s adoptive parents filed the following letter to prove that they believed that he had been “a joyful child” and “loved his parents.” They asserted that Wilson was delusional when his addiction to drugs began. A witness with expertise claimed Wilson took drugs on the night prior to the murders.

Sara Miller, an assistant state attorney, claimed Wilson was hospitalized in jail for an overdose of fentanyl.

In the motion hearing, Dr. Thomas Coyne, a neuropathologist and Associate Medical Examiner, gave an expert opinion that he could not observe any injuries to Wilson’s brain or skull which could have been an exaggerated situation when considering the death penalty.

Dr. Mark Rubino, a neurologist who disagrees with the assessment. He noted evidence of emotional and cognitive impairment in Wilson that led to a worse attitude and a less logical mind as well as the brain injury. The mixture of the brain injury and the medication he was taking at the time could have led to the murders, Rubino said.