Inside the Gruesome "Deadpool Killer" Case That Led to a Death Sentence for Wade Wilson

By the time police found the body of Diane Ruiz in a field in Cape Coral, Fla., on Oct. 10, 2019, the man who'd eventually be sentenced to death for killing her was already in custody.

Wade Steven Wilson—dubbed the "Deadpool Killer" because Wade Wilson is the Marvel character's regular-guy name—was arrested Oct. 8 after sharing grisly details about his crimes in a phone call with his father, who helped relay the information to police.

But when officers first picked Wilson up at an unoccupied residence he'd apparently broken into, the 25-year-old wasn't arrested on suspicion of murder.

Rather, Wilson was charged with burglary, larceny and damaged property, as well as with battery for attacking a woman (identified during his June 2024 murder trial as his then-girlfriend Melissa Montanez) on the morning of Oct. 7 in Fort Myers, Fla.

Days later, the Cape Coral Police Department confirmed that Wilson was a person of interest in the deaths of Ruiz, 43, and Kristine Melton, 35, both of whom were killed that same morning.

The CCPD said in a news release at the time that detectives, working closely with the State Attorney's Office, were awaiting test results from the crime lab and conclusions from the Lee County Medical Examiner's Office before they brought "additional criminal charges" against Wilson.

And on Nov. 19, 2019, Wilson was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder.

Announcing the charges at a press conference alongside State Attorney Amira Fox, Cape Coral Police Chief Dave Newlan acknowledged that there had been "questions as to why Wilson was not immediately charged with the deaths of Melton and Ruiz." (The suspect was also charged with one count each of battery, grand theft of a motor vehicle, burglary of a dwelling and first-degree petty theft.)

"Let me be clear: Securing a successful prosecution, and ultimately, a conviction, in this case is paramount," Newland said. "A hastily conducted investigation, simply for the sake of speed, where steps could be missed, benefits no one."

Here are all the details on the case that resulted in Wilson being convicted of murder and sentenced to death almost five years later:

Who were Wade Wilson's victims, Kristine Melton and Diane Ruiz?

Melton, who was originally from Illinois, worked as a waitress and was helping to care for her mother, Katie Melton, who was starting to show the effects of Alzheimer's disease, according to the victim's brother Richard Melton.

"Kristine was her best friend," Richard told Newsweek after Wilson was sentenced on Aug. 27. "They had coffee every morning."

He described his sister as a "fun-loving and super light-hearted person, as well as "super kind" and "non-judgmental."

The brother said that their mom hadn't processed that Melton is dead and persists in believing she's "alive, well, and married."

Melton met Wilson on the night of Oct. 6, 2019, at Buddha LIVE, a bar in Fort Myers, according to the prosecution's accounting of events during Wilson's trial.

Melton was with her friend and co-worker Stephanie Sailors. Per prosecutors, they stayed until closing and, along with Wilson, went to the home of Jayson Shepard, where they they spent a few hours before Sailors and Wilson went back to Melton's place in Cape Coral.

Sailors and Shepard both testified at Wilson's trial that the defendant and the victim had sex while at Shepard's house.

When she left Melton's house later that night, Sailors testified, "everything was fine."

Melton "hugged me, kissed me, said she'd see me tomorrow," Sailors said.

Wilson told his father he met a girl at a bar and strangled her while she was sleeping, according to a sentence order obtained by E! News. (The prosecution later argued at trial that Melton had injuries indicating she woke up and tried to defend herself.)

Police found Melton's body at her house on the night of Oct. 7 after her car was found in Fort Myers and they went to check on her.

Wilson's now ex-girlfriend Montanez testified at his trial in June that she had been with him at Buddha LIVE but didn't want to go back to Shepard's house, and Wilson drove off in her car without permission. He started calling her the next morning before 8 a.m., she told the court, and he came to her business in downtown Fort Myers.

He was driving Melton's black Nissan Versa when he showed up, a vehicle Montanez didn't recognize. Wilson tried to pull her into the car, Montanez continued, and when she resisted he punched, slapped and choked her.

She testified that Wilson then dragged her upstairs to her business and held her against the wall by her throat. But when he hit her again, she continued, he seemed startled by all the blood and she took the opportunity to run. He left in the Versa after that, she said.

That morning, Fort Myers police responded to 911 calls coming in around 8:50 a.m. to report a man and a woman fighting, with witnesses saying the guy was dragging a woman outside of a business, according to a 2019 probable cause statement obtained by USA Today Network's News-Press.

Ruiz, meanwhile, was last seen walking on her way to her 10 a.m. bartending shift at the Moose Lodge in Cape Coral.

According to prosecutors, Wilson asked for directions to a nearby school as a way to lure her into the car. When she tried to get out, he told police, he started beating her, and then choked her. He said he then pushed Ruiz out of the car and ran her over with the vehicle at least 10 times while she was still alive.

Co-workers called police when Ruiz—who was engaged to be married and a mother of two sons, ages 29 and 19—failed to show up after never missing a shift in five years.

Ruiz's body was found three days later in a field behind a Sam's Club.

Cape Coral Police Sgt. Justin DeRosso, one of the officers who found her, testified that they saw "a single vulture circling an area to our east," and that's what led them to the right spot. 

"Diane was the heartbeat of the bar," Moose Lodge co-worker Linda Giancola told NBC 2 in June. "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."

How did police find Wade Wilson?

Fort Myers Police Officer Timothy McCormick testified during Wilson's murder trial that he was part of the search for Wilson following his attack on Montanez when he spotted him parked outside of Joe's Crab Shack at around 3 p.m. on Oct. 7, 2019.

Wilson told him he was waiting for his girlfriend and was otherwise "uncooperative," McCormick said, explaining that he couldn't give chase when the suspect drove away because he was only wanted on a misdemeanor battery charge. Police did not yet know about the murders, the officer said.

Wilson's biological father, Steven Testasecca, testified at trial that the defendant called him multiple times on Oct. 7 and started describing what he'd done that day, calling himself "a killer."

He admittedly didn't believe what Wilson was telling him at first, he testified, but eventually put the young man on speaker phone so his wife could hear and she relayed what he was saying to police.

Testasecca (who said he and Wilson's biological mother were teenagers when they placed him for adoption) told the court that he asked Wilson to tell him where he was, that he'd send an Uber to pick him up. In court, Testasecca agreed with the prosecution's characterization that Wilson didn't show any remorse when they spoke.

Authorities subsequently arrested Wilson at an unoccupied home, where he had broken a window to get in.

Wilson was charged with murdering Melton and Ruiz a month later.

"Over the past several weeks, while Wilson was in custody," police chief Newlan told reporters at the Nov. 19, 2019, press conference announcing the charges, "Cape Coral police officers, detectives and support staff worked tirelessly around the clock on these two separate, but related cases."

He emphasized how important it was to conduct a thorough investigation in service of building the best case possible for prosecutors.

"We had to ensure that we provided State Attorney Fox and her team with the best investigation with all of our i's dotted and all of our t's crossed, to ensure that justice will be served," Newlan said. "The community as a whole, specifically the families of Kristine Melton and Diane Ruiz, deserve nothing less."

Did Wade Wilson say anything about the murders?

While police had his taped confession, Wilson denied having anything to do with killing Melton and Ruiz in a Nov. 15, 2019, phone interview from jail with NBC 2.

When the interviewer asked if he meant to say Melton was alive and well when he left her house in her car, Wilson said, "Yes." He further said that Ruiz asked him for a ride and he dropped her off at a bus stop.

"I agree that their deaths are tragic and sad but do I find it strange [that he interacted with two women who ended up dead in one day]?" he said. "No, I do not, because I know what I've done and I have not."

Speaking to the station again in 2023, Wilson said "absolutely not" when asked if he killed the women. 

"I'm not a monster," he said. "I'm not a saint either by any means. I've made bad decisions in the past, of course. Everybody has."

What happened at Wade Wilson's murder trial?

The prosecution gave its opening argument June 10, 2024, and each side rested its case the following day.

After Wilson killed Melton, Assistant State Attorney Sara Miller told the jury in her closing argument, per the News-Press, "He didn't stop there. He was looking for more prey. He was the lion and she was his prey."

When he killed Ruiz, Miller continued, "The defendant testified [to police] that he saw her in fear."

The prosecutor concluded, "He killed two innocent victims, one trying to go out and have a good time, and the other trying to get to work."

In his closing argument, defense attorney Lee Hollander said he was not there to say that Wilson didn't do it.

"There's solid evidence he is responsible for the two deaths and the battery of Melissa Montanez," the lawyer said. "I'm not arguing insanity. I'm arguing he's whacked out of his mind for any of this."

He asked for a finding of second-degree murder, rather than first-degree.

On June 12, the jury came back with guilty verdicts on all charges, including two counts of first-degree murder, after two hours of deliberations, according to CourtTV.com.

Why did Wade Wilson get the death penalty?

During the penalty phase, Ruiz's son Zane Romero, who was 19 when his mom was killed, testified for the prosecution that he had just made the high school marching band and she was so excited to watch his debut.

"I never got to see her in the crowd," Romero said. "My mom will never get to see me get married."

Melton's cousin Samantha Catomer lamented during her testimony that her relative—who was the godmother of Catomer's child—would "never experience motherhood, a role she was born to play."

Defense attorney Kevin Shirley argued in court that Wilson's life should be spared. He said that his client's mental state wasn't an excuse, but an explanation for his actions. 

Shirley pointed to Wilson's face tattoos, including a swastika and the Joker-esque smile inked around his mouth that he had acquired since the murders, as an example of his "diseased mind." 

The attorney argued that there was no conclusive evidence that Melton was awake when she was killed, and that Wilson embellished his account of killing Ruiz because "he's sick."

"If she wasn’t conscious, then she wasn’t experiencing the pain and fear the state wants you to believe," Shirley said. He told the jury, "You gotta be hard-pressed to vote for death when you don't even know what the truth is."

On June 25, the jury came back after about 90 minutes voting 9-to-3 in favor of death as punishment for killing Melton and 10-to-2 for Ruiz, agreeing in both cases that the offense was, per Florida law's definition of aggravating factors, "heinous, atrocious or cruel." (In 2023, Florida joined Alabama as the only states where juries don't have to be unanimous to recommend death; the vote must be at least eight in favor.) 

In Ruiz's case, per the factors, they additionally found her murder to be "cold, calculated and premeditated."

On Aug. 15, Lee County Circuit Judge Nicholas R. Thompson denied the defense's motion, filed July 3, for a new trial.

At Wilson's Aug. 27 sentencing hearing, Shirley read a letter from his client's adoptive parents, Steve and Cindy Wilson, in which they apologized to the victims' families and maintained that their son's drug addiction made him delusional, per the News-Press.

"Wade was a joyful child," they wrote. "Loved his parents." But, they continued, "The system failed him on that fateful day in 2019. Please see it in your heart to not take our son."

Neurologist Dr. Mark Rubino testified during a Spencer hearing (when a defendant facing death has the right to appeal directly to a judge) that images of Wilson's brain, as well as his performance on various cognitive tests, indicated he may have brain damage that could make him prone to impulsive behavior without regard for consequences.

Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas Coyne, called to rebut Rubino, said that scans he reviewed showed no signs of structural defects, and that people don't need to have brain damage to do "evil things."

Judge Thompson subsequently sentenced Wilson to death for each murder.

Shirley said after court that the sentence was "kind of anticipated," telling Newsweek, "It takes quite a bit of extra evidence in a Spencer hearing to convince a judge to override a jury recommendation. The unfortunate thing is we didn't have a lot of other information to provide to the court. We gave what we have."

Why was Wade Wilson going viral?

Because accused (and convicted) murderers have their fans too, Wilson had his share of supporters who started online petitions and fundraisers—"Our donation campaign aims to raise funds to help Wade Steven Wilson afford a reputable, specialized, and competent legal defense team," read an appeal on FUNDLY that as of Sept. 6 had raised more than $86,000—as well as took to TikTok to share how unfair they thought the legal process had been in Wilson's case.

The judge in the case also got letters from people all over the world arguing why Wilson deserved a life sentence rather than death, according to NBC affiliate WYFF. 

"I don't know how many tens of thousands of people are communicating with him or communicating with each other about him," Shirley told Newsweek of the fanfare. "There's donations that are set up for him. I think it's ridiculous, but there's a lot of people that think otherwise."

Prosecutors, meanwhile, slammed the rally of support for Wilson. 

"It has not gone unnoticed that this defendant has been—is being—idolized by some people who are somehow proud to mix their name with his through public comments, fundraising for him or holding him up to be some sort of positive representation of a man," State Attorney Fox said at an Aug. 27 press conference, "ignoring that he is nothing more than a vicious killer and about the most poor representation of a man there could ever be."

Where is Wade Wilson now?

Wilson returned to court Aug. 29 to plead no contest to drug trafficking charges and was sentenced to 12 years in prison, to run concurrently with his time on death row. (As part of the plea deal, charges of criminal mischief and attempting to escape from jail, stemming from when he was accused of tampering with a cell window in 2020, were dropped.)

Early the following morning, according to public booking records, he was transferred from Lee County Jail, where he'd been held since his arrest in 2019, to Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Fla., to await execution.

Death penalty cases are automatically appealed to the Florida Supreme Court.

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