Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Top 7 Moments in Accused Serial Strangler’s Florida Killing Spree Trial

Episode Date: June 10, 2024

Wade Wilson is accused of murdering two women in one morning in Lee County, Florida in October 2019. The state attorney's office claims Wilson confessed to murdering Kristine Melton and Diana Ruiz to several people. But Wilson claims he's innocent of the crimes. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy breaks down the key moments in the first day of Wilson's trial from opening statements to witness testimony and looks at what his defense may claim in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lccrimefix and access information about almost anyone!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoAudio Editing - Brad MaybeGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@LawandCrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. You're going to hear what he told law enforcement. And you're going to hear that when they asked him why he killed Miss Melton. He said, I just wanted to do it. The prosecutor in Wade Wilson's double murder trial in Lee County, Florida, laying out his case to the jury as a friend of one of the victims takes the stand. If she was concerned, Christine would have never let me leave that house if she was scared. She would have said, let's get this guy out of here together. I have the top moments from day one of Wilson's double murder trial, from opening statements to the witnesses who testified. Thanks

for joining me for Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Wade Wilson could get the death penalty if he's convicted of murdering two women back in October of 2019. They are Christine Melton and Diana Ruiz. The state attorney outlined in his opening statement why he believes all of the evidence points squarely at Wade Wilson for the murders of Christine Melton and Diana Ruiz. Christine Milton was 35 years old when she died. She was found in her South Cape Coral residence wrapped in some bedding tied with some shirts and leggings and a bathing suit top. Her face was black and blue. Her fingernails were broken.

She had marks around her neck as she lied on the floor between her bedroom and the kitchen area of her residence. Diane Ruiz was 43 years old. She was found on an empty lot under some shrubs, under a tree, just lying there. Her nose had been broken. Her hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage had been broken.

She had suffered multiple rib fractures, not only front but also in the back. Now what you're going to learn during the course of this trial, ladies and gentlemen, is that Ms. Ruiz and Ms. Melton had three things in common. Both of them died on the 7th of October of 2019. Both of them had been strangled. And both of them, before they were forever silenced. The last person that they encountered was Mr. Wade Wilson.

Despite Wade Wilson's denials, the prosecutor says Wade Wilson admitted to the murders. You're going to hear the confession from Mr. Wilson about the method of the killing, ladies and gentlemen, and you're also going to hear his admission to the actual killing itself. Assistant State Attorney Andreas Gardner told the jury that Wilson even confessed to his father. What we know is that Ms. Ruiz had been strangled, and what we also know is that she died as a result of blunt force trauma because of the multiple rib fractures. And if you want to believe what Mr. Wilson told law enforcement,

was that he had driven over her repeatedly and tried to make her look like spaghetti. So now we're back to where we began. At Mateo's Graphics, when he leaves, before law enforcement gets there to search that building, he proceeds to go off into a neighborhood behind Mateo's graphics. He goes to place Northeast First Avenue, which is actually the residence of a young couple by the name of Fanny Amlin.

And the Amlins, conveniently enough, had just left their house the day before to go to Ohio. It was empty. He'd broken in through the back. Helped himself to some food, helped himself to some clothes, helped himself to some drink. While he was there, he needed help. He calls his dad. I need to get out of town. I need your help. Send me an Uber.

While that was happening, law enforcement was conducting an investigation. They knew who he was. They were researching, trying to figure out who his next point of contact would be. Ittery reached out to his dad. They needed to know where his whereabouts are. Dad tells them, you know, he's conflicted. It's his son, right? But he starts describing what he had done.

He describes it in such a way where he's bragging. He wants his dad to feel that excitement. He made his dad sick. His dad gets the address. Tells him, yeah, I'm going to send you an Uber. Passes that information along to the marshals. Marshals descend on that particular location. Mr. Kent Amlin and his family, Amlin, are contacted and asked,

hey, is this guy supposed to be in your residence? They're like, absolutely not. You give us permission to do it? Absolutely. His dad is encouraging Mr. Wilson to come outside. He finally does, subsequently arrested. Now get this. The defense actually chose not to give an opening statement right now after the prosecution's opening. That happens sometimes when the defense wants to wait

and see how the state's case plays out in front of the jury. We got a hint of what the defense might claim, and I'll get to that a little bit later. But first, the jury heard from the first witness. He's Josh Lukich. He testified that Wade Wilson came to him on October 7th, 2019, and said that he wanted help leaving town. What were you doing that day? It was a normal business day. I was just dealing with clients that morning. And so were you at your business at that time? Yes Would that be a two three zero nine Hancock Bridge Parkway? Yes Did there come an occasion when you came to contact with Mr. Wilson

Yes, you please describe for ladies and gentlemen jury how that came about Wade Came in within a black car. Uh, he, he backed up to, uh, one of the buildings, um, on the property there. And he came up to, uh, my truck, my vehicle when I was on the property. And, uh, I was with a client at that time. So I told him to, uh, give me a moment and I'll be right with him. And once I went into the building, he was there trying to get a plane ticket or a bus ticket or whatever he could from me to leave town.

Now, when you saw Mr. Wilson, could you please describe for us what he was wearing at that time? He was wearing sweatpants only, no shoes, no shirt. He was bloody, and he was missing a couple of teeth. Could you please describe for the ladies and gentlemen, jury, what his demeanor was? His demeanor was frantic, in a rush to leave as quickly as he could, because he had just done something horrific and killed people. When he was speaking to you and asking you for your assistance, did that give you any cause for concern? Not right away. And once I took a look at him again, I started to believe what he was saying. And what exactly was he saying to you?

He said he killed people, and he rolled up someone in a carpet or a bedding or whatever it was, And that he also needed to get out of town. He needed a plane ticket and a bus ticket or anything he could. So was he frantically asking you for assistance? Yes. Josh Lukich testified that he left the building and called 911. The jury heard that call. He said tattoos, he said he killed some people, and he just hurt a girl.

2309, can Dr. Sparklett? Okay. What is the phone number you're calling from? 239-313-8164. Okay, what is your name? Josh. You know what? L-U-K, I-T-S, Luke. Prosecutors played surveillance video showing Wilson pulling up shirtless at Lukacs's business.

He was driving Christine Melton's car. He walked into the building. He said the video came from one of his tenants. Meanwhile, the defense questioned Lukacs about what he didn't tell the 911 call taker that morning. You said he was frantic. Could you describe that more? He was pacing around, kind of manic, getting back and forth in close to my person and needing a ticket, any kind of ticket, bus ticket, money or anything. And I told him I couldn't help him. And did he lash out at you when you said you couldn't help him? No.

You said he was talking crazy. What did you mean? Crazy as far as... No, you don't understand, Josh. I killed people last night. Did he say he stabbed those people? I don't recall. Did he ever work for you? No. During the 911 call there was no mention of him being covered in blood. Did you leave that out? I don't remember.

But the 911 call would be the best. To refer? Right. Sure. Okay. On redirect, the prosecution asked Josh Lukach to clarify what he meant by Wilson talking crazy. Mr. Lukacs, when you described Mr. Wilson talking crazy, was that because of what he was telling you or how he was telling it to you?

It's pretty crazy what he was telling me. Thank you. No further questions. Now, this might have been a question to counter any claim that Wilson was just rambling or making things up. So it seemed pretty straightforward what Josh Lukacs testified to. His 911 call initiated this investigation. Officer Christopher Anzalone then testified about arriving at Lukacs's business and seeing christine melton's nissan versa there so when you looked at this particular vehicle you indicated that you noticed something inside correct there was blood on the passenger door so what did you do in response to when you saw blood on the interior of that vehicle?

We ended up breaking the officer motto, broke the driver's side window of the vehicle. And due to the circumstances of us not being able to get in contact with the registered owner, we broke the window and pop the trunk and we checked the trunk to make sure that there was nobody inside. Why would you break the window? Because Wade Wilson had made phone calls from Christine Melton's cell phone, which we knew at the time, and we weren't able to locate her. I want to take a moment to tell you about the sponsor of this episode of Crime Fix. It's Truthfinder.com.

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background reports. Just log on to www.truthfinder.com slash lccrimefix. Log on right now and start accessing information about almost anyone. Officer Anzalone said he and another officer saw blood inside the vehicle. The prosecution says that that was Diane Ruiz's blood. The officers broke the window to see if someone was inside. During the course of your search, did you locate anyone? We did not. So you didn't locate an individual by the name of Wade Wilson? No, sir. What did you do after you went ahead and searched the buildings on that property? At that point, we had called for a detective. The vehicle that

Wade Wilson had arrived in, we heard to have blood on it and there was front end damage. When we ran the license plate, it came back to Christine Melton. So we knew the vehicle did not belong to Josh. We tried to get a hold of Christine

Melton, but it was unsuccessful. After you tried to make contact with Ms. Christine Melton, what did you do next? We sent officers down to Christine's house to try to locate her. The car was then towed to the police department and photographed. Melton's body was found at her home. The defense questioned Officer Anzalone about the blood in the car. Did you maintain contact of the car, the vehicle? Yes. When did that get towed? I don't know the exact time off the top of my head. It was later on in the afternoon. Okay, was it a couple hours later? I mean- That's correct. I don't know the exact time off stop my head. It was later on in the afternoon

Was it a couple hours later, I mean that's correct From your observations were you able to tell when that alleged blood? Was placed there got there I Couldn't tell you how long it was there for. Did you touch it? I did not. Now that line of questioning was actually pretty interesting. Is the defense going to actually claim that somebody planted the blood in the car? It almost sounds like that might be where they're going. Then a longtime friend of Christine Melton's took the stand. She was with Christine the night she was killed. They were at a bar together and she described how they met Wade Wilson and a man named

Jason. Yeah, we had been drinking pretty heavily that night. And is that why you chose to get an Uber? Yes. Yeah. We both knew we were going to be drinking, so we didn't want to be driving at all. Now, while you were there, did someone approach you? Yeah towards the end of the night as we were walking up to the upstairs bar somebody jumped out in front of me kind of just like to get my attention and said hey who's your friend? And gestured towards Christine. And, you know, he seemed friendly and introduced himself. And I grabbed Christine and said, hey, this guy wants to meet you. What was his demeanor?

Friendly, charming. Is there anything, any red flags that popped up when you were talking to him? No, no. How did he introduce himself to you? At that point, he introduced himself as J.R. Do you see J.R. sitting in the courtroom today? Yes. Would you please point to him and identify an article of clothing that he's wearing?

Right there in a bright blue suit. Let the record reflect that the witness has identified the defendant. Now, has his appearance changed since the time that you met him? Yes, he has a lot more tattoos on his face. He did not have any facial tattoos. So Johnson identified Wade Wilson as J.R., but she said he didn't have all of those tattoos on his face when she and Christine met him at the bar that night. The assistant state attorney displayed this photo for the jury. Johnson said this is how Wilson looked the night that she and Christine met him. Yes, tattoos on his neck, but not on his face.

Now, about what time did you leave to go home so that you could take your son to school? About six o'clock. Now, prior to leaving, did everything seem fine? Yeah, it did. And I remember telling Christine, you know, I have to go home. I have to go to work. And she was like, OK. She hugged me and kissed me goodbye and said, I'll talk to you tomorrow. And again, when she told you goodbye and that she'd see you tomorrow, did you have any concerns for her safety? No. And in fact, if you did, would you have left her home

with just her and Wade Wilson in that house? Not at all. And if she was concerned, Christine would have never let me leave that house if she was scared. She would have said, let's get this guy out of here together. So when you left, is it safe to say that really the night, the night was over? The party was over? Yeah. It's already morning time. And do you know, like I said, we had this sense of relief that we had made at home. You know, we obviously were in a car with somebody who couldn't drive a car. And I know for me that was the scariest part of that night was being behind the wheel of a car with somebody who couldn't drive.

And I know when we got back to Christine's house in that Uber, it felt like, you know, we were home safe. And it seems that your concern was not driving while intoxicated because along the way you had gotten Ubers. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Now, when you left, you said that you had to take your son to school and you also had to go to work. What time did you go to work? I had to work the morning shift at Duffy's that day. I think I was at work by 10, 1030 in the morning.

My son starts school at nine, so I dropped him off and then went to work. Now, you mentioned earlier that Christine worked at Duffy's. Did she have to work a shift that day? She was not scheduled to work that day. Nevertheless, did you reach out to her just to check in with her at some point? Yeah, I had texted her in the early afternoon and just said, you up? And I did not receive a response. Later that day, Johnson said she texted Christine Melton, but never got a response from her. She later learned that Christine had been killed. Jason Shepard, the guy from the bar, Jason, then took the stand. He said he met JR, who called himself Junior, the same night they met Christine Melton and Stephanie Johnson at that bar.

Did you go to the Buddha with anybody? Yeah, a friend of mine. What did you do when you got there? Had some drinks, hung out, and then she left. And did you talk to other people while you were there? Oh, yeah. While you were there, did you meet someone? Yep.

Who did you meet? A dude named Junior. Do you see Junior sitting here in court? Yeah. Would you please identify an article? A blue suit. All right. Let the record reflect that the witness has identified the defendant.

Okay. And he introduced himself to you as Junior? At the time, yeah. Did you learn his name later on? Yeah. But you never learned it that night? No. Now, was Junior there with anyone?

Yeah. Who was he with? A blonde-haired girl, pretty blonde-haired girl. And did it seem that the two of them were together? Yeah. Now, at some point, did she leave? Yeah. Did you ever see her again that night?

No. Now, when Junior introduced himself to you, describe his personality. He was cool. He was fine. He was cool. And if he wasn't cool or gave you any kind of weird vibe? Yeah, I probably wouldn't have kept talking to him. Now, did he look different back then than he does today? Yeah, he didn't have all this. When you see all this?

Tattoos. I'm showing you States Exhibit No. 39. Is that how he looked back then when you met him at the Buddha? Yeah. Now, what time did the bar close two at two did you all get kicked out of the buddha didn't get kicked out but yeah i mean yeah end of the night yeah we left we closed it down um and when you left did you go out into the parking lot yeah did you talk to anybody in the parking lot no well we ran into the two anybody in the parking lot? No. Well, we ran into two girls. Okay.

Stephanie and Christine, I believe. Now, Jason Shepard could be someone the defense might want to point the finger at since he was with Wade Wilson, Christine Melton, and Stephanie Johnson that night. You said that Christine and Junior were having sex. Did it appear to be consensual? Yeah. They were having a good time? Yeah. And you and Stephanie didn't want to necessarily stand around and watch? No. So you went outside? Yeah. All right and were you and Stephanie interested in each other at all? No. So you're just talking? Yeah. Throughout the course of the evening did they come outside and go back

inside several times? Yeah once or twice and then went back in and kept doing what they were doing. Right. And during any point of these interactions, did you have any concern for your safety? Nope. Did you have any concern for Christine's safety? Mm-mm. Now, did anybody use any drugs that night? Yeah, we did a little coke.

When you say coke, you mean cocaine? Cocaine. Did you provide cocaine to anybody? No, I had my own stuff. Did you see any other drug use besides cocaine? Nope. And alcohol also? Yeah, alcohol, yeah.

The defense just asked him a few questions about the drugs that they'd used that evening. Stephanie Johnson had testified she did not use drugs at Jason's house, but the others did. You said that when you first met with Mr. Wilson, he was with a pretty blonde girl? Yes, sir. All right, now that blonde girl was not Kristen. No. Right. Okay. Okay. You said you had your own stash of cocaine?

Yep. Okay. Did everyone use it? My own, for me. Okay. What was everybody else using? Whatever they wanted. I don't know. You know where they got the cocaine from?

I had my own, and that's all I was worried about. Like I wasn't sharing it. Okay, you leave Buddha Bar about 2? Yeah. Is that right? Yep. Okay, about what time did you get to your house? Probably 10 after, if that. Okay, so you're right down the street. I'm right down the street. Yeah, and

What time did everyone Finally, did they leave they were there probably an hour and a half maybe two hours of that No, so before four o'clock, I would say Did you have any further contact with mr wilson nope well he no he come back to look for his cell phone and i don't think i answered the door oh okay how did he get back there do Do you know? I don't know. I was inside. Also testifying, Melissa Montanez, Wade Wilson's ex-girlfriend, who prosecutors say Wilson attacked after murdering Melton and Ruiz. Montanez said Wilson tried to rip off her dress. Once he realizes that the threads were becoming,

I was getting away from him and he was still holding on to the dress. He opens the car door, obviously forgets to put it in park. The car starts to roll forward. He tackles to me to the ground. The car grazes both of our legs and I'm pummeled to the ground. How hard did he push you to the ground? I'm sorry, I don't recall. This is also fast, and he's very heavy, and I'm 5'2", he's 6'6".

Now, what happens after you are pushed to the ground? I start to get beat. Describe what you mean when you say he was beating you. It all went so fast and so slow, whether it be punches, slapping, choking, that kind of nature. Yes. Now, you mentioned that the fight is happening around the car. Does the fight move at some point? Yes.

So I either get drugged, pulled, can't remember by my hair or arm or dress. I'm trying to reason with him, trying to talk to him, but there's nobody behind those eyes anymore. So there was no reasoning with him. I got to the front of the staircase, and I'm holding on to that, and a crowd begins to develop. I'm expecting people to help, call 911.

So I'm just trying to bide my time at that point as quickly as help can get there. And that's not working either. Wilson's lawyer questioned Montanez about why she would meet up with Wilson if she was so afraid. And you said he was very angry. Yes. And you were very scared. Yes. if she was so afraid. car, but why did you expect him to bring the car? You knew he couldn't drive it. He was with somebody that had drove it away. Why would he not be able to return it? You said when you met up with him, you said there was nobody behind those eyes anymore. Yes, that's true. What did you mean?

Dark serial killer eyes where there's nothing to reason with. It's a black hole. You're saying words, you're trying to evoke emotion in somebody and there's nothing behind those eyes. So those are some of the top moments from the first day of Wade Wilson's double murder trial. If convicted, Wilson could be eligible for the death penalty. His case is one in which the jury could vote for death under a new lower threshold of an eight to four vote among jurors. The death penalty no longer has to be unanimous in the state of Florida. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here

next time.