Law&Crime Sidebar - 12 Wild Moments in TikTok Famous Killer’s Murder Trial

Episode Date: December 25, 2024

Wade Wilson was convicted of murdering two women during a killing spree in October 2019. The face-tatted Florida man strangled his victims to death “for the sake of killing.” Wilson was sentenced to death for the gruesome murders. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber breaks down the 12 most wild moments from his horrifying trial.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger and Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY 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 Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Both of them died on the 7th of October of 2019. Both of them had been strangled. The last person that they encountered was Mr. Wade Wilson. He said he got back in the car and ran her over until she looked like spaghetti. He said he killed people. He's got a diseased mind.

If you want to address the court or not. Not today if you. Later, when I come back, I will. Today, no, I won't. Okay. The TikTok famous tattooed killer Wade Wilson awaits his day in the death chamber after being convicted of brutally murdering two women in Cape Coral. In a case that captured the national attention, Wilson's trial was full of shocking revelations,

including a chilling confession he made to his father that turned out to be a crucial piece of evidence. We're going to revisit the wildest, most suspenseful moments from the trial of this tatted killer that ultimately led to his death sentence. Welcome to Cybar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Double murderer Wade Wilson, who gained notoriety on TikTok for his tattoos and the unsettling coincidence of sharing a name with the Deadpool character, stood trial earlier this year for the brutal 2019 murders of two women, Christine Melton and Diane Ruiz in Cape Coral, Florida. These tragic series of events unfolded on October 7, 2019, when Wilson, who was then 25, apparently met Melton. and her friend at a bar in Fort Myers.

They spent the night hanging out before heading to Melton's home the next morning. And after Melton's friend left, Wilson did the unthinkable. He just strangled Melton to death in her sleep and stole her car. And then later, he encountered just randomly 43-year-old Diane Ruiz walking down to Cape Coral Street. I was able to lure her into his car under the pretense of asking for directions. But when she tried to escape, Wilson attacked her. beat her, strangled her before pushing her out of the car, and running over her body multiple times. He was arrested just a day after these brutal killings, after he made a chilling confession to all people, his father.

And his father testified about that, recounted these horrifying details on the stand during his son's trial. And Wilson's trial began in June, where he faced charges, including two counts of first-degree murder, grand theft, battery, burglary, petty theft? In opening statements, the prosecutor highlighted what is just a senseless killing, senseless nature of these crimes, telling the jury that Wilson killed these innocent people? Because he just wanted to do it. Mr. 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 strengthened. And both of them, before they were forever silenced.

The last person that they encountered was Mr. Wade Wilson. Ms. Melton is left alone Mr. Nelson. You know how that morning ended? Miss Melton, once again, once again, broken fingernails, her face was black and blue, she had marks around her neck. She had been strangled. He then proceeds to wrap her up in some bedding, ties the bedding, ties it with her shirts, her jeans, her leggings, her bathing suit top, and tries to pull her out of the bedroom.

Except at this point time, the sun's beginning to come up, it's getting the light outside. heavy. He wants to get rid of the body. He thinks the better of it and then decides he's going to leave her there. He gets her keys to the black Nissan Versa. And you're going to hear that when they asked him why he killed Ms. Melton. He said, I just wanted to do it. And then they asked them, well, what about Mr. Reese? His response was Effid

She'd kill her I got one down Hittery reached out to his dad They needed to know where his whereabouts are Dad Dad tells him 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 attrust. It tells him, yeah, I'm going to send you an Uber. Now, Wilson's defense decided not to give an opening statement.

And sometimes you do that when you, you know, truth be told, don't have a great defense, but you want to see what the prosecution puts out first. It's not the worst idea at times because really, look, it's the prosecution's case. It's the prosecution who has the burden of proof here, not the defense. You can just say, hey, listen, after everything you heard, they didn't prove their case beyond the reasonable doubt. Although I will tell you, sometimes, sometimes when you see a defense not put forward an opening statement could be a red flag. So no defense opening, and the trial went straight into testimony after the prosecution's opening. By the way, we have wanted to

break down this Wade Wilson trial for you for quite some time. And I got to thank our incredible partner, Morgan and Morgan, because it's with their support that we're able to do this. So here's the deal. If you should get injured, you got to know your legal rights and whether you can be compensated. And Morgan and Morgan, America's largest injury law firm, that may be who you want in your side. Over 1,000 attorneys, they got case specialists, paralegals, investigators, an incredible track record like recent verdicts of $12 million in Florida and $26 million in Philadelphia, higher than the highest insurance offers in these cases. There's no upfront fee. They only get paid if you get paid. The whole process can be done right from your smartphone. So if you're injured,

you can easily start a claim at for the people.com slash LC sidebar. Now, after Wilson kills these two women, he apparently describes all of this to his father and then asks him to get him an Uber. Yeah. Now, his father testified about this chilling set of details he was told in a disturbing phone confession. Needless to say, by the way, he didn't end up calling his son an Uber that day. He just told me, you know, he did something. There was two people gone that would not be back.

He said, I'm a killer. You know, I just told him to call me back. I just thought it was another story, you know. So at this point when he says that there were two people that wouldn't be with us and that he was a killer, did you put a lot of weight into that? No, ma'am. Do you think he was just telling you a story? He's a good storyteller.

When he talked about these two people who were no longer with us, and that he was a killer. Did he show any type of remorse? No, ma'am. He just said he met a girl at a bar. They went back to her house, hung out for a little bit, and then she fell asleep. What did he say happened after she fell asleep? He said he got on top of her and choked her. What name did he call her? Did he refer to on a derogatory term?

He said, I choked that f***. Okay. What did he say about the second question? girl he said that he pulled her out of the car and realized that she was still breathing so what did he tell you he did when he realized she's still breathing he said he got back in the car and ran her over until she looked like spaghetti as he's telling you all these things what's his demeanor as he's telling you he was excited he was excited You say excited, what do you mean by that? He just, I felt like he was wanting me to feel the way he felt about it.

Did he seem proud of it? Yes. When you were talking to him, you decided that you needed to give the information to law enforcement about his whereabouts, how did you get that address from him? I told him I was going to send him a maneuver, and I needed the address of where he was. Were you actually going to send him an Uber? No, ma'am. What did you then do with the address he gave you? My wife was messaging with the officer.

And did you encourage him to go outside and turn himself in? I did. I didn't want him to do anything stupid and end up getting killed. So I just told him to put his hands up and just go outside. Yeah, bragging to his father about murdering two women didn't really end. the way Wade Wilson wanted it to, since it was his father's own disbelief that led to his son's arrest just a day after the murders. Now, although it was ultimately this confession that landed him in jail, this was apparently not the only time that he told someone he killed people. Sometime after the murders, Wilson showed up to a business acquaintance of his, and this

acquaintance, Joshua Lukish, told the jury of this bizarre encounter he had with a shirtless and frantic Wade Wilson. Wade came in in a black car. He backed up to one of the buildings on the property there. And he came up to

my truck, my vehicle when I was on the property. And I was with a client at that time, so I told him to give me a moment and I'll be right with him. And

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 before 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 yeah so wilson was caught on surveillance entering the business shirtless just as the witness said but as the state played this video for the jury wilson can apparently be heard whispering to his defense attorney there's no blood on me in the video wilson had a lot of unsettling reaction

actions to various evidence that was presented during this trial. But I will tell you, one particularly disturbing moment came when he listened to the 911 phone call that Lukash had made right after seeing Wilson, who again can be seen smirking and shaking his head in the courtroom. He said he stabbed somebody, I guess. Okay, and you can get the person's description if he was like that he said. He's white, about six, two, he has tattoos. Have you said his name was Wade?

Wade, yeah, I don't know about that, but I don't think, wait. Now, let's be clear about something. Both the murders of Christine Melton and Diane Ruiz were absolutely horrific. But I have to say, when it came to Ruiz, she particularly suffered some really gruesome injuries because Wilson ran her over with the car repeatedly. Dr. Thomas Coyne of the Tallahassee Medical Examiner's Office described Ruiz condition in just chillingly precise detail to this jury. So fair warning to you right now. This is a bit graphic.

What injuries did you note, if any, on the external examination of Ms. Diana Ruiz? Sure. Most notably, so she was in the stages of future fact of decomposition. So her tissues were being decomposed and degrading. She had some evidence of animal or scavenging activity on her body as well. And so portions of her ears and nose were removed already, most likely by avian scavengers. But I could see externally first and foremost that she had fracturing of the nasal bone. She also had a laceration underneath her left breasts.

She also had bruising or hemorrhaging in the skin on the both sides of the left and right sides of the body. Was that the extent of the external injuries that you observed? The most significant external. There was, of course, a lot of significant internal injuries. And did you document all of these by way of further? Well, I apologize. She also had what I didn't talk about was bruising. on the back of her left forearm, bruising on the back of her left hand.

I can also see that she had a fracture of the fourth finger, the proximal part of the fourth finger, and she also has some bruising on her right arm as well. And the jury also heard from Diane Ruiz's fiancé, Scott Hannan, who described the morning of that fateful day. And this was just heartbreaking because he recalled what would have been their final goodbye. And you indicated that Ms. Ruiz worked at the Moose Lodge? And how did she get to the Moose Lodge on most days? Most days she had our friend who was an Uber driver, his name is James anyway, but I guess on that day he was not available.

Do you know how she got to work that day? Yes, I know that she walked to work. Did you have any contact with her after you left for work that day? Um, a brief text message. Um, she, uh, she, uh, she, uh, she, uh, she didn't think I gave her a kiss goodbye. Had you? Of course. As for the circumstances surrounding Christine Melton's murder, the jury was able to hear from one of the last people who had seen her alive, her friend Stephanie Johnson, who was with Melton at the bar when they were approached by Wade Wilson. This is what she had to say. 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 JR. Do you see JR 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. Okay. Now, has his appearance changed since the time that you met him? Yes, he has a lot more tattoos on his face. So after they left the bar, they spent the night at a friend's house before

eventually taking an Uber back to Melton's house the next morning, where Johnson broke out in tears and recalled the moment she saw Melton for the last time. 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, okay, she hugged me and kissed me goodbye and said, I'll talk to you tomorrow. And again, when she told you goodbye 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 was over? The party was over.

Yeah. It's already morning time. Mm-hmm. And, you know, like I said, we had this sense of relief that we had made at home. Now, aside from the murder charges that Wilson faced, he was also hit with a charge of battery for allegedly assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Melissa Montanez, who told the jury of this terrifying argument she had with Wilson when they last met up. And that was one, she said, almost led to her dying.

When you got there, did you get out and try to talk to him? Yes. And again, what were you trying to talk to him about? I went to the driver's side window. He wrote it down. I said, where are my keys? Where is my car? He was calm and just saying, get in the car, get in the car.

And it escalated quickly. Did you agree to get in the car? No. And when you would not agree to get in the car, how did he act? Violent, aggressive, tried to pull me in the car physically. and I resisted, got plank style, so that he could not grab me into the vehicle. 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.

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. 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. I knew I was going to die that day. I was just buying time.

The final and in punch that I remember, he got me so straight on and blood just went crazy everywhere. And it almost was like a minute where I could dunk under and run under his arm, run down the stairs. And then that's when my neighboring businesses, the design studio, were calling me, Mila, get in here. And then like, I didn't even realize how crazy. I looked, but like they rescued me, and I don't know what happened after that. I'm assuming he left. In the end, Wilson's team opted not to put on a case, and the jury spent roughly two hours deliberating before ultimately convicting Wade Wilson on all of the charges, including murder. And prior to his sentencing, the judge did give Mr. Wilson the opportunity to speak.

Well, Mr. Wilson, you have an opportunity just like during any other phases of, well, let me just finish real quick, any other phases during the case. If you want to address the court, I would permit you to do that. Obviously, you know, everything's recorded. But you would have that opportunity if you wish. No one can prevent you from addressing the court if you wish to. And no one can make you address the court if you don't want to. So it is an decision that's solely left up to you if you want to address the court or not.

Not today if you. Later, when I come back, I will. Today, no, I won't. Okay. Okay. Thank you. And a stoic, expressionless, Wade Wilson, was served the maximum punishment for his crimes. The totality of the circumstances warrants that the defendant, Wade Stephen Wilson, be sentenced to death for each count first degree murder. Count one, first degree murder of Christine Melton.

The defendant is hereby sentenced to death. Count four, first degree murder of Diane Ruiz. The defendant is hereby sentenced to death. And that is the story of Wade Wilson. You can stream more gavel-to-gavel trial coverage on our long crime YouTube channel. That's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. law and crime series, ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.