Wade Wilson Sentenced to Death for 2 Murders in Worst Ex Ever
Wade Wilson’s worst ex ever case ended with a death sentence in August 2024. He was sentenced for the murders of Kristine Melton and Diane Ruiz, and his legal team has now taken the fight to the Florida Supreme Court.
The 35-year-old Melton and 43-year-old Ruiz were killed on October 7, 2019. Wilson told detectives he would do it again, a line that sharpened the brutality prosecutors described as “heinous, atrocious, and cruel.”
October 7 in Cape Coral
Wilson attacked Melton in Cape Coral after meeting her at a bar and accompanying her home. He strangled her while she was sleeping, then later lured Ruiz into a car he had stolen from Melton’s home.
Ruiz was a mother of two and a bartender. Wilson strangled her too, and later admitted to driving over her body multiple times. Those facts became the core of the state’s case and the reason the sentencing landed with unusual force in a case already marked by national notoriety during his 2024 trial.
Florida’s 2023 law
His August 2024 sentence came under Florida’s new 2023 death penalty legislation, which allows a judge to impose death even if the jury’s recommendation is not unanimous. That made Wilson one of the first high-profile defendants sentenced under the law, turning his punishment into a test case as much as a verdict.
Wilson’s face, covered in tattoos including a Joker-like stitched mouth and Nazi imagery, helped fuel the “Deadpool Killer” label the media gave him. The imagery may have grabbed attention, but the legal issue now is narrower and harsher: whether Florida can apply the newer sentencing scheme to his case.
Florida Supreme Court appeal
As of May 2026, Wilson is reportedly on death row in Florida while his lawyers pursue a direct appeal to the Florida Supreme Court. They argue that the retroactive application of Florida’s new sentencing laws is unconstitutional.
That leaves the case in a hard place for anyone following it: the sentence stands, the appeal is active, and the state is still defending a capital punishment ruling tied to two murders that began with a bar meeting and ended with two innocent women dead.
