The tattooed “Deadpool Killer” Wade Wilson was sentenced to death on Tuesday for the brutal murders of two women in Florida in 2019. He committed these crimes “for the sake of killing.” The 30-year-old remained expressionless as the judge announced the death sentence.
“The evidence shows that the murders were heinous, cruel and savage and that the second murder was cold-blooded, calculated and premeditated,” District Judge Nicholas Thompson told the court.
Wilson was convicted in June of the murders of Kristine Melton, 35, and Diane Ruiz, 43, during a violent spree in October 2019. The jury recommended the death penalty, which Judge Thompson affirmed because he saw “no basis” to overturn her decision.
Prosecutors said Wilson strangled Melton in her home after a drug-induced sexual encounter. He then stole her car and used her phone to call his girlfriend, Melissa Montanez, 41. When she refused to get into his car, he attacked her.
Wilson later encountered Ruiz asking for directions in Cape Coral and invited her into his car. He confessed to strangling her and throwing her out of the car, then repeatedly running over her “until she looked like spaghetti,” as described during the trial.
“This case was about killing for the sake of killing,” Assistant State Attorney Andreas Gardiner told the court, adding that “strangulation is the epitome of life slipping through your hands.”
Despite the cruelty of his crimes, Wilson received thousands of love letters and explicit photographs from admirers during his five years in prison. Some even wrote to the judge asking for leniency, claiming that Wilson was a different person when he was on medication.
His defense attorneys argued that Wilson suffered brain damage from his drug addiction and that he had abandonment issues as a result of his adoption. His adoptive parents pleaded with the court to spare his life. In a letter, they wrote that “the humanity is still there” and asked the judge: “Please keep it in your heart and do not take our son away from us.”
In addition to the murders, Wilson was also convicted of grand larceny, burglary, assault and petty theft.
