Wade Wilson, the Fort Myers man convicted of killing two Cape Coral girls, is one step nearer to being sentenced to dying for his crimes.
Wilson was convicted on June 12, 2024, in Lee County on six prices, together with the murders of Kristine Melton and Diane Ruiz:
- Two counts of first-degree homicide
- First-degree homicide
- Grand theft
- Battery
- Housebreaking
- Petty theft
On June 25, the jury in Wilson’s trial voted in favor of recommending the dying penalty for every of the murders.
Here is what we all know concerning the murders Wilson dedicated and what’s anticipated to occur subsequent:
What did Wade Wilson do?
On October 7, 2019, Wilson, then 25 years outdated, met Kristine Melton, 35, and her pal Stephanie Sailors at Buddah LIVE, a Fort Myers bar.
After the bar closed, Wilson and the 2 girls went to the house of Jayson Shepard the place they stayed for a number of hours earlier than leaving within the morning.
Wilson, Melton and Sailors then went Melton’s Cape Coral house. After Sailors left, Wilson strangled Melton to dying as she slept in her mattress and stole her automobile.
A short while later, Wilson noticed 43-year-old Diane Ruiz strolling alongside a Cape Coral road, requested her for instructions and lured her into the automobile.
When Ruiz tried to exit the automobile, Wilson attacked her, beating and strangling her earlier than pushing her out of the automobile and working her over repeatedly.
After the murders, Wilson known as his organic father Steven Testasecca a number of instances confessing to and narrating the crimes. Testasecca contacted police and Wilson was arrested Oct. 8, 2019.
What did Wade Wilson get sentenced to?
On June 25, 2024, the jury in Wilson’s trial advisable he obtain the dying penalty for every of the murders.
Jurors, who had the choice of recommending life with out parole or dying, voted 9-3 and 10-2 for dying.
It is going to be as much as the choose to impose the dying sentence.
What occurs subsequent?
Trial choose Nicholas Thompson will resolve whether or not the dying sentence advisable by the jury is imposed.
Sentencing is scheduled for July 23.
As soon as sentenced and different unrelated prices are resolved, Wilson will likely be transferred from the Lee County Jail into the Florida jail system.
Demise row inmates are housed at Union Correctional Establishment, previously Florida State Jail, in Raiford. Executions are additionally carried out at that facility.
What is going to Florida’s dying row be like for Wade Wilson?
If Wilson is sentenced to dying, he’ll be housed in a cell measuring 6x9x9.5 toes on Florida’s dying row at Union Correctional Establishment.
In keeping with the Florida Division of Corrections, inmates on dying row are allowed snacks, radios and 13” TVs, however don’t have cable or air-conditioning. They put on orange T-shirts to set them aside from different inmates and the identical blue pants worn by common prisoners.
Demise row inmates are served three meals a day – at 5 a.m., from 10:30 to 11 a.m. and from 4 to 4:30 p.m.. Meals is ready by jail employees and transported in insulated carts to the cells, the place inmates are given sporks to eat from the supplied trays.
They’re allowed showers each different day and any guests should be preapproved. Inmates can obtain mail, besides on holidays and weekends.
Demise Row inmates are counted at the very least hourly. They put on handcuffs in every single place besides of their cells, the train yard and bathe. They’re of their cells apart from medical causes, train, social or authorized visits or media interviews.
As soon as a dying warrant is signed by the governor, the inmate is placed on Demise Watch standing and allowed a authorized and social cellphone name.
Strategies of execution in Florida
In 1923, the Florida Legislature handed a legislation changing hanging with the electrical chair. An oak chair was constructed by jail inmates in that 12 months.
Florida’s present three-legged electrical chair, nicknamed “Outdated Sparky,” was constructed of oak by Florida Division of Corrections employees and put in at Florida State Jail in Raiford in 1999.
Laws handed in 2000 permits for deadly injection as a substitute for the electrical chair.
Contributing: Tomas Rodriguez, Fort Myers Information-Press