A Florida jury this week ordered capital punishment for a man guilty of murdering two women in 2019.
Wade Wilson was convicted of strangling Kristine Melton to death as she slept the morning after meeting her at a bar, and then beating, strangling, and running over Diane Ruiz with his automobile after seeing her on the street that same day.
Ten of the 12 jurors in the Lee County Courthouse in Fort Myers voted on Tuesday that Wilson, whose reportedly “smug” and “smirking” manner in court went viral, should be executed for killing Ruiz, while nine of the 12 voted for death in Melton’s murder. Eight jurors must vote in favor of the death penalty, according to state law.
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The ruling will be made by Judge Nicholas Thompson on July 23.
Following the trial, social media users labeled Wilson “soulless” and accused the murderer of appearing “smug” and “smirking” when his crimes were recounted to the jury.
“He is remorseless and claims he would do it again. I don’t believe in ‘an eye for an eye’. I’ve never been. But Wade Wilson’s smug aloofness makes me think life in a cell with three meals a day, in genpop, isn’t right,” one user remarked on X.
A different witness said, “Note the psychopathic smirk on the face of the serial strangler.”
A third stated, “Wade Wilson received the death penalty in Florida for murdering two women. His own father turned him away since the creature was a soulless monster.
“You know, you’re asking someone to take another life, and so it’s always a difficult thing,” Assistant State Attorney Sara Miller told FOX 4 following the referral. “Given the awful nature of the case, I believe it was a justified act.
“The murders were particularly wicked, horrible, and merciless. He caused anguish, and he showed complete disregard for her [Melton’s] existence.”
The defense argued during the trial that Wade has a “diseased mind” and a “disease of drug addiction,” according to the station.
Miller, on the other hand, told jurors, “It’s not credible that the defendant murdered Kristine Melton and Diane Ruiz because of mental illness. He was under the sway of power, passion, domination, and hatred.
“Many people suffer from drug addictions, but they don’t go out and commit murders.”