Kriti Mehrotra
Directed and Executive Produced by Cynthia Childs, Netflix’s ‘Worst Ex Ever: Dating the Deadpool Killer’ carefully chronicles the way a man named Wade Wilson once reigned terror across Florida. He was given the moniker of the titular Marvel anti-hero mutant because he shares the same name as the character, yet his actions were worlds apart from the latter, as he took two innocent lives. Therefore, in the end, he was rightly convicted of two counts of first-degree murder, grand theft, burglary, and battery in connection with his harrowingly brutal movements on October 7, 2019.
Wade Wilson Has a Troubled History and Rap Sheet Dating Back to When He Was 18
Since Wade Wilson was born on May 20, 1994, to teenage parents who admittedly couldn’t care for a baby the way he deserved, he was given up for adoption and ended up in Tallahassee, Florida. According to records, he was raised by a loving couple named Candace and Steve Wilson, but faced issues during his youth as he allegedly had behavioral troubles and engaged in minor criminality. It has also been reported that he sustained at least 2 concussions in his adolescence, which could have played a role in his development before he eventually allegedly fell in with the wrong crowd.
As per records, Wade engaged in minor infractions and substance abuse from the time he was a young teenager attending Chiles High School, yet things took a turn for the worse when he graduated. In fact, the 18-year-old was arrested several times in Leon County in 2012 for his alleged involvement in offenses ranging from assault to burglary to possession/use of a firearm. Then, just a year later, in November 2013, he was convicted on charges of robbery and grand theft, for which he was handed around a few months in prison prior to being released in September 2014. Little did anyone know he would find himself in trouble once again in 2015 with charges of sexual battery and kidnapping after a woman accused him of assaulting her in his car, but he was acquitted.
However, Wade’s extensive rap sheet doesn’t end there; he was convicted of stealing firearms in 2017, was allegedly asked to be a hitman in late 2018, and was accused of domestic violence in 2019. A former girlfriend named Kelly Matthews had reported him for assault, choking, and kidnapping her in her car, but the matter was soon closed due to lack of evidence, plus an active no-contact order. That same year, on July 1, he was arrested again on the charge of battery, but it was dismissed when his accuser/then-girlfriend Melissa “Mila” Montanez, dropped it herself. The next 911 call against him was made on October 7, 2019, when he got into a public argument with Mila, as per the aforementioned show, but it quickly led to him becoming a suspect in two murders.
Wade Wilson Committed Two Murders in the Span of a Few Hours
It was on the evening of October 6, 2019, when Wade and Mila went out to a bar called Buddha Live, only for the latter to leave early because she had work in the morning. According to the original production, she left her car with her boyfriend, who was already being quite social with a couple of strangers, later identified as friends Kristine Melton and Stephanie Sailors. The trio subsequently made their way to 35-year-old Kristine’s home in Cape Coral, from where her friend departed at roughly 2 am, not long after which the 25-year-old strangled his host to death. He reportedly fled the scene in her car in the morning and made his way to see his girlfriend at her workplace, which is where they got into a very public altercation that led many to contact the police.
Mila was angry when she noticed Wade was in a car that was not hers, per her statements to the police, but what really set off their argument was her refusal to get inside the vehicle despite his urging. She resisted him to the best of her abilities, even when he allegedly got physical, because she believed she was going to die if she let up, according to her testimony in court. It turns out her fear was well warranted, as court documents suggest he himself later indicated he would have taken her life if there weren’t so many people around, since he felt as if he was on a roll.
Wade managed to escape the area of Mila’s workplace before officials arrived, only to drive around for a while before seeing 43-year-old mother of two Diane Ruiz walking towards her son’s school. He lured her into the vehicle with a promise to drop her off at her destination, but never did; instead, he just left her bag there. As for her fate, he strangled her to death, too, before pushing her out and running her over multiple times prior to disposing of her remains in the woods. He then broke into a fortunately empty home and called his biological father to confess, who subsequently relayed all the information to the local authorities.
Wade Wilson is Currently on Death Row in a Florida State Prison
When officials were simply investigating Wade in connection with his alleged assault against Mila, they managed to track him down to a nearby city and learned he had abandoned the car he was driving. That’s when they made the connection between him and the two homicides, as both Kristine Melton’s and Diane Ruiz’s cell phones were inside the vehicle, which was then identified as the first victim’s. The police had already found Kristine’s remains and knew she had been killed, yet Diane had only been reported missing, with her children as well as her fiancé desperate for answers.
With all these details and the information provided by Wade’s father, he was arrested on two counts of first-degree murder, battery, burglary, and grand theft on October 8, 2019. He later tried to manipulate a detective, per the documentary episode, claiming he would reveal the location of Diane’s remains in exchange for a burger meal, unaware she had been recovered hours prior. As time passed, he backtracked a little, started vehemently asserting he was innocent, and even tried to escape from the Lee County Core Facility while awaiting trial in October 2020.
As if that’s not enough, in 2023, Wade was implicated in a drug-smuggling plot inside prison, to which he eventually pleaded no contest and was handed down a term of 12 years. It was in the summer of 2024 when he finally stood trial for the charges against him in connection with the two 2019 homicides, which culminated in his conviction. The witness statements, phone records, DNA evidence, and his own initial confession of committing the murders because he “just wanted to do it” led to the jury siding with the prosecution. Thus, following a dismissed appeal, he was sentenced to death in August 2024. Since then, the now 31-year-old has been serving time on death row at the mixed-security Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Florida.
