A Lee County jury convicted Wade Wilson in June 2024 for the murders of Kristine Melton, 35, and Diane Ruiz, 43, two Cape Coral women killed within hours during a violent crime spree in October 2019. Prosecutors said Wilson first met Melton at a Fort Myers bar before later killing her, then encountered Ruiz and attacked her after luring her into a vehicle.
Investigators built the case through witness testimony, forensic evidence, phone records, and statements connected to Wilson’s movements before and after the killings. Trial testimony showed that Wilson had taken a vehicle without permission and moved through multiple locations as detectives later reconstructed the timeline of the crimes. Authorities said Melton was strangled, while Ruiz was beaten, strangled, and run over.
The investigation became one of Southwest Florida’s most closely watched homicide cases because of the brutality of the crimes and the speed with which the two killings occurred. Detectives worked to connect the victims, vehicles, crime scenes, and witness accounts into a single sequence of events that prosecutors presented as deliberate and violent.
In addition to two counts of first-degree murder, Wilson was convicted of grand theft, battery, burglary, and petit theft. After the guilty verdict, the same jury recommended the death penalty: nine jurors voted for death in Melton’s murder, and ten voted for death in Ruiz’s murder.
Judge Nicholas Thompson later followed the jury’s recommendation and sentenced Wilson to death. The ruling marked the final courtroom chapter of a case that began with two women killed in 2019 and ended years later with one of Florida’s most severe criminal penalties.
For investigators and prosecutors, the case showed how witness accounts, forensic work, and timeline reconstruction helped expose the full scope of a deadly crime spree. For the families of Kristine Melton and Diane Ruiz, the verdict and death sentence represented accountability after years of waiting for justice.
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