Wade Steven Wilson is not a comic-book antihero. He is a Florida inmate on death row whose name, face tattoos and 2019 double murder made him a fixture of true-crime coverage. Media labeled him the “Deadpool killer” because he shares a name with Marvel’s Wade Wilson. That nickname, plus a face transformed by jailhouse ink, has often overshadowed the two women he was convicted of killing: Kristine Melton, 35, and Diane Ruiz, 43.

The 2019 murders

On the night of October 6 into the morning of October 7, 2019, Wilson, then 25, met Melton and a friend at a Fort Myers-area bar. After a stop at another house, they went to Melton’s Cape Coral home. Prosecutors said that after the friend left, Wilson strangled Melton as she slept, stole her car and left. Hours later he encountered Ruiz, a bartender and mother of two who was walking to work. He lured her into the stolen vehicle, attacked her, pushed her out and ran her over repeatedly. Her body was found days later in a field. Wilson was already in custody on other charges when he became the suspect in both deaths.

A Lee County jury convicted him on June 12, 2024, of two counts of first-degree murder plus grand theft, battery, burglary and petty theft. In the penalty phase the jury voted 9–3 for death in Melton’s murder and 10–2 in Ruiz’s. Judge Nicholas Thompson imposed two death sentences on August 27, 2024, finding the crimes heinous and the second killing cold, calculated and premeditated. The defense pointed to drug use, possible brain damage and a difficult background, including adoption. The court did not treat those claims as enough to spare him execution.

The tattoos

Wilson was already tattooed when arrested. In jail he added extensive face and neck ink that later dominated courtroom photos. Reporting has documented a swastika under his right eye and another on the side of his head; the numbers 14 and 88, widely used as white-supremacist codes; “HA HA HA” and “why so serious” associated with the Joker; a stitched-mouth design; “bred for war” under the chin; and other markings some viewers have linked to Deadpool imagery. He also received mail and attention from strangers, including people who sent clothes and tried to help him cover the tattoos for court. The ink does not explain the murders. It does explain why his image spread faster than the names of his victims.

While awaiting trial he was also accused of a window-tampering escape plot and later pleaded no contest to smuggling drugs into jail; related escape charges were dropped in a plea. As of mid-2026 he is held at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Florida, on death row.

The legal battle still keeping the case alive

Wilson is not challenging the guilty verdicts in the same way he is challenging the death sentences. Florida’s 2023 law allows a judge to impose death after a jury vote of at least 8–4. When the murders happened in 2019, a unanimous jury recommendation was required. His lawyers argue that applying the later, lower threshold to a 2019 crime violates state law against retroactive punishment and the federal ban on ex post facto rules.

That issue went to the Florida Supreme Court. After the court upheld the 2023 statute in other cases, attorney Michael Ufferman used a short February 5, 2026, argument mainly to preserve the claim for the U.S. Supreme Court rather than relitigate points Tallahassee had already rejected. No execution date has been set. In Florida the governor must sign a death warrant, and that typically waits while appeals remain open. The case has also stayed visible because of documentaries and series, including appearances tied to Worst Ex Ever on Netflix and other true-crime programs.

What remains

Two facts sit together. A jury found Wilson guilty of murdering Melton and Ruiz in a single morning in Cape Coral. A later change in Florida’s death-penalty math is now the main reason his sentence, not his conviction, is still a national legal story. Families of the victims have said they intend to be present if an execution is ever scheduled. Until a warrant is signed — or a higher court intervenes — Wade Wilson remains on death row, recognizable less for the comic-book name than for the record that put him there.

Sources

Wikipedia overview of the criminal case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wade_Wilson_(criminal)
Newsweek — victims Kristine Melton and Diane Ruiz: https://www.newsweek.com/wade-wilson-florida-verdict-victims-1917621
USA TODAY / News-Press — sentencing and Florida death-penalty rules
Court TV — Florida Supreme Court hearing and planned U.S. Supreme Court appeal: https://www.courttv.com/news/wade-wilsons-attorney-promises-to-take-appeal-to-u-s-supreme-court/