Wade Steven Wilson, now 32, has been under two dєatᩚh sentences since August 2024 for the October 2019 murders of Kristine Melton and Diane Ruiz, yet as of mid-2026 no exє𝔠uti☉n date has been set and he continues to reside on dєatᩚh row at Union Correctional Insтιтution in Raiford, Florida. The Lee County jury convicted him in June 2024 of first-degree murder and additional charges after hearing evidence that included his recorded confession to biological father Steven Testasecca, in which he described one victim’s remains as looking like spaghetti and stated he had killed two women that day with no expressed remorse. Judge Nicholas Thompson formally imposed the sentences, characterizing the crimes as heinous, atrocious, and cruel. Because Florida law provides for automatic review of dєatᩚh sentences, the case went to the Florida Supreme Court.
Oral arguments occurred on February 5, 2026. Defense counsel focused on challenges to the retroactive application of the state’s 2023 law that lowered the threshold for a dєatᩚh recommendation from a unanimous jury vote to an 8-4 split; Wilson’s recommendations were 9-3 and 10-2. The court had already upheld the consтιтutionality of the statute in other cases, and the panel affirmed the lower court’s ruling in Wilson’s matter. His attorneys have indicated they intend to seek review from the U.S. Supreme Court, preserving the consтιтutional arguments.
Capital appeals in Florida commonly stretch for years, and Wilson’s case remains open with no warrant signed. In the meantime he has accumulated disciplinary reports while incarcerated, including issues related to drug use and unauthorized activity. Earlier, while in local jail, he faced charges for conspiring to traffic methamphetamine and an attempted escape; he pleaded no contest in connection with the drug matter and received concurrent time. He was briefly transferred in 2025 to another facility before returning to Union Correctional Insтιтution’s dєatᩚh row unit. The 2026 documentaries Handsome Devil: Charming 𝘬iᩚller on Paramount+ and the Netflix Worst Ex Ever episode have kept public interest high, documenting both the original crimes and the ongoing fan correspondence from women who continue to send letters and pH๏τos.
Wilson’s adoptive parents raised him in the Tallahᴀssee area after he was given up as an infant by teenage biological parents; he has a history of substance issues, head injuries, and prior convictions for burglary, theft, and battery. Prosecutors presented the 2019 killings as deliberate rather than the product of momentary impairment. Families of Melton and Ruiz have publicly stated they will attend any exє𝔠uti☉n, viewing it as the conclusion of a process that began with two missing-persons reports and ended with two dєatᩚh sentences. For now, the legal machinery moves slowly. No new exє𝔠uti☉n date has been announced, online claims of recent stays or denials have not been supported by the public record, and Wilson remains confined under the sentences imposed in 2024. The contrast between the graphic confession that helped secure the convictions and the protracted appellate timeline is one of the defining features of the case in 2026: a man who openly described reducing a human body to something resembling food still awaits the final resolution of his appeals while documentaries and fan interest continue to circulate his name.
