Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / ‘Deadpool Killer’ Wade Wilson is Sentenced to Death

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‘Deadpool Killer’ Wade Wilson is Sentenced to Death · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right, So Wade Wilson, not that Wade Wilson. I mean,
• 0:02
  he's pretty cool, but we're not talking about the MRK
• 0:04
  with the mouth. Yeah, this is another Wade Wilson, a
• 0:08
  real person, a real guy. This Wade Wilson story comes
• 0:12
  straight from the headlines, not from Marvel Comics or.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Anything that's not a comic book.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: No, and it's a pretty disturbing story. We've been digging
• 0:20
  into a whole bunch of news reports about well, about
• 0:25
  his crimes, the trial, and ultimately his sentencing.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: It's unsettling, to say the least. Definitely unsettling and complex too.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, lots of layers to unpack.
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  Speaker 2: So today we're going to do a deep dive, try
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  to unpack the case of this real life Wade Wilson.
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  He was convicted of a double murder a few years
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  back back in twenty nineteen.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it really shook Florida.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: It really did shook a lot of people. I mean,
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  the details of this case are just brutal. Yeah, brutal,
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  especially because the prosecution basically said he was killing for
• 0:57
  the sake of killing.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Shilling, isn't it? It is?
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  Speaker 2: Really sticks with you, makes you wonder, you know, what
• 1:02
  could drive someone to do something like that?
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Right, Like, what's going on in someone's head? Do you
• 1:06
  even get to that point?
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a big part of what makes this case
• 1:09
  so fascinating, I think and disturbing.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. So let's go back to the beginning. It was
• 1:15
  April twenty nineteen. Wilson runs into a woman named Christine Melton.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Drugs were involved, right, Drugs.
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  Speaker 1: Were part of the whole interaction, and it ends tragically
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  Meltin is murdered.
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  Speaker 2: And that's just the beginning.
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  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that was just the start of a really,
• 1:33
  really awful chain of events.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: So he steals Melton's car. Then he comes across Diana Reeves.
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  She was just asking for directions. Can you imagine? Wow,
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  he invites her into the car and then later admits
• 1:44
  to strangling her.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, just awful. I can't even imagine how
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  terrified she must have been.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: It's hard to comprehend. And it gets even.
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  Speaker 1: Worse, You're kidding. Worse than strangling her, he.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Throws her body out of the car, then gets back
• 1:57
  in and runs her over multiple times.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Multiple times. Oh that's just I mean, how the level
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  of brutality.
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  Speaker 2: Is just it's horrifying, and that escalation of violence is well,
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  it's a big red flag. Yeah, it points to something
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  more than just a you know, a single act of violence,
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  like it's rage, it's lots of control.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Makes you wonder what was going through his head, what
• 2:18
  could have set him off like that?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, there are a lot of unanswered questions there.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: And then on top of everything else, there's this bizarre
• 2:25
  Deadpool connection. I mean, the fact that this guy, this
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  Wade Wilson, has the same name as this like super
• 2:33
  violent anti hero from the comics.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's almost too weird to believe it really is,
• 2:37
  and it.
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  Speaker 1: Just adds its whole other layer to the story. Makes
• 2:40
  you wonder about I don't know, the influence of pop culture.
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  Does life imitate art? Did he like subconsciously connect to
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  this character.
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  Speaker 2: It's a valid question. I mean, names hold power, right
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  for sure.
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  Speaker 1: And then there's the fan mail.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, the fan mail.
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  Speaker 1: Well, he's in prison, waiting for his trial, he starts
• 2:59
  getting letters from people like admirers, love letters, even explicit pictures.
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  I mean talk about strange hybristophelia. Yeah, that's it, hyprisophilia. Honestly,
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  it's hard to even.
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  Speaker 2: Understand, it's a really complex thing, this fascination with people
• 3:14
  who commit violent crimes, right.
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  Speaker 1: Like wanting to be near danger.
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  Speaker 2: Some people think they can like fix the.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Person, redeem them. Yeah, it's fascinating and disturbing all the
• 3:24
  same time. Totally, But it's easy to get caught up
• 3:27
  in all the sensational stuff and forget that there were
• 3:30
  actual victims here. Christine Milton and Diana Reeves. They lost
• 3:34
  their lives, their families, their friends. I mean, they're the
• 3:37
  ones who are really suffering.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely real people, real loss. Can't forget that.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: No, you can't. And then the trial itself was really complicated.
• 3:47
  Oh yeah. The defense tried to paint a picture of
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  Wade Wilson as this troubled guy, you know, brain damage
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  from years of drug abuse. They talked about him being adopted,
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  having abandonment issues, trying to show.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: That he wasn't totally in control of his actions.
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  Speaker 1: Exactly, like he had this diminished capacity.
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  Speaker 2: It's a key legal argument saying that because of mental impairment,
• 4:09
  the defendant might not have been able to fully form
• 4:12
  the intent to commit the crime.
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  Speaker 1: Right And in Wilson's case, his lawyers were saying that
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  the drug use the brain damage, that's what affected his judgment,
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  his ability to control himself.
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  Speaker 2: It's a compelling argument, it is.
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  Speaker 1: And then his adoptive parents, they begged the court to
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  have mercy on him.
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  Speaker 2: They really believed he could turn his life around.
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  Speaker 1: They said, I remember this quote, they said, the human
• 4:35
  is still in there.
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  Speaker 2: It's heartbreaking. Really makes you ask, is someone who does
• 4:39
  something so terrible can they ever really be rehabilitated.
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  Speaker 1: That's the question that hangs over this whole case. And
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  the thing is Wilson's behavior in prison. It didn't exactly
• 4:50
  help his case. You know what do you mean? Well,
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  he got facial tattoos like a swastika, he tried to escape,
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  got caught smuggling drugs. He even overdosed at one point.
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  Speaker 2: Not exactly signs of someone trying to turn things around.
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  Speaker 1: Right, So in the end, the judge went with what
• 5:06
  the jury recommended, the death penalty. Yeah, and he's some
• 5:09
  really strong language talking about the murderers being and I
• 5:13
  quote heinous, atrocious, and cruel.
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  Speaker 2: Those are words that carry a lot of weight in
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  the legal system, especially when it comes to the death penalty.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and they point to the severity the crimes, the
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  level of planning.
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  Speaker 2: The judge was basically saying there was no doubt about
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  the premeditation, which is a big factor in a death
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  penalty case.
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  Speaker 1: Right. And of course, this whole case brings up the
• 5:34
  debate about capital punishment in the US.
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  Speaker 2: It's a huge issue. People feel really strongly about it
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  on both sides.
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  Speaker 1: Exactly, and the judge's decision in this case it reflects
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  one side of that argument.
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  Speaker 2: But it's an ongoing discussion. This idea of justice, punishment, rehabilitation.
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  It's a tough.
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  Speaker 1: One, it is, and it's something we have to think about,
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  especially with the case like this. So after this deep
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  dies into the life and crimes of this way Wilson,
• 6:00
  what have we learned? Yeah, I mean, there's the sheer
• 6:03
  horror of the crimes, but then there's the whole psychological
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  mystery of hyperstophilia. And then you have these conflicting stories
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  about Wilson himself. Was he a troubled guy who made
• 6:14
  bad choices or was he a cold blooded killer?
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  Speaker 2: It's hard to reconcile those two images. And then there's
• 6:20
  the bigger question of the death penalty. What does it achieve?
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  Is it ever justified?
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  Speaker 1: Right? This case really forces you to confront some uncomfortable
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  truths about human nature, the limits of what we can understand,
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  and the complexities of the justice system. It's a story
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  that stays with you, no doubt about that, and it
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  leaves us with this big, unsettling question. Does understanding someone
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  like Wade Wilson, his past, his struggles, does any of
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  that make his crimes any less horrific? I don't know
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  the answer me neither.
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  Speaker 2: It's a question worth thinking about.
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  Speaker 1: Though, for sure, because these kinds of stories, they force
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  us to look at the darker side of humanity, and
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  that's something we can can't shy away from.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, we have to keep asking these tough questions if
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  we want to understand ourselves and the world around us
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  exactly