A double murderer dubbed ‘Deathpool killer’ flashed strange hand signals and smirked as a jury recommended the death penalty for brutally killing two women on the same day.
Wade Wilson, 30, who has the same name as the Marvel character, wiggled his right fingers and made a gesture with his left hand and otherwise displayed no emotion while hearing a jury’s decision.
Wilson’s mysterious signal, and his face tattoos including stitching marks extending his mouth line, went viral. The man with slicked black hair appeared to attract some female fans.
He was convicted in mid-June of killing Kristine Melton, 35, and Diane Ruiz, 43, just hours apart in October 2019.
Wilson met Melton at a bar with live music in Cape Coral, Florida, on October 6, and went home with her. The next day, he strangled her to death and her body was found inside her residence.
Hours later, Ruiz, a Cape Coral bartender and engaged mother-of-two, was reported missing after walking to work and last being seen speaking to Wilson, who asked her for directions. Wilson lured Ruiz into a car he was driving and had stolen from Melton’s home.
When Ruiz tried to flee, he strangled her and shoved her out of the vehicle, then ran over her at least 20 times.
Wilson’s horrific acts of murder drew no sympathy from his father, Steven Testasecca, who told the jury that his son had boasted ‘excitedly’ about the killings.
‘He said that he pulled her out of the car and realized she was still breathing,’ Testasecca recounted Wilson saying of Ruiz’s murder.
‘He said he got back in the car and ran her over until she looked like spaghetti.’
Prosecutor Sara Miller detailed Wilson’s meticulous planning for the double murders and called the acts ‘shockingly evil and vile’.
‘Both murders were especially heinous, atrocious, and cruel,’ said Miller. ‘He inflicted pain, and he showed utter indifference to her (Melton’s) life.’
Last Tuesday, ten of the 12 jurors recommended the death penalty for Ruiz’s murder. Nine jurors favored capital punishment for Melton’s murder.
Judge Nicholas Thompson is scheduled to decide whether to impose the death penalty on Wilson during his July 23 sentencing.
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