EP75: "I Choked That B*tch"
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All right, welcome back to another episode of the Psychopedia Podcast. I'm your co-host, Hank Sinatra, here with my lethal voice. Investigators later. I'm crushing it today. I'm doing real good. It's going to be a doozy for you. We haven't even started. I don't know what you have in store for me, but I'm on fire right now. She said I have rapturettes. You do. Today. So welcome to the episode of Psychopedia Podcast.

It's going to be a good one. We know this. I feel it. This is something I've never heard before. You've never heard it before. I'm in your seat. I'm going to ask the questions you ask. I'm going to, you know, play the everyman. You are the everyman. Every woman. A little funnier than most I've met. Every them. Okay, every them. Got it. Every person. Everything. Cash is here. Cash is here.

Cash is here. Don't say his name. Every dog. He's chilling right now. He's going to jump off the couch and then he's going to want to hang out and play and maybe ask for a snack. And I'm in the case already. You are in the case already. I can't mother and present. Right? You know what? That's nice that you said that because I heard before I had kids, somebody, some woman was saying something to some, I don't know, whatever. She's like, or he is like,

If you're a dad and you're watching your own kids, you're not babysitting. No. You're parenting. Of course you are. Stop calling it babysitting. I know. I've heard that before. Yeah. I don't know what that's about, but. It's because it's like not your job. Yeah, well that's. I hate a not my job type of motherfucker. Dumbest thing I ever heard. Not the rap. It's not my job. But the fact that a father would say it's not his job. Yeah, yeah. Quote unquote. No, it's for. Nobody's job. It's your role in life once that child comes into the world. That's a great point. Yeah. Because. Oh, well, thank you.

It's not a job. It's a role. That's right. I was thinking last night about, I was in a meeting and the woman was talking about joy and peace and freedom and all that stuff. And then she said, happiness is kind of like, you know, it's not it. It's just like, it comes and goes so fast. And then I was like, happiness is a feeling. Joy is a state. That's why joy is more desirable because it's always there. You just got to like tap into it. If you can get your own shit out of your head and get out of your own way, then

Be here now. Perfect moment. We are starting out with a tidbit. That's not even close to the tidbit. You can't even help yourself. Okay, so listen, I want to read some, I'm full of so much today. I'm going to just try and restrain it.

Before I read out the Patreon names, if you don't know what Patreon is, Patreon is the best place in the world. It's your happy place for sure. It is. Patreon.com slash psychopedia pod where you get another episode per week of Psychopedia Unhinged. Four episodes a month.

And then where we revisit a case, barely talk about it, kind of, we're going to do one after this. You're going to, you're not barely going to recognize any of the notes. But anyway, then you get one episode per month of Slaterpedia, which is a bonus true crime case you've never heard from us before. And then an episode of Tankopedia once a month, which is where I switch roles with Investigator Slater and I present the case. It's Freaky Friday. It is Freaky Friday. And I love doing it. And she loves doing it. And we love our Patreon supporters. So I'm going to read out a couple of names. Great.

There's something that happens that always makes me feel good. I don't know if you see it and feel the same way. M. Gretchen Vandergriff upgraded their membership from Little Freaks to Seeming. Oh, you get a high from that too? Or when they sign up for it. So this one, Geneva Curry just edited their membership to $108.

So from $10 a month to $108 for the whole year, it's discounted if you sign up for the whole year. Thank you, Geneva. Man, that makes me feel fucking good. It does because it means that they loved what they were getting on Patreon and wanted even more of it. So they upped the ante. They committed to us. They upped their membership and we're very grateful for that. When you guys commit to us for a year, I don't know if you know what it does to our output desire. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's wild. And then one last one. The most special of shout outs to this person.

Because it is truly a Kendrick Lamar Jay-Z-esque Patreon name. Oh. It's I Heart Fuckbee. Oh, I saw that. Yeah. It's I Heart Huckabees, but Fuckabees, right? Because Lucy Fuckbee. A lot going on in there, yeah. Yeah, that is some Jay-Z shit. Yeah. Nicely done. I Heart Fuckbee. Well done. Respect. Very well done. Let's stop suburban sprawl.

Oh, speaking of Patreon, can I just real quick reminisce with you briefly about the book club Zoom that we did last night, the live Zoom that was way better than either of us thought. You thought five people were going to be there. Who's that? And I was hurt. No. Well, I was, look,

Looking, I thought there was somewhat of an RSVP thread going and it didn't look promising. Yeah, no. Well, what I did was I chose a book called It Didn't Start With You, which is about generational trauma, understanding how your family lineage affects your current state and all that. And I love the book, but I announced it in like the beginning of May. You did. So anyway, I dropped the ball on that. But I was so invigorated by the live Zoom that we did with all of our Patreon members that...

We're going to do another one. I've already posted the book on there. It's called Nothing to Fear. It's by Julie McFadden, who is known as Hospice Nurse Julie on TikTok and Instagram. She's been there for countless, countless times, people passing over with relatives in the room, not in the room, whatever. And she's got some wild stories of the moments before or the weeks leading up to it, as well as after. So there's one I'm not going to say, but this is the one where I was like, oh my God, this is...

I'm really excited for this one. So I didn't know she was writing a book, but she is. We're also going to have her be on the Zoom because I've talked to her a couple of times and she's great and she's very sweet, very nice.

and we'll get to hear some of these stories from her. So patreon.com slash psychopedia pod, look for the post that says Tanks Book Club, second installment. And join Patreon so that you can join this book club. Oh yeah, well that's the whole, you know, the Zoom is for Patreons, not to cut anybody out, but we want to reward the people who have been, you know, investing in us and spending their hard-earned money on us as people so we can give them more content. So

The Zoom link will be on there. We're going to do it July 28th, which is a Sunday, and hopefully you guys can make it. It was a lot of fun last night. It was great. Can we talk about the game we played on 4th of July just quick? Yes, please. First of all, I was very impressed by your performance. Thank you. I thought it was going to be a washout. The game we played, sorry, I should say it. It's called Hitster. It's a music game with strategy. You download the app, and it links to Spotify, and then...

Someone's the DJ. You scan a QR code and it brings up a song. And then someone in the group, whoever's next, you know, next in turn has to guess what year it came out. But we did it. We went artists name of the song and the year. Oh my God. It was so fun. We,

We had a lot of, I mean, we had my family playing it. My father was there doing it. He was shazamming songs. He was. He's such a cheater. But yeah, no, it was like definitely many generations. We were all getting into this game. It was so much fun. I'm glad you were impressed with my performance on that.

There was a couple of songs where you just immediately rattled off the artist and the name of the song. And you didn't think I would know it. No, it's not that I didn't think you would know it. You knew it before me. And I consider myself the foremost expert on music in the world. But I'm not. A little competitive if you haven't picked up on that. So that is what was going on in this game. But it was just, it was so much fun because we were all listening to music.

because it pops up on the phone after you scan the QR code. So we're all singing and dancing and reminiscing. Exactly. It ended up being a really, really good time. Lastly, if you're not subscribed to us yet on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, I mean, it makes such a big difference for us. It helps us.

And if you help us, we're going to help you. It's not a quid pro quo type of thing, but the fact of the matter is the more people we reach, the more we can do this, the more she can dedicate more time to the cases. And I will probably also dedicate more time just by de facto being around her. But anyway, I have sunglasses on, so go over to YouTube, subscribe on there. And I do not because I want our listeners to see my passion behind my eyeballs. I have a very expressive mouth, so I'm not worried. She also just keeps

running. Laughter

Yeah, and do your part. Leave a heart on YouTube. We see you guys. I try to get back to everyone. If I haven't yet, I probably will. If you will or I will or we both will. Exactly. Because we've got eyes on all of you. So without any further ado, because there has been quite a bit of ado already, let's get into this week's case. And I'm very excited to see what you have in store for us. I just want to say that I actually had a different case prepared for today. And then like two days ago, I decided that I wanted to cover this case.

because it's timely, number one, and because it's going to coincide with something else that I'll mention at the very end of the case. So I turned this around. I haven't slept in like two days. Wow. Very good. Still going. Those are the best cases. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I really wanted to get this out. We got a lot of requests for it, so it just felt like the right thing to do for our listeners. All right, great. All right, you ready? Can't wait to hear it.

In the world of Marvel Comics, the character Deadpool is unlike any other. So good. Known for his scarred face hidden beneath a red and black mask, Deadpool is the alter ego of Wade Wilson, much like Batman is the alter ego of Bruce Wayne or Spider-Man of Peter Parker. And this character, Deadpool, is the ultimate anti-hero.

He's a mercenary with a regenerative healing factor that renders him nearly indestructible. His dark humor, sharp wit, and penchant for breaking the fourth wall set him apart from traditional superheroes.

Mm-hmm.

No one, and I mean no one, is rooting for the actual Wade Wilson, whose name took on a far darker and more terrifying meaning in 2019.

This real-life Wade Wilson, who shares a name with Deadpool's alter ego, bears no trace of the humor and redemption found in the pages of a comic book. Because in October of 2019, Wade Wilson the human ruthlessly murdered two innocent women in Cape Coral, Florida, sending the entire nation reeling and basically causing the internet to blow up.

Unlike the fictional Deadpool who battles villains with a wink and a quip, this Wade Wilson is a real-life villain who will be remembered not for any of the redeeming qualities of the fictional character, in spite of his tattooed Joker smile, but for the sickening display of cruelty and violence he exhibited on innocent human beings. I can't believe 2019 was...

Five years ago, by the way. It was yesterday. This is the case of Wade Wilson, a.k.a. the Deadpool killer. And when you see his picture, you will know exactly who I'm talking about if you don't already. Is he scarred up? Or he's just got tattoos of... Face tattoos covering his entire face. Yeah. Oh, shit. You know who he is. Yes.

Oh my God. I've been seeing that pop up. Yes. He is, I mean, I know next to nothing about the case. Actually, I'm going to go ahead and say I know nothing, but I do know that he is being propped up as like the epitome of evil in human form. Absolutely. And he looks the part. He plays the part. He acts the part. No remorse. Just like fucking totally...

Cold. Yeah, you just summed up three quarters of the episode right there. We're going to get out of school early today, folks.

He left out some very important details, though, so I got your back on that. Please do. Please do. I want to actually go back. So I just said in the intro that nobody is rooting for Wade Wilson. And I don't know, this just came to my mind that I want to mention. I don't have it anywhere in my script here, but there's actually a lot of mostly women who are rooting for him because he's extremely attractive. There are people that are literally petitioning for him.

to like get out of the situation he's in now. And I don't want to say anything. I don't want to ruin the case if people don't know what it is, but he actually has like a fan club. I would also like to go on record saying, and I've said this before, but I'm going to repeat it because who knows how many people are going to hear this episode. We should make a show, develop, create, execute a show called Love After Lockup, one thing, Penitentiary Pals.

Oh, yeah. We have talked about this. Because these women, I'm not going to say who, but I knew somebody who was doing that, communicating with multiple people in prison because it's like... Well, it's an actual fetish. I don't remember the name of the fetish, but we have talked about it before. Yeah. And I did at that time have the name. It's just also like, I don't want to say an easy way to get attention, but like these men have nothing else to do. So you write them a letter and of course they're going to write back. Yeah. Yeah.

So they're both gaining out of that. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. This ad is actually really important for me to be delivering personally because I've struggled with both anxiety and depression in the past. It's something that I've talked about many times on Psychopedia, and it's nothing that I feel ashamed about. In fact, the opposite. I think talking about these issues is what helps all of us to get through difficult times and to realize that we're not alone.

I used to think that therapy was just for those who've experienced major trauma, but it isn't. It's for people like me who just need somebody to talk to, to help learn coping skills to get through difficult times. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, super easy, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your busy schedule.

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Born on May 20th, 1994 in Tallahassee, Florida, Wade Wilson's entry into the world was marred by immediate hardship. His biological father was just 14 or 15 years old, and his biological mother was even younger than that. Additionally, she struggled with mental health issues and addiction, which precluded her from being able to provide baby Wade with the care and stability he needed.

Recognizing these imminent challenges, Wade's maternal grandparents arranged for his adoption by a couple they knew from their church. The couple, the Wilsons, offered Wade a chance at a more stable and quote-unquote normal life. In his early years, Wade appeared to be a well-adjusted and active member of his loving adoptive family.

Engaged in family activities and seemingly thriving, his early life initially gave no indication of the dark path he would later tread until he reached the ripe age of about 13. Because according to his family, this is when Wade underwent a drastic transformation and began to grapple with symptoms of intense paranoia and reclusiveness. Those hormones, those puberty hormones. Yeah, it's definitely more than that here. No, no, I know. But like that's when people for the most part, if they're going to go that way,

It's like that, oh, fuck, man, like I'm not a kid anymore. I want to be a full-blown adult. Well, you can't because you're not smart enough. Your brain is mush still. It is. And then they make adult psychotic decisions out of a mush brain, and it's like so much trouble. Yes. At this young age, Wade became convinced that his family was being watched and insisted on keeping the blinds closed in his home at all times.

He was certain that a malevolent entity lurked in the garage and even called the police about it. And unfortunately, these incidents were not isolated. Wade experienced an escalation of paranoia and erratic behavior that led to his first brush with the law at age 13, which kicked off his long line of arrests for serious offenses, including, though did not remain limited to, burglary, assault, kidnappings,

kidnapping, firearms offenses, and fraud. This is my what age? Well, it began when he was 13, but like it continued. Yeah, those are some pretty heavy duty crimes. For sure. His young teenage years also marked the beginning of Wade's descent into heavy drug abuse or use. His behavior grew increasingly erratic and self-destructive once cocaine entered the picture. Oh yeah. Which isolated him even further from those who might've been able to help with his increasing mental health issues. Yeah.

Despite interventions, including being subjected to the Baker Act, which is a Florida law that allows for involuntary mental health examination and treatment, Wade's downward spiral continued. Do you remember the Baker Act? We do remember. Do you remember what case? The girl? The OnlyFans murder.

Yes, so it's a 72-hour involuntary hold on somebody that's not legal, but it's like you're in... He was actually very good. Wade was released after one day of being held. You can have up to 72 hours. They let him go right after one day. Somehow...

Despite the turbulent undercurrents of his personal life, Wade still managed to maintain decent grades in school and excel in sports. His natural athleticism made him a standout and may have even provided him with opportunities to earn scholarships and like real recognition.

However, it came at a cost because Wade sustained multiple head injuries and concussions while playing sports, which some experts theorize contributed towards his committing vile acts of violence down the line. It doesn't help. That's for sure. It does not help with the drug abuse, with the mental health issues. Perfect storm.

Additionally, compounding his troubles, Wade endured two serious car accidents at ages 18 and 20, resulting in further traumatic brain injuries or TBIs. While CT scans at those times revealed no fractures or bleeding, more detailed MRIs were never performed, which led to significant gaps in understanding the full extent of his injuries.

That said, it's not a stretch to believe that these repeated head traumas likely had a profound impact on his mental health and behavior, like we said, all together. The science, though, is clear. Concussions and traumatic head injuries can lead to significant changes in personality, cognitive function, and emotional regulation. For Wade, these injuries likely exacerbated his already fragile mental state because those issues surfaced first.

And it contributed to the paranoia, reclusiveness, and erratic, violent, and criminal behavior that emerged during his adolescence and young adult life, particularly against women. In June of this year, 2024, one of Wade's ex-girlfriends, Kelly Matthews, bravely spoke out to the media and even created a TikTok video that went viral detailing the violent abuse she endured at his hands.

So Kelly and Wade met online in 2018 and dated intermittently for about four months throughout 2018 and 2019. Initially, Wade presented himself as Stephen, a charismatic, smart, and charming man, often posting thirst trap photos of himself looking extremely enticing. A.K.A. Steve. A.K.A. Steve. And also Stephen, remember, was the name of his biological father. Yeah. However, according to Kelly...

Wade's polite, handsome, dimple-cheeked, boy-next-door demeanor took a dramatic shift after he began abusing cocaine. While he initially refrained from physically harming her, his behavior became explosive and violent pretty soon into their relationship. He would do things like kick in doors and throw objects, creating an atmosphere of fear and constant instability. But

But then on February 18th, 2019, Wade's behavior escalated dramatically when he physically and sexually assaulted Kelly so violently that he nearly killed her. According to Kelly, Wade had previously agreed to go to a nearby rehab facility, but then suddenly changed his mind, stating that he wanted to go to a clinic in the Florida Keys instead, which was about three and a half hours away from their home in Fort Myers.

This abrupt change sparked a heated argument between them in a parking lot. Kelly suggested that Wade was lying about wanting to go to a different rehab facility and suspected that maybe he was planning to go meet someone else, presumably a woman. The confrontation intensified as Kelly got back into her car and fastened her seatbelt because it was then that Wade entered the vehicle right after she did and then proceeded to choke her until she started to black out.

Terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. Then in yet another terrifying and unpredictable outburst, Wade bit her face.

Kelly later shared a photograph. Same instance? Yep. Okay. She later shared a photograph on TikTok dated June 15th showing the injury on her chin. It was all black and blue and scabby. I mean, she got hurt. I wonder if I saw that. It's ringing a bell, but... After the bite, Wade then gagged Kelly, tied a shirt around her face, and proceeded to tie her hands and feet together with a used garbage bag found inside the car.

Then, with Kelly naked, bound, and gagged in the back seat, suffering from a broken foot caused by being slammed in the car door, what did Wade do next? Pop quiz? Yeah. A, masturbate on her. Ugh. B, gloat and say to Kelly, I got 99 problems, but a bitch ain't one. C, go through a McDonald's drive-thru. C. Yes.

fucking crazy. It's nuts. He is just so detached from understanding the depth of what he's done. Yeah. He feels nothing. Nothing. By the way, great job with P. Oh, yes. That was a little wink at you, a little nod in your direction. Thank you.

Eventually, Wade released Kelly from her restraints, handed her the car keys, and had her drive him to the Florida Keys. Wait, did anything happen at the McDonald's drive-thru? No. They didn't see? No. Okay. Can you... I mean, I know that, you know, I can't help but always empathize with the victims involved, to a fault. I don't even know how I function, but...

I was thinking about it. I was like, if I, God forbid, were Kelly and I was in the backseat, what do you do? Do you scream? Do you kick at the window? You're probably after what she endured and survived. I just feel like I would probably be frozen. Oh my God. I don't know how terrible. It's almost like trying to kick out the window. But if you can't, then you're deeper shit. But if you can't, then he's going to punish you for trying. It's awful. Yeah.

After dropping Wade off in the Florida Keys, Kelly indicated that she floored it out of there, driving 100 miles per hour the entire way to Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, where she provided a detailed explanation of what she managed to survive at the abusive hands of her extremely disturbed boyfriend. Kelly also went to the hospital with deputies from the Sheriff's Office, where a sexual abuse nurse examination was conducted and over 200 photographs were taken of her injuries.

When deputies spoke with Kelly, they noted in the report that she displayed bruising on her neck and a cut above her lip. However, they did not arrest Wade.

In fact, 34 days after reporting the crime, Palm Beach County Sheriff's Deputy Lewis Potter closed the case, indicating in his report, quote, there are no witnesses to the alleged crime and no evidence to establish probable cause. What about the broken foot? Even more despicable, according to Kelly, a police officer reportedly told her that

that he went down to the Florida Keys to speak with Wade, who simply indicated that Kelly was sexually, quote unquote, into that kind of thing.

And he was therefore never arrested or held accountable in any way for what he'd done to Kelly. That's crazy. As Kelly has aptly indicated publicly, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office failed her so severely. And the two women he killed, obviously. Well, she even went on to say that what happened eight months later in Cape Coral could have been prevented if the detective in her case had actually done his job. That's a quote from her. Wow.

Or even like looked into it to let him know like, hey, we're... We're watching you. You know what you're doing. We're onto you. Yeah. Needless to say, Kelly broke up with Wade. And as I mentioned, she since has become a local advocate against domestic violence. Before we move on, I got another PQ. Okay. What did Wade Wilson do, according to Kelly, after they broke up? Okay. A, enter into a relationship with a man whom he eventually went on to stab. Okay.

B, join a neo-Nazi group. C, set fire to her car. B. No. Okay. A. Yes. Interesting. Yep. So now we find ourselves in October 2019 at the point where the case takes a devastating turn. Yeah, I can feel it coming. The horrific events that unfolded would not only shatter the community of Cape Coral, Florida...

but leave an indelible mark of heartbreak and absolute shock. The brutality and senselessness of what transpired continues to haunt the friends and families of the victims involved, forever altering its sense of safety and peace. Here's what happened.

On the evening of October 6, 2019, Wade Wilson went to meet his then-girlfriend, Melissa Mila Montanez, at a bar called Buddha Live along McGregor Boulevard in Fort Myers, Florida. Now, Mila and Wade had only been dating since June of that year, but off the bat, Wade revealed his vile true colors to Mila. Just 15 days into their relationship, Wade got jealous by some text messages he'd seen on Mila's phone and physically assaulted her in the car.

After beating her, Wade managed to pull off Mila's skirt as she clambered her way out of the car, causing Mila to run down the street completely naked from the waist down, frantically trying to find help. Unfortunately, Wade caught up to her before she could do that and proceeded to choke her until she passed out.

Then, using a cable from inside the car, Wade tied Mila's hands together behind her back, put her back into the car, blindfolded her, and drove her to the house they were living in at the time. Then, Wade moved Mila out of the car and onto their boat, which was docked nearby on the property. Once completely alone, Wade indicated to Mila that he was going to teach her a lesson. Then, he proceeded to rape her.

When he was done, Wade indicated to Mila that, quote, the pain was over. What pain was over? The pain of what he was doing to her. Oh, okay. I mean, it is really crazy how there's just levels and levels and levels and levels to...

Thank God they've drawn lines in the sand as far as what is okay and what's not. I was never going to be arrested for getting jealous of a text that the girl I was dating got. But to take it that far, I'm not going to say I get it, but I know from my own experience with addiction, there was a woman who I knew who...

Was sober for like 100 years. Smoked a little weed. Nine months later, dead in a hotel. Heroin overdose. Oh, my God. And it was so clear to me. I was like, yeah, of course. This happens and then that happens and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Seven, eight steps. You're there. An escalation. An escalation of like the clearest direction for me. But with this, I mean...

It's just, it's so far beyond. I know. I mean, he did start from somewhere. He did start exhibiting issues at 13, Russians with the law, you know what I mean? Kidnapping, like he had some serious charges and then, yeah, it didn't come out of nowhere. And I think that was the point of Kelly Matthews. That was what she was saying, you know, in her TikTok videos and now on her, whatever platform she has to say, you can't ignore the,

when things like this happen. And that's one thing that, so the cannibal cop case that we just put out, you brought up a good point in a video that you posted. Or no, maybe somebody commented. You brought it up, but then they reinforced it. Like, it's one thing to have a thought. We cannot be arrested for our thoughts. But once you start taking, like,

objective action towards that, whatever it is, however small of a step it may be. Once it leaves your brain and goes somewhere else, that's what I wrote in my comment. Yeah. Then it becomes something more than just a thought. Then it's not a thought. Right, exactly. I mean, this obviously, any physical violence, any violence at all shouldn't be tolerated.

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Mila called the police, leading to Wade spending a month in jail for his brutal crime. However, Mila eventually decided to drop the charges against Wade and to accept his excuse that drugs and alcohol were to blame for his inexcusable, deplorable behavior. He also claimed that he had gone off his medication, lithium, which he needed to treat his bipolar disorder, as well as a plethora of other psychiatric conditions that we will for sure be exploring shortly.

Mila, who has indicated that she, quote, always gives second chances, allowed Wade back into her life and into her heart, and they continued to date despite the violence and turmoil he had brought into it. Scarily, though unsurprisingly, that second chance Mila gave to Wade was...

almost wound up costing her her life. Oh, okay. So let's return back to October 6th now, okay? Because I just went back in time to tell you what was in their past together. But now we're kind of returning to the present in this case, which is October 6th, after Mila and Wade met at Buddha Live, the bar on McGregor. After spending some time together at the bar...

Wade persistently asked Mila to leave with him to go to the house of a man he had just met that night, Jason Shepard, so that they could all take drugs together. Inside the bar, Mila told Wade, who had been holding the keys to her Dodge Hellcat since she hadn't been wearing a purse that night, that she was not comfortable going to a stranger's home to take drugs. Exactly.

Ignoring her concerns, Wade decided to leave the bar without Mila, taking the car keys and her car with him, to continue partying with other people he just met, including Jason, as well as two women, Christine Melton and Christine's best friend, Stephanie Saylors. That's how the Bitcoin guy got caught. Remember that? An undercover cop heard him say, do you want to go back to my house? I have like $20,000 worth of cocaine there. We're going to go do it. Yeah.

But just asking someone if they want to go to a stranger's house and do drugs makes in that person's mind all the sense in the world. Sure. But to someone who's not in that lifestyle, it's like, what? Are you kidding? You're joking, right? Right. I think that was like Mila. Yeah. It's like, I'm not fucking going anywhere to do anything with anybody. Yeah.

So understandably furious, Mila went to her friend Amy's house to spend the night and to discuss her plan to break up with Wade. However, the next morning, Mila woke up to a barrage of missed calls on her cell phone, all coming in before 8 a.m. from an unknown phone number. It turned out to be Wade. Of course, yeah. Determined to get her car back, Mila instructed Wade to meet her outside the spa she owned in Fort Myers called Mila Spa, and he agreed.

But when Wade arrived at the spa parking lot, he was not driving Mila's Hellcat. Okay. Instead, he pulled up in a black Nissan Versa and frantically ordered Mila to get inside the car. No way.

Terrified and angry with good reason, Mila refused. And this refusal, this act of defiance against Wade, sent him into a terrifying violent rage. He tried to physically force Mila into the vehicle while punching her in the face, pulling at her dress and hair, and attempting to push her body inside the car. But Mila didn't do it.

However, Mila, showing incredible bravery and quick thinking, placed her arms above her head in a plank position, making it impossible for Wade to bend her body to fit in the car. Smart. Smart. Interjection. Yeah. Slash tidbit. Yeah. Which is going to be your favorite tidbit of all time, even though it's not a tidbit. If you guys hear Cash snoring or breathing over there, he's here. Because he is. He's alive. Thank God. Exactly.

I heard recently that the sound of your dog breathing or snoring next to you... Heaven. ...lowers blood pressure, makes you more relaxed, and they think that humans were able to evolve faster and further because of the protection of dogs, because we started getting more quantity and quality sleep, and our brains kept growing and growing and growing all because of these little freaks. Number one, not surprised at all that you have this wealth of information out of nowhere. Exactly.

Number two, definitely my favorite thing you've said maybe ever on any topic on this podcast. And number three, when my son used to have tantrums, he used to calm himself down by going up to the dog and holding him while he slept. Oh, yeah. So there you go.

Back to the case, yes. Thank you, Cash. Further enraged now, because Mila was effectively fighting him off, Wade, who by the way stands at six feet, six inches tall, got out of the car and tackled Mila, who was only 5'2", to the ground, brutally kicking her once she fell down.

Convinced she was going to die, Mila kept thinking about her son, whose 15th birthday it was that day, and how devastating her death would be for him. As she fought for her life with her son in mind, Wade kept reaching for something in his pants while threatening, I'm going to kill you right now. I'm going to kill you right now. Over and over.

In a miraculous twist of fate, a car drove past them at that precise moment and grazed their legs, which created enough of a distraction for Mila to escape. A car went past them and grazed their legs? Yes. Was the car doing that on purpose? I think so. Yeah, probably. Reflecting back on this, I think so. You know, the car didn't stop and the person in the car didn't get out. Probably just a little buffer of like... But maybe they were terrified seeing this gigantic...

kicking the shit out of someone. Yeah. And multiple witnesses called 911. So I'd like to think also that that person may have also called 911. Yeah. And Mila's life was spared in that moment. But the horror of that morning did not end there. Hmm.

Because Wade pursued Mila frantically to the upstairs of her spa. Because remember, they met in her parking lot. Yes. Is it like just her in there? Well, her friend Amy was around as well. Yeah. But yeah, I think that, I don't think that there were, I mean, other businesses were open. So I don't think it was like early, early hours, if that's what you're asking. Can you imagine like,

Running into your place of business and saying to your business partner or co-worker, call the cops, call the cops, as you're running through. Lock the door, call the cops. Oh, my God. Like, hide me. Terror. Absolutely. So Wade followed her inside the spa, and once inside, he held her against the wall by her throat and continued to punch her square in the face.

Her nose exploded, as described by her friend Amy, causing a steady stream of blood to gush out as her eyes watered uncontrollably. Incredibly, though, Mila managed to escape Wade's grasp once again. She's 5'2", right? Yeah. That's crazy. I mean, we do be fast. Yeah. This time, she ran downstairs into another business where she was offered refuge and safety from her attacker. Yeah.

Unfortunately, Wade fled the scene before the police arrived. Remember, I said there were a lot of witnesses and many called 911, leaving Mila bloodied and traumatized, but miraculously still alive. This guy, six foot six, problematic across the board. I can't even imagine. This I can't imagine.

I can imagine it, the scenario, but I can't imagine what would drive someone to pin a five-foot-two woman against the wall and punch her in the face repeatedly. Like, what is going on, bro? A lot. What is happening right now? A lot, and nothing good. Now, even though Wade had just attempted to kill Mila,

He relentlessly continued to bombard her with text messages, begging for her to meet up with him again so that he could talk and, quote, kiss her forehead. Okay, Wade. Sure. And this is classic abuser behavior. Manipulative, power-hungry tactics that involve that push and pull dynamic we've talked about so many times before. He creates the pain and then he offers the relief. A twisted cycle designed to maintain control and exert dominance over his victim.

But Wade's incessant texting was not without its plus side because what it did was create an opportunity for Mila and law enforcement to work together to ideally bring him down. Yes. So as part of an undercover sting operation, Mila agreed to meet Wade at 3 o'clock p.m. at a place called Joe's Crab Shack located across the street from her spa.

Wade figured that he'd once again managed to manipulate Mila and to bend her towards his ways. However, when Wade arrived at Joe's Crab Shack, he was confronted not by a forgiving Mila, but instead by Fort Myers police officer Timothy McCormick in uniform and wearing a body cam. So you can see this footage, which I have. Parked in front of Wade's car, intentionally aiming to block him in, was another police patrol car. Aiming...

Aiming to being the operative words here because the officer in the parked patrol car left just enough space for Wade to squeeze the Nissan Versa through, allowing him to narrowly make his escape again.

Listen, whatever. Mistakes are made. When you have these opportunities, like, pull this close to the car. Inch up a little bit more. But like you said, mistakes happen. But still, I mean. He probably also thought they could get him, take him down if he tried to do that and whatever. Right. Few of them, one of him. I think they probably are not used to people doing that. Yeah. Like, they show up in their uniforms and stuff. People probably comply. I would hope not. Typically. Yeah.

Unfortunately, given the busy Florida afternoon with numerous cars on the road and the fact that the investigation at that point was for a misdemeanor battery charge, law enforcement ain't trying to see no highway chase with Jay. Oh, Jake.

Oh, fuck. It's okay. I mean. You know what Jake is? No. Jake's a slang term for cops. Oh, I thought because a highway chase with Jay, like Jay-Z. I ain't trying to see no highway. No, he's not trying to see no highway chase with Jake. Well, I ain't trying to see because I changed it in here and said law enforcement ain't trying to see no highway. So that's okay. Yeah. Got it. So they made the difficult decision not to engage in a high-speed chase to avoid endangering public safety. Yeah.

making this Wade Wilson's second successful escape from police. His ego and sense of invincibility at this point was undoubtedly through the fucking roof. I can't imagine that. Wade already believed that he had the power to control people and likely felt that he was manipulating the narrative to his advantage. Yet even the most arrogant, psychopathic, and narcissistic individuals occasionally need to get by with a little help from their friends. Yeah.

But even this need for assistance only served to reinforce Wade's delusion for control over the unfolding events because Wade thought that he could just ask an acquaintance of his named Joshua Lukich for a little bit of help evading the law.

Joshua owned a printing company called Matteo Graphics where many hours after escaping the police and the Nissan, Wade suddenly showed up asking for help with booking a plane or a bus ticket because he says he needs to get out of Dodge. Now, this request in and of itself was shady enough. Yeah. But the fact that Wade was shirtless

Shoeless, missing some teeth and covered in blood. Bloody, yeah. Prompted Joshua to covertly call the police on him. Where are you trying to go, man? Well, no, listen to what he did. You can, by the way, see CCTV footage outside of the printing shop. You can see Wade. Why did he go into a printing shop to get a ticket? Because that's where his acquaintance Josh was. He was asking for help.

So not only did Joshua simply suspect that Wade had gotten into some serious shit, Wade left no room for doubt because he openly revealed to Joshua that he had, quote, killed people. Because not even you, Tank, realize why he's bloody at this point. It's not because of anything having to do with Mila.

Joshua handed this gigantic, bloody, shirtless man a cigarette, said he'd be right back, and then called 911 in the back of his shop. Come to my fucking shop right now. There's a giant, bloody man in here trying to get a bus ticket to get out of here. It's 2019. He doesn't have a phone? Why did he come here? Exactly. I don't even know him. He's an acquaintance. I know this guy from the gym. I fucking gave him a spot once.

But when the police arrived, guess what happened? No. For a third time, Wade managed to escape. All the cops found when they arrived to the printing shop was an abandoned black Nissan Versa with bloodstains on the seats. Butterfingers, boys in blue. But it's what they discovered after running the license plates on the car that wound up setting the wheels of justice into real motion.

Because they discovered that the car belonged to a 35-year-old woman named Christine Milton. Oh, the girl from that. Very good. I'll just let our listeners in in case you don't recall. But she is the woman in the beginning who I mentioned was at the Buddha Live bar. Yep. Right? Who left with Wade, her friend Stephanie, and this guy Jason to presumably all go out and party some more. Mm-hmm. So the police attempted to contact...

Christine, because that's who the car belonged to. When they couldn't get through to her, they managed to track down her best friend, Stephanie, who had also been out that night at the bar. As Stephanie explained it, she, Christine, Wade, who identified himself as JR to them, as well as Jason, who's the man that they wanted to do drugs with, were

all went back to Jason's house. They each did one to two lines of coke before Christine and Wade, a.k.a. JR, started to have sex with each other in Jason's bedroom. Okay? Then Christine, Stephanie, and Wade decided to take the party back to Christine's place in Cape Coral, which is about 10 miles away from Fort Myers, which is where the bar was located, and Jason's home. Yeah, not far.

By 6 a.m. the next morning, October 7th, Stephanie left so that she could get home in time to send her son off to school. And she left Wade and Christine together alone in Christine's home. Yeah. And that was the last time anyone saw Christine alive.

The next day, after learning that Wade Wilson, the man they had been desperately trying to arrest, had been with Christine the previous night, the Cape Coral PD went to Christine's home. Upon entering, they immediately noticed bedsheets strewn across the floor between the bedroom and the kitchen, entangled with leggings, shirts, and a bikini top. It was kind of like wrapped. Yeah, like when you put shoelaces in a dryer. Exactly. Exactly.

The chaotic scene reeked of something far more sinister. And sure enough, as Officer Charles Caruso cautiously moved the bedding, a human leg suddenly popped out. Shockingly, her

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Stephanie was able to easily pick out Wade's photo from a lineup and

even though she thought his name was J.R. But even with this positive ID, it still didn't make up for the fact that the human being in the flesh was still missing at large. Did he have the face tattoos at this point? No, most of them he did not have. He had some, but most of them he got later. Yeah, okay. So law enforcement at this point got cranking. And over the course of their now aggressive investigation, detectives made a decision to contact Wade's biological father, Stephen Testaseca,

Because after turning 18 years old, they learned that Wade had gotten in contact with Stephen and that the two spoke every now and again, especially when Wade needed help with money or rehab or covering up murder, as it were. Yeah. Interestingly, though, this is just a little...

side piece of information over the course of the seven years that they'd been in touch Stephen and Wade had only physically seen each other once but Stephen still was there for him financially he would like book motel rooms for Wade to stay in if he needed a spot if he was in a pinch lend him money that type of a thing

After detectives got in touch with Stephen, they learned that he had indeed heard from Wade since this incident. Three times, in fact. Wow. During the first call, Wade vaguely indicated that he was in trouble and he had done something he couldn't take back, expressing a need to leave town.

In the second call, Wade revealed more alarming details, stating that there were, quote, two people who wouldn't be here anymore and admitting that he was a killer. In the final call around 9.30 p.m.,

Wade chillingly described how he got on top of a girl he'd met at the bar and, quote, choked that bitch until she died. More and more information, I recall. He had planned to place Christine's body in the trunk of his car, or rather the trunk of her car, excuse me, after wrapping her up in her own bedding. But then he found her to be too heavy to lift.

and left her on the floor, taking her car, the black Nissan Versa, to go meet Mila. Where was the big strong guy that was holding a 5'2 woman by her throat, punching her in the face? He was absent that day when the body needed to be lifted? Exactly.

Just fucking gross. Yeah, terrible person. Very bad. Then, following his meeting slash argument slash assault of Mila, Wade indicated to Stephen that he'd gotten back into Christine's black Nissan and drove off, okay? It was during that drive, somewhere between 9.30 a.m. and 11 a.m., when he spotted another woman walking along the side of the road. Hmm.

And that woman was 43-year-old Diane Ruiz. Wade stopped his car under the guise of asking Diane for directions before luring her into his car and choking her to death. Or so he thought. Because when he pulled his car over to dump Diane's still warm body, Wade discovered that she was still breathing. So he took Diane out of the car. This is horrific. Laid her down on the ground and...

and drove his car over her body over and over and over again until she, quote, looked like spaghetti. It was determined that Wade reversed and drove over Diane between 10 and 20 times. Oh, my God.

That same day, Diane's son and fiancé, Scott Hannon, reported her missing after a worker at a nearby school found her purse abandoned near the Moose Lodge where she worked as a bartender only 10 minutes away from her home. It's not just the tires, by the way, obviously. I'm not trying to get too graphic, but when you run over somebody, they get dragged under the engine. They get twisted up because the car gets all whatever, and then, like, you reverse. It's...

That's horrible. And I mentioned that he did that until she quote unquote looked like spaghetti. What I didn't mention is that he intended for her to look like spaghetti. It's not like he did it and said, oh, this is what she looks like. It was, oh, I'm going to make her look like spaghetti. He said that? Yes. Yes. He told Stephen when he called him and confessed that he had wanted to turn her into spaghetti.

That's fucking weird. It's fucking disgusting. He said spaghetti? Yes. Yes. I'm going to turn her into spaghetti. I was going to say rigatoni, but that's not like, what the fuck, dude? That's such a strange, demented thing to say. It's graphic and probably accurate.

What's really sad is that Diane didn't always walk to and from work, but on that ill-fated day, she made the decision to walk. This is what gets me about life. Yeah. One split second decision one way or the other, like one blade of grass that folds, changes everything.

everything or can change the butterfly effect or can change everything. Yeah, but it goes the other way too. It does, but this is like the uncertainty. It's either exciting or uncomfortable. It's either terrifying or wonderful. Like, you know what I mean? Or both. Or maybe, I don't know. I used to think... I get emotional. I used to think I wanted...

flatline life. And then I heard Tony Robbins say, who I'm not like the biggest fan of, but this was good. He said, people in order to feel alive need a little bit of everything. They need predictability and possibility of something happening. Like they can't, you can't just have one or the other. If you knew everything that was going to happen today, you're,

What would be the point of living? And if it was just absolute chaos every time you stepped out of the door, you wouldn't want to go outside. Yeah. So that mix is life. The balance. By this point, law enforcement was treating Christine's murder and Diane's, what they thought was a disappearance at that point, as connected cases. Okay.

Okay. Yeah, yeah. The following day, which is October 8th, after a community search and a helicopter survey by the Lee County Sheriff's Office, Diane's body was indeed discovered in an empty lot. Cape Coral Police Sergeant Justin DeRosso found her after noticing a single vulture circling the area.

Diane's body bore signs of a brutal assault. One of her fingers and her nasal cavity were broken. Her arms, hands, and sides were all bruised. She had lacerations on her face, body. I mean, she was... I mean, she met his goal. Yeah, yeah. Which I'm not going to repeat. So again...

Wade decided to call Steven for help. Okay. While on the phone together though, Steven told Wade that he would send an Uber to go pick him up. Remember, Wade is used to Steven kind of like bailing him out when he gets into like a pickle. Yeah. As by this point, Wade had been hiding out in some local house he'd broken into where the owners had happened to have left that morning for a trip to Ohio. So he knew it was like an abandoned house and he broke in. He knew that? I

I think he probably looked inside and saw that no one was there, but I just know from the research that this couple happened to be on a trip in Ohio. Yeah. Pop quiz. All right. While hiding out in this abandoned house, what did Wade do? Oh, this is going to be a good one. A, call an escort. B, flush the family pet, an albino guinea pig, down the toilet. C, eat popcorn and drink White Claw. B. No. A? Nope.

Drink popcorn and eat White Claw? Eat popcorn and drink White Claw? Yes, he drank five White Claws. He is...

heated himself up some fucking popcorn in this house after killing two people. That's what I'm saying, though. Like, I know, like, I wasn't trying to be cavalier about the spaghetti thing. It's just like, I imagine a normal, abnormal person would be like, I wanted to just make sure she was unrecognizable. I wanted to make sure that the body was

Not, I want to make it look like spaghetti. Right. It's so bizarre. He's just so bad. He really is. Yeah, he's going to have a tough time in jail too. They're going to fucking...

make his life a living hell. He is enormous. So... Healed women. Doesn't matter. I don't think he should have an easy time. I just wonder if his enormous size... One person versus just two people is like almost impossible to win. Yeah. You get three or four people... Right. I mean, he's... His strength is...

Rendered irrelevant. Yeah. Now, rather than sending an Uber to Wade's location in this house, Stephen instead hatched a plan. He placed Wade on speakerphone and used his wife's phone to call a detective with the U.S. Marshals so that the detective could listen to Wade and learn his location. Wow. And the plan worked. Finally, on October 8th, 2019, Wade Wilson was caught.

He was taken to the Lee County Jail in Fort Myers, Florida, and was indicted one month later on two first-degree premeditated murder charges, grand theft, battery, burglary, and theft. Incredibly, despite confessing to the murders to multiple people, right? He confessed to Stephen.

to Joshua, the printing shop owner acquaintance, and to Mila over the phone. And even slipping a note to someone in prison while awaiting trial where he talks about how he killed people, Wade still pleaded not guilty to the charges. He even went on to participate in an on-camera interview from prison with NBC2 to which he adamantly denied having killed anyone. Delusion. I mean, there's nothing, I'd expect nothing less from this man. Yeah.

On June 10th, 2024, in spite of his best effort to escape from the Lee County Jail through a window, he was like shawshanking that shit. He was like taking the pulse out of it. Yeah, exactly. Wade Wilson's trial finally, officially began. So it was five years after his arrest. There were a lot of reasons for that, by the way. His attorney passed away. COVID happened. So...

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. Yep. For the state, attorneys Andreas Gardner and Sarah Miller prosecuted the case. Oh, good boy, Keshie. For the defense, Kevin Shirley and Lee Hollander. Judge Nicholas Thompson presided over the case. Prosecutor Andreas Gardner presented the state's opening argument by indicating that both victims, Christine Melton and Diane Ruiz, had three things in common—

One, they both died on October 7th, 2019. Two, they were both strangled. Three, they were both forever silenced by the last person they encountered alive, Wade Wilson. He went on to argue that the murders were cold, calculated, and premeditated, and that when asked during police interrogations why he killed Christine Melton, his response was, I just wanted to do it.

I mean, what better reason than that? He then went on to say, this is what I do with women, you know? I use my charm. I use my good looks. That's what I did with the first girl, and that's how I got in her head, and look what happened to her. Yeah, see, like, that kind of, like, response to being on trial for this? Yeah. Death penalty is, like, you know, it's tough. Hold on to that thought. Okay. We really get into it, so. Okay. Okay.

Put it on ice. And when attorney Gardner said this in court, okay, repeated what he said during his interrogations, Wade sat at his table and smirked. And anybody who's been following this case or has seen it in the headlines, you can picture the smirk. Well, yeah, I think that's what I've seen, images of him in the courtroom. His blue suit and his fucking smirk.

Then the detective asked Wade during interrogation why he killed Diane. His response to that was, fuck it, should kill her. Already got one down. Okay, dude.

The defense attorneys elected not to present any opening arguments, which I thought was interesting. Wait, the defense elected not to do any opening arguments? Okay. But their overall position throughout the trial was to emphasize Wade's history with mental health problems, including paranoia and substance abuse, which they claimed impaired his judgment and actions. Were they prosecuting him too? No.

Well, they're trying, they're not denying that he murdered the women, even though, so he's pleading not guilty to first degree, but he's not suggesting that he didn't kill them. Okay. Okay. Which is such a dumb thing in the judicial system, by the way. They highlighted the fact that Wade had been struggling with mental health issues his entire life and even provided an example from childhood when Wade apparently stapled the long sleeves of his shirt to the skin on his arms.

So that's just one example. They were trying to like paint a picture that he is disturbed and has been. That whole thing reminds me of, so like on Shark Tank, right? When I went on there with the game. Yeah. Influencersinthewild.com. Buy the game. Gonna lose my house. Anyway, so Shark Tank did nothing for me. Anyway.

The one rule is that you can't, they can't give you less money than you ask for. Right. So everything else is up for debate and tweaking and, you know, finagling or whatever. But like to put someone on trial for first degree murder, and if you don't prove them guilty of that, they walk.

Even though I know it's not that cut and dry. It isn't. Yeah. Yeah. Is crazy to me. Yeah. I think you also, I think that's, you know, why plea deals come into play as well. Yeah. You know, because both sides recognize how sort of precarious it can be. Yeah. Going after one plea or the other, one sentence or conviction. Yeah.

So there's stuff to work with. And you don't want to go with the safer charge because, you know, or the safer one to prosecute because you- The sentence is impacted. Someone's, but also if someone's guilty, you want them to be found guilty of what they actually did, not something lesser. And because you want them to be punished accordingly. Yes.

The jury heard from friends and family members of Christine Melton and Diane Ruiz, as well as from forensic psychologists and neuropsychologists, who in combination presented a comprehensive view of the impact of Wade Wilson's crimes and or possible theories and explanations relating to the why.

Brusing on a colon? Mm-hmm. Oh, my God. He beat the shit out of her.

Diane had nearly a dozen rib fractures and a broken hyoid bone from the strangling, as well as damaged cartilage in her trachea. Both women had defensive wounds suggesting they fought for their lives until their last breath. Good for them. Yeah.

And Wade, despite having a smile resembling stitches literally tattooed on his face, sat almost entirely expressionless as he heard graphic testimony pertaining to the innocent women that he killed. While we're on the topic of his tattoos, I'll mention now that his tattoos got more and more extensive and disturbing throughout his incarceration awaiting trial. Remember, he was locked up for five years. Yeah. And now includes the following, not limited to this list, but now includes...

Bread for war written under his chin in big, bold letters. Okay. A swastika on the right side of his face as well as beneath his right eye. That's why I thought he joined the neo-Nazi group. I know. Okay. That's why I put it in there. Wow. The word glory written above his eyebrow. A skull on the left side of his face. And words written in cursive above his left eye that say, ha, ha, ha.

Written beneath. And the stitches. And the stitches that look like the Joker smile. So he did that all like jailhouse style tattoos? Yeah. Wow. Yep. I mean, he did have some face tats going in, but not the huge smile that he's now kind of like known for. He did that stick and poke style? Yeah, he did. That's crazy. Yep. Or whatever they use. I don't know. Wade's attorneys actually requested that he be allowed to cover his...

his offensive face tats during the trial as well as the jury selection, which the judge actually granted. The judge allowed him to get a haircut and allowed the defense to get makeup to cover up his tats. But like the narcissistic twat that he is, Wade wound up letting it all hang out and chose not to cover any of the tattoos during trial. He did get a haircut though.

On June 12, 2024, the trial concluded just two days after it began, and the jury reached their verdict after just two hours of deliberation. Guilty on all charges. Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty. Furthermore, after considering both aggravating and mitigating circumstances, the jury also put forth their sentencing recommendation, and that was the death penalty. Death.

Pop quiz. All right. Because I learned this while watching the trial, and I thought it was interesting. Okay. I didn't know where else to put it, so I'm putting it here. Okay. In some jurisdictions, including Florida, what else can second-degree murder be referred to as? He was not convicted of second-degree murder, but like I said, I didn't know where else to put this. Okay. And I just thought it was interesting. Okay. A, reckless disregard murder. Okay. B, depraved heart murder. Uh-huh. C, callous indifference murder. A. No. Well, fine. Okay.

See? No, again. It must be B then. Depraved heart murder. Yeah, it's stupid. It's also sometimes depraved mind murder as well. But depraved heart murder?

Fuck, what? Like a weird translation from Latin or something. Yeah, I guess maybe you're right. Maybe that's what it is. I just made that up. That's pretty insightful, actually. I wish I thought of it. I'm so smart. It's insane. Fuck. So during the penalty phase of a capital trial, the jury needs to determine whether the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating ones. Aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating circumstances? Which I'm going to get into. For the death penalty? Correct. Okay. Okay.

If they do, then they can recommend a death sentence. If the mitigating circumstances outweigh the aggravating ones, or if they are balanced, the jury may recommend a lesser sentence, such as life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, but they cannot recommend the death sentence. So aggravating circumstances are factors that increase the severity or culpability of a criminal act. In this case, they likely included the heinous nature of the murders, the brutality involved, and Wade's complete lack of remorse.

Yeah. Yeah.

While the jury voted in favor of the death penalty, it will be up to trial Judge Nicholas Thompson to impose the sentence, which is scheduled to take place on July 23rd of this year and this month. It's actually 12 days from the date of this recording. Wow. Now, all of that said, defense attorney Lee Hollander

just filed a motion on July 3rd requesting a new trial and possible acquittal for Wade Wilson, who's now 30 years old, citing changes in legislation and constitutional violations.

So let me explain this. Until April 2023, Florida juries were required to vote unanimously for a death sentence recommendation. Then in April 2023, Governor Ron DeSantis lowered the threshold by signing into law a bill allowing juries to recommend death with as few as eight votes. The motion filed by Wade's attorney contends that the

court made an error and violated his constitutional rights by using that new law as before the new law went into effect, a unanimous vote was required. Because the crime was committed in 2019? Exactly. At Wade's original trial, the jury recommended the death penalty with a 9-3 and 10-2 votes for each of the victims, respectively.

My understanding, which is what you just touched upon, is that since Wade's crimes and arrests occurred in 2019, the defense feels that these are grounds to challenge the new statute's application. Yeah, that's not how it works. Additionally, the motion claims that Judge Nicholas Thompson failed to provide separate jury trials for different charges and prove Wilson possessed Christine's car without her consent before she died.

Who fucking cares about that? He didn't get consent to take her car after she died? Exactly, after he murdered her. No, yeah, it's just, exactly. That's what it is. Let's keep moving with the case and the sentence as it stands now since we don't have a response to the motion yet. Okay. Question for you, Tank. Okay, I love questions. Why were these murders considered premeditated? After all, he really just met Christine that night and literally Diane a minute later.

Before he lured her into his car? Why are these murders considered premeditated?

Because there was an obvious decision to kill someone before they were killed. And what happened after? What happened after what? He killed them. He killed them again? No, I mean, as far as Diane goes, he like overkill. Well, that too, but remember, it's cover-ups as well that have to do with premeditation. So if he snapped or something and immediately called 911 or immediately called for help, it's the fact that he went on the run. He hid out. He tried to get a plane ticket, a bus ticket, right? Like,

All of that. As indicated by prosecutor Sarah Miller, this was premeditation all day long. Wade wrapped Christine in bedding in an effort to disguise her corpse. He dumped poor Diane in an abandoned lot beneath some shrubs. He confessed to the murders to Stephen and Joshua and Mila and attempted to make travel arrangements to get out of Dodge. He

He exhibited no regret, no remorse, and asked police for a hamburger and french fries after they notified him that Diane's remains had been scavenged by animals to the point where she had become unrecognizable. Yeah. While we're somewhat on the topic of food, as it relates to death row inmates, pop quiz. Pop quiz.

In the state of Florida, what is the maximum monetary allowance allocated to the last meal of a death row inmate scheduled for execution? Good question. A, $40. B, $90. C, $150.

Yeah. 40. Yep. Get fucked, dude. You're going to be dead. Damn. Yeah. And it has to all be prepared within the prison facility, which I didn't realize. Oh, really? I thought if you said you wanted Peter Luger's, I guess within the price range, which would never be at Peter Luger's unless you got cream spinach and like nothing else, it would exceed 40 bucks and it has to be made inside the prison. Yeah. But like I thought that they, I thought that it really truly was whatever you wanted.

Yeah. No. I stand corrected. Well, because you could just, you could order thousands of dollars worth of food and... I mean, more than 40 bucks I thought it would be, but not more than, say, 200 or something. Well, I guess if the food has to be prepared in the prison, $40 probably goes a long way. Yeah, probably. Yeah.

Let's talk psychology. Okay. So the defense called multiple witnesses up to speak to the psychology of Wade. Okay. The first witness they called up was a neuropsychologist named Dr. Hyman Eisenstein, who spent seven hours with Wade and analyzed over 10 years worth of his medical records. Numerous psychiatric and psychological symptomology was analyzed as well as all of the different psychotropic medications that he had been on over the course of his life. According to Dr. Eisenstein, at the time of the trial, the

Wade was on lithium and Celexa and was being treated for psychosis and depression. He's also been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, antisocial personality disorder, adjustment disorder, depression, and depression.

That's a lot. That's a lot. In terms of Dr. Eisenstein's diagnosis of Wade, he diagnosed him with neurocognitive brain impairment caused by all of the traumatic brain injuries he suffered as a child playing sports and in the various car accidents he'd gotten into.

Additionally, Wade's struggles with substance abuse compounded these symptoms. Then Dr. Mark Mills, a forensic psychiatrist, testified. He indicated that he had a difficult time evaluating Wade Wilson, largely because Wade was extremely concerned about members of the jail staff listening in on their conversation. So we're seeing some of that paranoia.

What would that matter? I think he didn't want to reveal too much about himself thinking that they were going to pick up on it and how it may come back. Exactly. But eventually Dr. Mills conducted a personality assessment by administering two psychological tests. However, the results showed that Wade invalidated each test by essentially not cooperating and or providing exaggerated over the top, clearly bogus responses. Yeah.

And what this basically told Dr. Mills was that when Wade wanted to cooperate, wanted to make eye contact, wanted to understand, he could.

He did acknowledge that Wade was genuinely hypervigilant to the point of paranoia, possibly even to the point of being delusional. Yeah, sure. State prosecutors called their own expert to the stand, Dr. Michael Herkov, a clinical and forensic neuropsychologist. And according to Herkov, Wade Wilson said that he would only give him 15 minutes of his time, but then went on to spend over an hour.

Herkhoff's analysis concluded that Wade Wilson does not suffer from any disorder. Really? Nor did he observe any memory issues or impulsive behaviors or any frontal lobe damage resulting in issues in executive brain functioning. Rather, his actions were planned and premeditated, and he knew exactly what he was doing when he was doing it. It's even worse somehow.

Victim impact statements were read in court in an effort to persuade the judge to issue the death penalty. It began with Christine's cousin, Samantha, and I just want to share what she said about Christine and what Diane's son had to say about him because these women were friends, daughters, fiancés, mothers, respectively.

So that when we remember this case, we remember the human beings involved and not just the Deadpool killer. Yeah. Christine grew up in Illinois and moved with a friend to Cape Coral where she worked as a waitress. She was described by Samantha as being a beautiful human who was precious to everyone who knew her and was a beloved daughter, sister, aunt, niece, cousin, and godmother to Samantha's child.

Christine was loved and her life had value. She lived only one block away from her mother at the time of her death as they were extremely close, which really hit home for me because I live across the street from my mother. Christine was remarkably funny, had a quick wit and unique personality, was adventurous, loved Halloween, and loved to travel and explore the world. She made people around her feel safe and understood. According to Samantha, Christine was a, quote, relief to your soul just to sit next to her.

Christine will never experience motherhood, a role that she was born to play, and her loss was described by Samantha as being a wound that will never heal. After Samantha spoke, Diane's youngest son, Zane Romero, delivered his impact statement. Ooh.

He indicated that his mother was really excited about his future and that even now, in the wake of her death, he refuses to disappoint her. And when he was talking, his voice was shaking and cracking. It was devastating.

He said that not wanting to disappoint her even in death is what keeps him going. What's his name again? Zane. Zane went on to say through a cracked voice that his mother will never get to see him get married or graduate college as a first-generation graduate or get his first real job. He recounted how he'd recently gotten into a car accident and was sent to the ER, and all he wanted and needed was his mother.

Zane also said, and this crushed me, that he truly felt in his gut that his mother was going to come home after she had gone missing. And now he said that he will never be able to trust his gut again. And lastly, on Zane's 15th birthday, he mentioned that he contemplated taking his own life because he couldn't bear having a birthday without his mom. And now he's got the rest of his life.

So we'll have to keep an eye on the case to see what winds up happening with Wade's death sentence. And as always, we will keep everyone posted as updates become available. The case, we have concluded the case, but I just want to mention that this

in terms of timing. So this case is scheduled to release on July 24th. Okay. And the Deadpool and Wolverine movies starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman will hit U.S. theaters on July 26th. And the 23rd of July, something's happening too. Yes. When the judge is supposed to determine whether or not he's going to issue the death penalty. Big week for Marvel. Very big week. And that's the case of...

the shithead, the Deadpool killer. Wade Wilson. Wade Wilson. I'm not even going to call him the Deadpool killer. No, don't. It's like you'll see that. Yeah, you'll see that in headlines, but. Yeah. No, this guy sucks. Horrible. Not a fan. I know we always talk about like bad versus mad. He's both. Yeah, I believe so. Yeah. Yeah, it's a rough one. Zero out of ten human. Do you have a tank's titty for us? I do. All right. I've been doing chest, so.

Careful. Wait, hold on. Should I put the sunglasses on? No, this is me. This is, you're going to see me for real. I mean, I think we want to start seeing some facial expressions and we see that most in eyes. Then start watching the YouTube more. And take the shades off. Hey, no, no, this is on them, not me. Okay. So if you worry or a worrier,

Okay. This should help you. I hope. I also realized that a lot of times when I come to something, it's like the 23rd iteration of that thought for me. So like, maybe this is not going to work, but then if this is your third one, maybe you'll only have 12 until you get to the point where you don't worry anymore. Right? So two things, one back, back, back when I was dating this girl who was

I said I wanted a girl who was not dating anybody for a year. And then I wind up with a girl who broke up with her boyfriend of nine years, two weeks before we met. These are the decisions I made. Yes, at that point.

So she broke up with him. They all had the same friends in high school and it was like, you know, 12 fucking people, six boys, six girls. They were, you know, getting engaged, engaged, engaged, engaged. So all of them got engaged except for her and her boyfriend who broke up, right? So now I, this insecure, fearful, paranoid person, am looking at probably two years of engagement parties and weddings that I'm not going to, obviously, and that he's going to be at.

So like the second one, maybe, or the third one. Why aren't you going to them? I'm not invited. Oh, you weren't like officially dating. We were dating for like a few months at this point. That's a red flag. Yeah, no shit. You can tell your pasto self that. Well, I know that now, but anyway, so I was worried. She had a party coming up and I was worried and I was talking to my friend about it and he goes, he goes, yeah, dude, I mean, I totally understand that. I would be worried too. The only question is, what are you going to worry about next week?

And I was like, oh, I'll find something after the party passes. What are you going to worry about then? So then I was sitting worrying about something later, 10, 15, however many years later. Our nanny's brother committed suicide, right? So sad.

His funeral was happening and he was involved as, you know, whatever young people are apt to do if they're not doing great. He was involved in some drugs and bad people or whatever. And this sucked. These people were like shitty people. They were writing on his public memoriam page where, you know, you owe me money. I'm going to fucking kill your family. All this like crazy shit. Right. So I'm worried. I don't even want to go to the wake. Right.

So I'm sitting there worrying about it, like for a while, days. And then I'm sitting there worrying about it. And I thought of this quote that says, my life was filled with unfortunate events and circumstances, 99% of which never existed. Right. So then I felt this tremendous relief when

When I figured out that if I'm worrying about something, that's a sign to me not to worry because everything I've ever worried about has never happened. Lucky you. So if you find yourself worrying about stuff, take that as a sign to not worry because we worry about things that are so highly unlikely. I'll speak for myself, but worry about things that are so highly unlikely that there's no...

No way that they could possibly happen, of course. But I come up with worst case scenarios in my brain. Worst case scenario almost never plays out. Yeah. Unless you have an example because you said lucky for me.

I mean, people worry definitely about things that will never happen, but they also worry about things that may be based on past experiences that inform the way they feel about something else that causes them to worry. So maybe they do have grounds to worry. Oh, you can find any grounds to worry. I know. Any excuse to worry. But sometimes it is real, I guess is what I'm saying. But definitely, there are definitely people who like... Just perseverate. Exactly. There's a difference, but I think there's a spectrum. I think being on that spectrum and having like awareness and...

you know, thinking things through. You're an adult. Like, I think that that's okay. Well, I guess the takeaway is if you find yourself worrying about something, give yourself a little, like, a little exercise. Like, how likely is this to happen? Well, thank you guys so much for listening. Thank you, Investigator Slater, for doing all that work in record time. My pleasure. Happy to do this for our listeners.

And you and me, because I love this stuff. You really came through on this Wade Wilson case. Thank you. And I'm not excited, but now that I know what's happening, I can, because I try so hard not to look at anything ever. I know, because of this podcast? Oh, yeah. Because you don't want to, right, in case I bring you that case? Yeah, yeah. Good job. Keep doing that. Exactly. Or not doing that. But I do see things. It's hard not to. It's literally everywhere. The amount of requests we received for this case is what ultimately made me just not sleep for 48 hours. Yeah. I just got to give it to the people. Yeah.

She's going off love. Yes. And adrenaline. Yes. Coffee probably also. But anyway, thanks for listening. If you made it this far, you're a real one, Megs. Shout out to Cash. Thanks for being here, Cash. And thanks for being so quiet and so good. Check out Boy. We'll see you guys at the next episode. Thanks for listening. Bye. Bye.