Wade Steven Wilson remains on Florida’s death row more than two years after receiving two death sentences for the 2019 murders of Kristine Melton and Diane Ruiz in Cape Coral.

Despite recurring social-media claims suggesting that Wilson has already received an execution date, been removed from death row, or exhausted his legal options, the official record shows a different picture.

As of October 10, 2026, Wilson’s mandatory death-penalty appeal remains listed as open before the Florida Supreme Court under case number SC2024-1345. The court heard oral argument in the case on February 5, 2026, but its official appellate docket still does not show the case as closed. No execution date for Wilson has been publicly announced.

The case continues to draw intense public attention, but the legal process surrounding a Florida death sentence can take considerably longer than the original criminal trial.

Wilson was convicted on June 12, 2024, of two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of 35-year-old Kristine Melton and 43-year-old Diane Ruiz.

The same jury also found him guilty of grand theft of a motor vehicle, battery, burglary of a dwelling and first-degree petit theft. State Attorneys Office

The killings occurred on October 7, 2019.

According to prosecutors and evidence presented at trial, Wilson met Melton at a Fort Myers bar before eventually going to her Cape Coral residence. After another woman who had been with them left, Wilson strangled Melton while she was in her home.

He then took Melton’s vehicle.

Later that day, Wilson encountered Ruiz while she was walking in Cape Coral. Prosecutors said he persuaded her to enter the vehicle while asking for directions, then attacked and strangled her.

After Ruiz was forced from the vehicle, Wilson repeatedly drove over her.

The Twentieth Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office said investigators from the Cape Coral and Fort Myers police departments built the case that led to Wilson’s arrest and eventual convictions.