Wade Wilson Handed Another Sentence Today For Drug Trafficking Case

Wade Wilson, who was sentenced to death for two murder charges on Tuesday, was sentenced again on Thursday for drug trafficking charges.
Wilson received the death penalty for the 2019 murders of 35-year-old Kristine Melton and 43-year-old Diane Ruiz.
He survived a drug overdose at Lee County Jail in 2023 while awaiting trial for the murders. The incident prompted an investigation by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.
Investigators uncovered a conspiracy to traffic illegal drugs into the jail. Four others were also charged in the incident. Their cases are pending.
Wilson received a 12-year sentence for attempted trafficking in amphetamines or methamphetamines between 28 grams to 200 grams. He was also ordered to pay a $50,000 fine, court costs and cost of persecution.
He received another 12-year sentence for conspiracy to traffic in amphetamines and methamphetamines. He was also ordered to pay court costs and cost of persecution for this charge.
He will serve the sentences concurrently with his two death sentences.
Wilson’s adoptive parents detailed his struggles with mental illness and drug addiction in an emotional letter read at a court hearing on Tuesday.
“Wade was a joyful child, loved his parents and sisters and was loved immensely in return,” the parents wrote. “But over the teen years, and then especially in the early years of adulthood, Wade began to slip away from us, becoming withdrawn, erratic and depressed at first. Then his addiction was added to mental illness and [he] became, frankly, paranoid and delusional and a sense of loss became increasingly sharp.”
His parents had asked the judge not to issue the death sentences.
“Despite everything, Wade is still our son and we love him,” Wilson’s parents said. “The hopes and dreams of his life are already lost, but the human is still in there somewhere, tortured beyond what most of us can even imagine.”
A former classmate of Wilson’s who previously spoke to Newsweek spoke about the beginnings of Wilson’s addiction.
“Nobody would eat. They would just pass drugs around, which was so weird to me,” she said.
Wilson will serve his sentences at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford.
There are currently 274 male inmates on death row at the facility, which holds up to 1,486 inmates total.
The two female death row inmates in the state are housed at Lowell Annex.
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