UPDATE -- The public defender waived his appearance and entered a written plea of not guilty on Wilson's behalf. His next appearance is scheduled for December 3rd.
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FORT MYERS, Fla – Wade Wilson, the person of interest in the murders of two Cape Coral women, will go before a judge Tuesday. He’s due in court on an unrelated domestic violence charge.
Though Wilson has been connected to the murders of Diane Ruiz and Kristine Melton, and even with word of a possible phone confession from behind bars, we haven't seen charges upgraded for him.
He’ll go before a judge at 8 a.m. for a domestic violence battery charge which he was arrested for on October 8th. You may recall that when police first identified him as a person of interest in the deaths of Melton and Ruiz, Wilson was already in custody on unrelated charges.
We expect the charge he's in court for today is related to an ex-girlfriend who recently spoke out to fox 4 about Wilson's violent past. This woman says the same day Melton was found dead and Ruiz was reported missing, Wilson came to her business in a car suspected to be Melton's. In a Fort Myers Police report, this woman says Wilson punched her in the face and dragged her to a car as she fought to get away.
"His agenda was to kill me. I was dead already in his mind, I don't know how I got away," said Melisa Montanez.
Montanez told Fox 4 she feels lucky to be alive. Because her police report was filed in Lee County with FMPD and because of the violent scenario she described, we anticipate this will be the charge he's in court for today.
Meanwhile a big question on everyone's mind is how soon we might see charges upgraded for Wilson for the deaths of Kristine Melton and Diane Ruiz. It's a question we've posed to several legal experts, especially with news of a possible confession a few weeks back.
If we take a look at other high profile murder cases we've seen recently, we're able to understand just how long it might take to see charges upgraded in a case like this.
In the case of Ryan Cole, for example, deputies have announced that Cole was has been charged with second degree murder and burglary with battery in the death of Khyler Edman. This was after a violent home invasion led to the death of the 15-year-old in September. Charlotte County detectives spent five weeks collecting, processing, and analyzing evidence in this case before they had enough to file these charges.
With Wade Wilson, we know that a few weeks back an ex-girlfriend claims he called her from behind bars to confess to the deaths of Ruiz and Melton. Legal experts have told us that if this confession did in fact take place, they see no legal reason the confession wouldn't make its way into the courtroom.
“And that is the very reason why the conversation will get in because he knew it was recorded, he knew he had no expectation of privacy,” said attorney Mike Chionopoulos.
Wilson is due in court at 8 a.m.
