No smile: Wade Wilson’s lack of emotion during double murder trial

A family is finding some peace as their loved one’s killer is convicted.

However, the conviction didn’t seem to faze Wade Wilson, who showed no emotion as the jury read the verdict.

Wade Wilson was convicted Wednesday of killing Kristine Melton and Diane Ruiz in 2019.

Despite a tattooed smile on his face, he sat with no expression, no reaction as he heard graphic testimony about the women he killed.

“This is a man with no respect for women, with no respect for life,” said Sara Miller from the state attorney’s office.

In their closing arguments Wednesday, the state attorney’s office told the story of a man who hates women, loves power and didn’t see his victims as real people.

It was only when Wilson’s girlfriend at the time of the murders, Melissa “Mila” Montanez, took the stand that we saw a shift.

“When asked about Mila and killing her, he said there were too many people around. ‘I probably would have killed her, too,'” Miller said.

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Montanez had to be in the presence of the man she once loved, who would think nothing less than to kill her.

“I knew I was going to die that day. I was just buying time,” she said.

It was during testimony of this attack, an attack on a woman he knew, that his demeanor changed.

When Amy Slobodzian, witness to the battery charge, said, “He was just dragging her and beating her,” Wilson simply shrugged.

He showed no reaction as family members of the dead cried on the stand, but when a woman he knew, a woman he maybe saw as a real person, was spoken of or sat on the stand, he tapped his fingers, he reached for water and showed textbook signs of nerves or discomfort.

“In his own words, to law enforcement, he was a [expletive] lion, and they were the prey,” Miller said.

Wilson was found guilty, so will he spend his life in prison or sit on death row?

The penalty phase starts next Thursday.