Closing Arguments: FL v. Wade Wilson, Strangled Women Murder Trial

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: good morning ladies and gentlemen this case was about killing for the sake of killing he told detectives I've already done it once I'll do it again but it's not about that he killed it's about how he killed blunt force trauma in compliance for submission strangulation for silence according to him it only takes two minutes doesn't get scratched he doesn't get hurt they don't yell they're quiet they can't get away even if they wanted to he's too strong those are the people he goes after on the 7th of October of 2019 he went after Christine Milton he went after Melissa Martinez and he went after Diane Ruiz only one survived that day only one why because there was too many people around but if you remember what he said he killed her too given a chance now what I expect the court to do is give you a series of instructions well we need to prove to you that he did everything that we've charged him with we've charged mr. Wilson with first-degree premeditated murder [00:02:19] Speaker ?: we need to prove that Christine Melton is dead [00:02:35] Speaker 1: there should be absolutely no doubt in your mind that miss Christine Melton is dead you heard from the medical examiner you heard from Miss Christine Johnson you even heard from mr. Wilson himself Christine Melton is no longer with us second thing we need to show is that the death was caused by the criminal act of mr. Wilson there should be absolutely no doubt in your mind mr. Wilson did these things all the evidence corroborates mr. Wilson has told you of course the past day or two and lastly ladies and gentlemen there was a premeditated killing of miss Christine Melton and what's interesting about the premeditation instruction it says killing with premeditation is killing after consciously deciding to do so the decision must be present in the mind at the time of the killing and the law does not fix the exact period of time that must pass between the formation of the the premeditated intent to kill and the killing the period of time must be long enough to allow reflection by the defendant and the premeditated intent to kill must be formed before the killing so so that's a lot of words it's simple for you when one is sitting outside in the evening time hence you look down you decide to kill that mosquito that's premeditation ladies and gentlemen because the law does not fix period of time you can go from that short period of time to as long as you want planning when we're talking about premeditation as it relates to miss melton ladies and gentlemen it's also going to apply to mr. Wiese strangulation is the epitome of life slipping through someone's hands premeditation starts by placing the hands on throat of another the application of pressure squeezing the throat not releasing until there is that one final breath that remains in that person and what's interesting about that particular act ladies and gentlemen is that both people know that one person is going to die so when minister wilson decided to go ahead and inflict blunt force trauma upon miss melton you heard about it the broken nails right the broken nails right she was a fighter she knew what was happening we also know what the lungs the colon the bladder what else the liver you heard about the brain swelling from dr coin she was alive when all that happened couldn't happen after she was strangled and then what do we also know we also have the compression of the neck of the two marks the deep hemorrhages that dr. Hernandez talked to you about coin and dr. Hernandez told you that was all consistent with asphyxiation it's another term for strangling someone ladies and gentlemen that is premeditation that ladies and gentlemen is first supreme murder well what do we know what happened next well we have to prove grand theft of a motor vehicle right grand theft of a motor vehicle is mr wilson knowingly and unlawfully obtained or used endeavor to obtain or use the motor vehicle christine melton you saw that black nissan versa you know it belongs to miss greenstein melton her registration's in there her tags are in there her phone is in there stephanie johnson identified it as her car when did he use it after he killed her so yeah he unlawfully obtained or used her car all elements been met too he did so with the intent to temporarily or permanently deprive miss melton over right to the property or am benefit to it or from it and appropriate that property of christine melton to his own use or the use of another person entitled to it yep did that too and third the stolen property was a motor vehicle and you saw it on mr lucas video rolled up in it it's clearly a motor vehicle ladies and gentlemen i submit to you that charge has been proven as well but where does he go to from there well after he's gone ahead and killed miss melton and taken her car and held her face up to utilize her phone he makes a whole series of telephone calls right to miss montanez hey i need to see you where are you at calling her repeatedly miss lavogian told her don't bring him here tell him you'll meet him at your spa well ladies and gentlemen that's why we showed you the phone records the six three zero nine six two one two five six it's miss melton's phone number we also have miss montanez's phone number that two three nine three three three two or five nine two four and also what comes up later is this two three nine two hundred eight three one nine number the reason why these phone numbers are important ladies and gentlemen is because when you look at the phone records of miss montanez okay on page one of six [00:10:37] Speaker ?: the three three three three five nine two four [00:10:50] Speaker 1: you're going to see 200 numbers you're going to see the three three three five nine two four you're going to see three three three three five nine two four you're going to see miss ruiz's phone number in miss montanez's phone records there is no reason why miss melton let alone miss ruiz's phone should be in miss montanez's phone records the only reason why we showed you that was to corroborate what was happening that morning he was utilizing miss melton's phone to contact miss montanez and not only that ladies and gentlemen is when he couldn't use miss melton's phone any longer and he got a hold of miss ruiz's phone that's when her number starts popping up on miss montanez's phone records it corroborates what miss montanez was telling you he is calling and he is reprieving trying to get a hold of her but what's interesting ladies and gentlemen is after he gets a hold of her he just doesn't want to find out where she is or what she's doing but what does he do tries to pull her into miss melton's car he almost runs her over by getting out attacking her trying to pull her clothes off of her beats her repeatedly she's chased up the stairs he held her up against a wall with her throat he punches her in the face until blood spatters all over the place you saw the photograph of miss montanez you heard the testimony of miss montanez you heard the testimony of miss lebogian you heard the testimony of miss williamson you also heard the testimony of miss griffin there should be absolutely no doubt in your mind that he committed an attack or a battery upon miss montanez and the only thing i need to show for battery is that you actually intentionally touched her struck melissa montanez against her will there is no way that she consented to that absolutely it was against her will what was she doing she was screaming he was threatening fortunately for miss montanez she survived but if given the chance she had been dead but there's too many people you sense what he told us that brings us to his next victim right after he gets done with miss montanez he takes off in that vehicle there's too many people he heads to cape coral he comes across a young lady who's on her way to work dress in a light blue shirt jeans dark shoes lures her to the car by feigning to ask for directions somehow manages her get her inside the car he breaks breaks her head breaks her nose he breaks her thyroid and neck cartilage he also runs her over repeatedly why because after he had choked her he claims that she somehow was still alive because she also was a fighter ladies and gentlemen in multiple rib fractures dr coin told you there was no way left unattended that she would have been able to survive to survive and he ensured that that was going to happen that she did not survive why because he's the one who placed her on that empty lot under those shrubs under that tree to make sure that no one would find her luckily when law enforcement was looking up in the sky and just happened to be in the area and they saw that single vulture that was circling that's what led him to finding miss ruiz and how was she identified ladies and gentlemen geez she was decomposed after only a couple days of being out there insect activity animal activity whether her husband had to identify or fight fiance had to identify the ring they identified her by the tattoo on the back diana louise is dead death was caused by mr wade wilson and there was a premeditated healing of diana ruiz once again ladies and gentlemen strangulation placing the hands around someone's neck and watching that life slip through the hands and the other person seeing their life leave them premeditation should be absolutely no doubt in your mind that this was first degree premeditation murder he even told you in his statement she was scared she wanted to be dropped off if you listen real closely to that statement he also said he knew he wasn't going to drop her off he was going to kill her he already had it in his head why because he already killed once before he was going to do it again and true to his word he did so ladies and gentlemen i submit to you we've established first degree premeditated murder diana lees where does he go from there he goes to joe's crab shack right because officer mccormick received information regarding the battery miss montanus he's confronted there he plays dumb he doesn't know anything about a battery what does he do he leaves he's not sticking around for that nope where does he go he goes to matteo graphics doing one of the other people he knows mr lukic hey can you help me out i need a plane ticket i need a taxi i need to get out of town why because i just killed people i just killed some people he was frantic he only had a pair of pants on blood on him no shirt no shoes law enforcement gets there what does he do he doesn't stick around he leaves where's he go he goes to the amlin residence right unfortunately for miss amlin she left with her husband back to columbus ohio and he's decided that he needs to do something right what does he do he enters the structure owned or by or in the possession of fanning amlin we know that how do we know you saw the broken window you saw the screen removed right he gets in he gains entry the time of the entering structure he had the intent to have the mass structure of course he did he helped himself to some food he helped himself to some drink there was different clothes that were laid out he needed to figure out what he's going to do what does he do contacts his dad hey can you help me out i need to get out of here you send me an uber i need your help dad's conflicted dad fortunately enough does the right thing he contacts law enforcement and contacts mr wilson and encourages him to give the address and location of where he is but while mr wilson is in there like i said he commits he commits a pet theft because he normally and lawfully obtained or used or endeavored to obtain or use the property of fanny amlin you saw the white claw you know seltzers you saw the various food that was laying there you saw the clothing that was laid out you saw the backpack he did so the intent or easery uh firmly to the product fanny amlin of the property or any benefit from it or appropriate property fanny amlin to on his own use or the use of any other person and not entitled to it he didn't have permission to be in there he didn't have permission to utilize any of the items that were in there and he didn't have any permission to do anything inside that residence let alone endeavor use it obtain it deprive miss amlin of it nothing so ladies and gentlemen we submit to you we've established burglary we've also established a theft now ladies and gentlemen over the past two days you've seen and heard a lot okay what we're asking you to do is to take all of that and put it together we submit to you that you should only come up with one conclusion and one verdict in this particular case because ladies and gentlemen this case was never about mr wade wilson it's about what wade wilson did to christine melton and diane ruiz and make no mistake about it despite his bragging his boasting and the excitement he wants to feel this case was nothing more than a graphic vulgar display of power and we're going to ask that you find mr wilson guilty of first degree premeditated murder for killing and strangling miss melton we're asking that you find him guilty of grand theft of a motor vehicle for stealing taking miss melton's car i'm asking that you find him guilty of battery for striking miss montanez against her will i'm asking that you find him guilty of killing and strangling miss diane ruiz and basically committing blunt force trauma by running her over and trying to make her look like spaghetti i'm asking that you find him guilty of burglary of a dwelling for going to and breaking into the ambulance residence and also for peta theft for taking and helping himself to whatever it was inside that allowed him to do the things that he did thank you very much for your time [00:24:27] Speaker 2: please for the council yes first on behalf of myself mr shirley and even mr wilson i want to thank you for the attention you've given through these proceedings i know there's been some portions that have been rather rough so thank you i want to get up here and i want to argue about premeditation i mean i'm not arguing whether whether these ladies are dead we're not arguing but the premeditation first off let's go through the timeline he and jason shepherd meet miss melton and amy slobodzian i think her name was at the buddha he goes home leaves melissa montanez his girlfriend there takes her car and apparently jason drove them back to miss melton's house they have sex they have consensual sex jason shepherd said so and then something happened i suspect it was the drugs shepherd was saying oh yeah we were doing cocaine just not my cocaine that was for me well if you listen to the statement that was played yesterday mr wilson talks about using flocka that is not good stuff puts holes in your brain injection facts not in evidence sustained anyway at some point between two and four maybe miss slozian leaves and something goes wrong miss montanez described it kill her eyes uh two black holes no soul as she put it kills miss melton absorrupt why rather than premeditation i would submit to you that the judge is going to give you an instruction on second degree murder and one of the or also known as depraved mind murder i don't think anyone can argue that none of this was not depraved but in order to commit second-degree murder there must be an unlawful killing by an act imminently dangerous to another no one's arguing that demonstrating a depraved mind without regard for human life an act includes a series of related actions arising from and perform pursuant to a single design or purpose an act is quote imminently dangerous to another and demonstrating a depraved mind end quote if it is an act or a series of acts of that a person of ordinary judgment would know is reasonably certain to kill or do serious bodily injury to another no question about that is done from ill will hatred spite or an evil intent and is of such a nature that the act in itself indicates an indifference to human life whatever he was doing nobody's arguing was not a depraved was not depraved um look at the timeline miss melton was murdered sometime between two and two and four maybe when miss uh slabozian left she had to go to work and there's the incident about 7 38 o'clock with miss montanez according to her fiancee miss ruiz was going to work between 9 and sometime between 9 and 11 she left the house so the contact between mr wilson and miss ruiz is on a road in broad daylight this isn't some kidnapping in the middle of the night this is in broad daylight again it's almost a carbon copy of miss melton again running over the body 10 to 20 times nobody's saying that's not depraved um we're not arguing he didn't do it there's solid evidence that he is responsible for those two deaths and the battery of miss montanez miss montanez's testimony you need to think about that whether this was premeditated in terms i mean miss milton had sex with him he could have just gotten up and left or stayed with her instead he murders her that's not clear thinking shall we say i'm not arguing insanity i'm not arguing i'm just arguing that the state's claiming premeditation and i'm saying he's whacked out he's just out of his mind for any of this um the only other point i'd like to make is the burglary okay burglary of the amlin house the second element at the time of entering not after you're inside at the time of entering the structure wade wilson had the intent to commit theft in that structure now he was hiding from the police remember this was after the incident with officer mccormick he helped himself to the food i'm not claiming he didn't commit petty theft but reason he went into the house is because um he was hiding out from the cops so i don't believe you had a felony the judge you had a burglary the judge is going to advise you about a lesser charge of trespass um again i respectfully request that you consider whether this was premeditated or depraved mind murder now based on the rules of procedure i don't get a chance to come back up here the state does so i need you to consider what they're going to argue to you in their closing argument because i don't get a chance to rebut it i thank you for the attention you've given and uh appreciate your your assistance in this case thank you [00:34:03] Speaker 3: may i please the court counsel ladies and gentlemen of the jury this was premeditation all day long the defendant's attitude toward these women was despicable he bragged about their deaths to his dad after he killed them no regret no remorse and he replaced the name christine's mother gave her at birth with the name bitch i killed a bitch i choked that bitch out and three days later he's still bragging about it to law enforcement and his biggest concern whether he could get a hamburger and french fries as diane ruiz laid in that field being scavenged by animals with bugs eating her face to the point where she's unrecognizable this guy over here wants some french fries and he's bragging about the fact that diane ruiz looks like spaghetti this is a man with no respect for women with no respect for human life when asked about mila and killing her he says there were too many people around i probably would kill her you know you know what i mean given the chance now i want to start with premeditation because what you're going to see is you're going to see a jury instruction about lesser included offenses and second degree murder is a lesser included offense of first degree premeditated murder and there's no doubt that if you read the second degree murder instruction you're going to see that it involves ill will hatred spite so there's not a premeditation element but there's ill will hatred and spite there's no question that he is full of ill will hatred and spite but the law requires you to find for the highest charge it says when considering the evidence you should consider the possibility that although the evidence may not convince you that the defendant committed the main crime of which he is accused there may be evidence that he committed other acts that will constitute a lesser included crime therefore if you decide the main accusation has not been proved beyond a reasonable doubt you will next need to decide if the defendant is guilty of any lesser included crime ladies and gentlemen you don't even need to go to second degree murder you don't even need to consider lesser included crimes in this case because the state has met its burden and proven premeditated murder and i want to start with the defendant's own words about premeditation and how we know that he took a second to think about what he did before he did it all right the truth is i picked the girl up and killed her i wasn't worried about the school you know remember this is during the day school is in session and it's an elementary school little kids being dropped off by moms and dads and buses i wasn't worried about school you know i choked her out until she couldn't breathe anymore she wasn't fully dead yet now she's he's choking her he could have stopped but he decided to continue so that he could kill her she wasn't fully dead yet and she was still alive and i pushed her out of the car and she tried to get up and i ran her over with the car and i ran over maybe like 10 times 10 20 times her head her body he says i put the window down and i said hey do you know where the high school is where the school's at could you show me she said it's right down there i said i drove by there and i didn't see it could you please show me she got in the car that's all it took that's all it took got her in my car and then from there we drove to the school and i was going to drop her off but i knew in my mind i wasn't going to drop her off there's the mind i knew in my mind i wasn't going to drop her off but she wanted to get dropped off there i said okay you can go as soon as she went to get out whatever i grabbed her by the neck and choked her that's when i was choking her right there i was choking her out right there she came back to life three or four times i mean she was a fighter for sure i'll give her that when i pushed her out she fell out still alive trying to get up i backed up and just ran and hit her ran and hit her ran and hit her until she was not moving anymore that's not premeditated murder ladies and gentlemen i don't know what is and after christine melton when he picked up diane ruiz he told the detectives i was like you know what i've already done it once i'm going to do it again it came across my mind to murder just murder murder just kill kill kill he talks about i could get sex with her and then i was going to guilt kill her this is going to sound weird i'm just really horny so i was looking for an easy piece of pussy and saw her walking and she was strolling or whatever early in the morning so i was like whatever i'll give it a shot when i give it a shot it usually is nine times out of ten works for me and it it did you know it i should kill her he says she did not need a ride afterwards which is why i started choking her because she was going to get out of the car she said drop me off here at school i could tell she was getting scared i saw the fear and i think the fear triggered me to just kill her it was going in a weird direction i could tell things were off because she wanted to be pulled over and she really wanted to get out of the car bad at this point and i could tell she was getting i can sense you fear i'm like a fucking lion and you're the prey and i can sense it they can't get away from me even if they wanted to i'm too strong i mean i don't look strong maybe necessarily but i can believe it or not i'm not trying to be mean i can take either one of you guys down and this is what he's telling detectives he's locked up in the lee county jail confessing and bragging to the detectives about these murders that he committed not only do you have his own words all the evidence shows premeditation remember when he told his father about murdering christine he says she's just sleeping there they had had sex remember this is six in the morning stephanie johnson has already left he sees her asleep asleep after a night of going out having a good time and he says i decided i was going to kill her and i got on top of her again ladies and gentlemen this is classic classic premeditation and there doesn't need to be any length of time it can be just a short swapping at a mosquito defense also alluded that oh you know there's drugs and alcohol and he was on these drugs that's what he says but nowhere in the packet of jury instructions are you going to hear are you going to read when you take those jury instructions back with you that drugs or alcohol is a defense to murder or a defense to premeditation stephanie johnson went out drinking the night of october 6 she went to work the next day jason shepherd went out drinking that night and he did a line or two of cocaine and he went to work the next day and wade wilson went out drinking he did a line or two of cocaine and he killed two almost three women the next day using drugs or alcohol as an excuse for injury or death to anyone is insulting and you'll find nowhere that the law allows that as an excuse think about how he was acting he's at mateo's graphics why is he there he's not just out of his mind talking nonsense now our witness mr lukich thought he was out of his mind because he's saying he killed two women that seems pretty crazy he doesn't think that that's probably true he didn't in fact know it was true but he's there to get out of town he's there for a plane ticket or a bus ticket this is someone who knows exactly what he did he's not on some kind of drug where he doesn't know or he's he doesn't know what's happening or what's going on he knows exactly what's going on and he knows he needs to get the hell out of dodge and long after the hive any drugs or alcohol could have worn off he's calling daddy dad i need you again i need money i need to get out of here i need you to come pick me up i need you to help me and he's bragging to his dad wanting his dad to be proud of the women he killed and then three days later when he's in custody and he's on no drugs and no alcohol what does he do again he's bragging to the detectives all those quotes i just read you those were all three days later when he has no access to any of that defense tries to say you know he's crazy he's out of his mind and the defense you know talked about mental health and that being an issue again that's not a defense in this case there's no evidence of any mental health disorder there's no again no jury instruction that's going to excuse him any reference of it by the defendant in a statement is simply an excuse to try to justify what he did he had no issues going out and having a good time at the booth that night no issues picking up a beautiful young woman at the bar no issues having sex multiple times no issues getting exactly what he wanted he wasn't hallucinating he wasn't hearing voices he wasn't confused about where he was he wasn't confused about anything that night in his own words to law enforcement he was a line and they were the prey and he could sense it he liked knowing that they were in fear he liked knowing that they wanted to get away and he was not about to let them and he knew enough that night to give a different name he was jr or junior he wasn't wade wilson the killer and he knew after killing someone he should get rid of the body he knew that after killing someone he needed to get out of town and as he watched the officers searched for him he sat in the ambulance house drinking white claw eating food using his dad to help him escape as humans there's a desire to make sense of it all to watch the news and come to some understanding of why to have answers to suffering and to look for some explanation to look for a motive to explain why people do what they do but that's why the state doesn't have to prove a motive if you had to sit and find a motive or an explanation or an excuse for wade wilson's behavior you'd be in the jury room for years because there's no explanation no justification and no motivation that could ever explain the suffering and death inflicted on christine melton the suffering he caused to her best friend stephanie johnson the suffering he caused to christine's cousin samantha or the suffering he caused to all her family and friends there's no explanation and no justification and no motivation that could ever explain the suffering he caused to diane ruiz the suffering he caused to her fiance scott the suffering he caused to her son brandon the suffering he caused to the rest of diane ruiz's family and friends and there's no justification for the fear and the pain and the injuries he inflicted on mila montanez and any explanation you may have given to law enforcement creates no and just no justification this defendant is guilty as charged and we ask that you convict him of all the crimes the state has alleged thank you