Wilson, 30, will learn in a few weeks whether he will be put to death or spend life in prison for murdering Kristine Melton, 35, and Diane Ruiz, 43, in October 2019. A judge will hear a request from Wilson’s lawyers for a new trial or acquittal in Melton’s murder at 9 a.m. on August 27, followed by his sentencing at 2 p.m.
But years before Wilson committed the murders, he lived with his adoptive parents Steve and Candace Wilson in Tallahassee, attending Deerlake Middle School and Lawton Chiles High School, presumably graduating in 2013. Newsweek spoke to a few of Wilson’s former classmates about what Wilson was like growing up.
Newsweek made multiple attempts to contact Steve and Candance Wilson but never heard back. Newsweek also made multiple attempts for comment from Leon County Schools and Lawton Chiles High School. Last week, someone at Chiles High School said “No comment” and hung up the phone on a Newsweek reporter. Additional follow-ups by Newsweek were unanswered.
Newsweek spoke to more than three of Wilson’s former classmates to gather information. The classmates wanted to remain anonymous for their privacy and safety.
‘Looked so eerie’
A woman who claims she attended Deerlake Middle School and Chiles High School with Wilson wanted to remain anonymous in Newsweek’s reporting. She had the same group of friends as Wilson in middle school, and they sat together for lunch.
“Nobody would eat. They would just pass drugs around, which was so weird to me,” she said, claiming she once dated one of Wilson’s close friends, who was also “wasn’t a very good kid either.”
“He [Wilson] would always wear this black hoodie with his hood over his head, and [her former boyfriend] did the same thing,” she remembered of high school. “They always looked so eerie together – just like at 6:30 in the morning, the sun hasn’t come up yet – You just see them on the side of a building, and I’m like ‘Oh, wait, those are my friends.'”
