The sons of Diane Ruiz, one of Wade Wilson‘s two murder victims, spoke out about the viral case for the first time on Bunnie Xo’s Dumb Blonde podcast.
The wife of country star Jelly Roll, who calls herself “The Trailerpark Barbra Walters,” released a podcast episode Monday featuring her conversation with Zane Romero, 19, and Brandon Cuellar, 28, who lost their mother, Ruiz of Cape Coral, Florida, in October 2019 at the hands of Wilson.
Bunnie, who claimed in a previous episode to be working on a documentary about Wilson’s case, asked each of the men if they had any message for Wilson.
“I think I’m gonna save that for later,” Cuellar said with a laugh as one of the men claimed Wilson is a “loser!”
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“I think what’s gonna affect him more is that you’re calling him a loser and not even saying anything because his ego is so f–king fragile, dude,” Bunnie said.
Romero, who attends college on a scholarship, said in his message to Wilson, “Listen, I don’t really get angry. I don’t like yelling. I say things very calmly, and if I were to say something to him, he wouldn’t understand. He would need a dictionary right next to him.”
Cuellar works as a cook and hopes to be a chef or own a restaurant one day. He told Bunnie that Ruiz was “my best friend in life,” and revealed that he cooked dinner for the family the night before Wilson pulled up to Ruiz while she was walking to work.
Wilson asked her for directions and she got in the car before strangling and running over her dead body hours after killing another woman, Kristine Melton.
Brandon told Bunnie about the “rage” he felt for Wilson up until he was convicted of the murders in July. Wilson is now on Florida’s death row but is appealing his sentence.
Cuellar took the stand once during the trial but claims he declined returning to make an impact statement because he would’ve told Wilson off.
“My plan was to go up on that stand and say what I wanted to, but when I got up on the stand, I thought about my mother. I’m like, ‘Do I really want to go up there and say what I really want to say when I have to be professional about it?'”
“‘Do I want to be that impactful with my words in front of everybody on live TV, or do I want to represent my mother the best way I can and let me just answer the questions they’re asking me, and then I go back and sit down?'” he asked himself.
“I told them, ‘If I go up on that stand a second time. I won’t speak about my mother,” he added. “I’m going to speak my mind after that.”
Romero, meanwhile, delivered a powerful impact statement and testimony, revealing to Bunnie that he made eye contact with his mother’s killer multiple times.
“It started to scare me at the end, not because he was in the room, but it was more like there was a camera pointing at me, and then I was reading something off a script that I wrote, and it was just getting to a point that I wish it wasn’t live,” he said about media cameras streaming the trial.
Both of Ruiz’s sons also gushed over her strength and the life lessons she instilled in them.
“She’s literally the true definition of a strong, independent woman. I can say that proudly,” Cuellar said.
“She wasn’t only playing that mother role. She’s playing the mother, the father role, even my best friend,” he added.
“She was one of the sweetest people I have ever met,” Romero added. “I used to help her at her job all the time at Moose Lodge for volunteer hours and everybody would always come up to me and be like, ‘Your mom’s so sweet and you look exactly like her.”
Romero created a GoFundMe to help with their “medical procedures, dental work, college supplies, car upkeep, and rent.”
Bunnie Xo and Wade Wilson Phone Calls
Last week’s episode of Bunnie’s Dumb Blonde podcast included a June phone call with Wilson in which he told her he didn’t want to participate in her documentary about his case unless he got paid.
“I don’t care if nobody wants to pay me. Somebody will. I’ll just go do my own thing and mind my own business,” Wilson said. “If I’m gonna get to talking about anything, I’m going to get paid for that. I don’t really care about the fame. I don’t really care about nothing.”
“You think I’m some monster, and, you know, granted, maybe so, but even so monsters get paid. Everybody gets paid,” Wilson added.
A second phone call between them concluded with Bunnie telling Wilson that a production company wants to move forward with production for the docuseries but laws prohibit Wilson from being paid for his participation.
After a long pause, Wilson said, “Tell me what that law is. I’m gonna text my lawyer right now.”
Wilson is appealing his death sentencing. He has a status hearing set for November 13 at 1:30 p.m. His lawyers have asked the judge to be able to appear by telephone or Zoom, court documents show.
The convicted murderer and one of his female supporters, Jesse Tehonica, also filed a lawsuit against the Lee County Sheriff’s Office and the State Attorney’s Office over the release of jail phone calls between them.
The suit states Tehonica has been bullied online due to her involvement with Wilson.
Who was Diane Ruiz?
Ruiz was reported missing on October 7, 2019. The bartender was walking to work at a nearby bar when Wilson approached her in a car he stole from Melton’s home, asking for directions.
Ruiz got in the car where Wilson strangled her and “ran her over until she looked like spaghetti,” Wilson’s dad said his son admitted during his testimony. Ruiz’s body was found on October 10 in a field behind a Sam’s Club.
Romero testified that his mother’s death happened just days before his debut in the high school marching band, which she was excited to see.
“I never got to see her in the crowd,” Romero said. “My mom will never get to see me get married.”
Ruiz was engaged to Scott Hannon at the time of her death.
Who was Kristine Melton?
Wilson met Melton at a live-music bar and went home with her on October 6, 2019. The next day, he strangled her to death in her Cape Coral home where her body was discovered.
Melton was remembered as a cat lover and great friend during the trial. Her friend since high school, Stephanie Sailors testified that she and Melton lived in Colorado before moving to Cape Coral together and were servers at the same restaurant.
Melton’s cousin, Samantha Catomer, testified that Melton was the quick-witted godmother to her child who made everyone feel safe and understood.
“Kristine will never experience motherhood, a role she was born to play,” Catomer said through tears.
In an interview with Newsweek after Wilson’s sentencing, Kristine’s brother, Robert Melton, described his sister as “the glue that kept me connected to the cousins” living in Florida, which he admitted to “not doing a good job at keeping in touch with them with Kristine out of the picture.”
Before her murder, Robert Melton says his sister lived four houses down from their mom in Cape Coral so that she could keep her mother safe from scammers attempting to take advantage of her amid her battle with dementia.
“Kristine was her best friend,” he said. “They had coffee every morning.”
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