Background: Jose Soto-Escalera in court with his attorney on Oct. 10 (Law&Crime Network). Inset: Tania Wise (St. Lucie County Sheriff”s Office).
A man from Florida was sentenced to the highest penalty after being found guilty of murdering his pregnant lover and her unborn child.
Jose Soto-Escalera, 48, was convicted last month by a jury on two counts of first-degree murder related to the 2018 death of Tania Wise, a 23-year-old who was just a week away from giving birth to her son, named Josiah. DNA tests confirmed Soto-Escalera was the baby’s father. Prosecutors argued he was upset when Wise used money he wanted for an abortion for a different purpose.
On Friday, a judge sentenced Soto-Escalera to death for the two murders.
Wise’s body was discovered abandoned on a country road on August 24, 2018. Prosecutors stated her head was bashed and her throat was cut, either of which could have been fatal. Police investigations revealed multiple communications between Wise and the married Soto-Escalera, whose wife was unaware of the affair.
According to Law&Crime, Wise informed Soto-Escalera of her pregnancy and requested money for an abortion. A witness present during her request said Wise claimed that by leveraging Jose’s wife against him, she could get whatever she wanted.
Soto-Escalera had agreed to provide Wise with $500 for the abortion, which she never obtained. Police reported that she handed the money to another individual instead. This angered Soto-Escalera, who felt “played,” prompting him to inquire about obtaining a “dirty gun.”
Cell phone records indicated Soto-Escalera was at the site where Wise’s body was later discovered. His phone also showed Google searches for “dead body in woods” and “wooded area dead body,” coinciding with the time before Wise’s body was found.
During Friday’s sentencing hearing, the judge read through the defense’s argument that Soto-Escalera had suffered through a difficult childhood and had even been bullied himself. In an effort to argue for a life sentence without parole, the defense said he had been a well-behaved inmate while in jail.
The jury had recommended the death sentence for Soto-Escalera, with eight jurors voting in favor of it and four voting against.
The judge ultimately sided with the jury’s decision, saying that “the aggravating factors” connected to Wise’s death and the death of her baby “outweigh the mitigating circumstances” in relation to Soto-Escalera’s past and behavior as an adult. With that said, the judge stated that “the death sentence is the appropriate and just sentence as to each victim.”
