A 48-year-old Florida man, Jose Soto-Escalera, will pay the ultimate price for the 2018 murder of his pregnant lover, 23-year-old Tania Wise. After he killed her and ditched her body on a road, he Googled “dead body in woods” one day before Wise was found, prosecutors detailed.
Videos by Suggest
As reported by Law & Crime, Soto-Escalera was sentenced to death on Friday, October 10. A jury had previously found him guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in September.
“Therefore, Jose Soto-Escalera, I hereby sentence you to death for the first-degree murder of Tanya Wise,” Judge Lawrence Mirman said in court, as per Treasure Coast News. “I also independently sentence you to death for the first-degree murder of her unborn child.”
Body Found
According to a St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office (SLCSO) release, Wise’s body was found on August 24, 2018. Along Russo Road in St Lucie County, a passerby found her lying face down and immediately contacted the authorities.
At the time of her death, Wise was one week away from her scheduled C-section. She was to deliver Soto-Escalera’s baby, a baby boy named Josiah. Instead, she and, as a result, her unborn baby were killed, with the mother dying of blunt force trauma to the head and sharp force injuries to the neck. Someone had slit her throat, the SLCSO said.
Turns out, it was Soto-Escalera, a married man and father of the unborn child, who savagely killed Tania Wise. As per Law & Crime, the man had agreed to provide $500 to Wise for her to get an abortion. However, she spent the money elsewhere, choosing to give it to another man.
Gruesome Murder
This enraged the Florida man, who felt Wise had “played him.” Prosecutors said in court that Jose Soto-Escalera bashed her skull and then slit her throat.
Judge Mirman noted, as per Treasure Coast News, that Wise’s skull was fractured, suffering an internal brain injury as a result, and two lacerations on her neck reached the bone.
Following the gruesome murder, Soto-Escalera left her body, and therefore, his unborn child’s body, on the country road.
Authorities eventually found communication between Wise and Soto-Escalera. A search warrant would later yield further proof that the married man was behind the murder, with his cellphone location pinpointing him at the place where the younger woman was found.
Furthermore, before Wise’s body was found, Soto-Escalera Googled “dead body in woods” and “wooded area dead body.”
Initially, Soto-Escalera maintained his innocence, willingly providing a DNA sample, denying any relationship with Wise. The DNA results, however, confirmed he was the father of Josiah.