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Crime House 24/7
Night Watch: He Kills His Pregnant Mistress and BRAGS Police Has No Evidence
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Crime House has the perfect new show for spooky season Twisted Tales. Hosted by Heidi Wong, each episode of Twisted Tales is perfect for late night scares and daytime frights, revealing the disturbing real life events that inspired the world's most terrifying blockbusters and the ones too twisted to make it to screen. Twisted Tales is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Listen wherever you get your podcasts New episodes out every Monday.
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This is Crime House and since she disappears like that for a couple of days, no one is going to be looking for her. I already took two baths when I got to her house and I bathed this morning.
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Did you see blood?
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I had it all over the clothes. But without the evidence they can't do nothing if something happens. No one saw the bag.
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Those were the words Jose Soto Escalera said in a recorded conversation about killing 23 year old Tonya Wise. Tonya was nearly nine months pregnant and on the verge of giving birth when she was found murdered on a Florida roadside. Now the man accused of killing her faces the ultimate sentence. Hi, I'm Katie Ring, a true crime analyst, self defense instructor and fierce advocate for victims. And this is Crime House Daily, your essential true crime companion. Every weekday morning and night here at Crime House Daily, we dig into the true crime stories making headlines right now, where justice is unfolding, arrests are happening, and new evidence is emerging. Every morning, First Watch gets you up to speed on the biggest cases. Every night, Nightwatch takes you deeper. If you want to follow a case from the first 911 call to the final verdict, this is the place for you. Follow Crime House Daily wherever you get your podcasts, leave a review and for ad free listening. Subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. For video, check out our YouTube channel RimehouseDaily. This episode discusses active criminal cases and breaking news. The information we share is based on what's publicly available at the time of recording and may change as new evidence comes to light. We aim to inform, not to decide guilt or innocence. So everyone mentioned is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Tonight we're digging into the case of Jose Soto Escalera, a married father of four convicted of murdering his mistress, 23 year old Tanya Wise, who was over eight months pregnant with his child. In late September, a jury decided in an 8 to 4 vote that Jose should face the death penalty. And in the Spencer hearing on October 6, Jose was handed down his fate.
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Our case tonight takes us to St. Lucie County, Florida. The primary city of Port. St. Lucie has been called the safest large city in Florida for over a decade and the area is known for being pretty family friendly. Which is why it came as a shock that in the summer of 2018, the 23 year old Tanya Wise was found murdered on the side of the road. Investigators quickly closed in on a suspect and the news was shocking. It was 41 year old Jose Soto Escalera, a married father of four. He was accused of killing Tonya after finding out she was pregnant with his child. Escalero went on trial last month and on September 19th he was found guilty of first degree murder. The sentencing phase of his trial began five days later with prosecutors seeking the death sentence. This September, a jury decided in an 8 to 4 vote that Jose should receive the death penalty. But on October 6, Jose had a Spencer hearing. If you don't know what a Spencer hearing is, don't worry. Neither did I. But in Florida, defendants who are facing the death penalty are given a chance to present any additional evidence they may have before formal sentencing. They are also given a chance to speak at the hearing. So how did we get here? Let's start from the beginning. Tonya Wise was described as a bright and playful person. She was a devoted mother and she had one young son. In August 2018, the 23 year old was about to give birth to another baby boy she was going to name Josiah Thomas. But tragically, Tonya never got the chance. On August 24, 2018, a woman named Christine Gavin was driving along the highway when she saw something strange. There was an object in a drainage ditch that looked like a bag. Christine pulled over to get a closer look and when she saw the bag up close, she realized what it actually was. It was the dead body of a woman, her body laid face down and it was clear that she was violently attacked. When Christine Gavin realizes what she's come across, she calls 911 right away and police descend on the scene. The woman's throat has been slashed almost to her spine and her skull is visible through the skin. It looks like she's been struck with a heavy object. There's vomit near her face and her hand was still clutched Around a clump of grass. They also find a condom near her body. And an autopsy later revealed that that she had trauma to her genitals as well. It doesn't take long for the police to confirm that the victim is 23 year old Tania Wise, a young mother who was eight and a half months pregnant. When the coroner's report comes back, they determine that her cause of death is blunt force trauma to the back of the head and sharp force trauma to the neck. They also conclude that Tanya's unborn baby died just minutes after she did. The police in St Lucie immediately launch a murder investigation. And fortunately, the same day, a pizza shop owner named William Mullen comes forward with a key piece of evidence. He said that on his way home from work, he noticed something suspicious. Along the same stretch of highway where Tanya's body was discovered, A truck was slowly creeping down the side of the highway with its lights off. At that moment, William didn't stop to investigate, but he knew something was off. Because why would a truck be driving that slowly in the dark? It's almost like the driver was looking for something. When William drove past that same spot the next day, he noticed that it was cordoned off. And he realized that the truck he'd seen the night before may have been involved in a crime. William notifies the police and they agree that it is a solid lead. It's likely that whoever was driving that truck was probably getting rid of Tanya's body. But without a license plate number or any real identifying information, the evidence isn't enough to zero in on anyone right away. So police start looking for more leads. And if you follow any police case, you probably know that the first suspect is always the romantic partner. When women come to my self defense classes, they usually think that the person most likely to hurt them is a stranger in a dark alley. But the sad reality is that 60% of women who are are murdered are murdered by a romantic partner or someone they know. The pregnancy is also a factor they consider, because two other terrifying stats are that one of the leading causes of death for pregnant women is homicide and that one in six cases of domestic violence start during pregnancy. So for obvious reasons, one of the first people they look into is Tanya's boyfriend, Bradley Rodriguez Jr. And they learned that Tanya's mom does not like him because he was allegedly abusing her daughter. Although she never saw Bradley lay a hand on her daughter, she knew he had threatened her and she did not like the way he treated her. She let Bradley move in with her and her daughter in 2013. But it didn't last long because she kicked him out shortly after. This was a little over five years before Tonya's murder. And although I always encourage women to make a safety plan and escape abusive relationships, as soon as it is safe to do so, it can be incredibly hard to leave. And at the same time of Tanya's death, she and Bradley were still together. However, Bradley isn't the only man who pops up on their radar. Tanya was also seeing a guy named Mark Burke. They get DNA samples from both of these men, along with Tanya's pimp and a man who gave her a ride the night she died. But the results come back, and none of these men are the father of her unborn baby. Although this doesn't necessarily rule them out, the investigators keep digging until they land on a man named Jose Soto Escalera. When the police first question Jose, his connection to Tanya seems relatively innocent. Jose is a married father of four who Tanya met through her boyfriend, Bradley. Bradley. On occasion, Tanya would even drop her son off to play with Jose's kids, and he would help watch him. During Jose's initial interview with police, he appears to be shocked when he learns that Tanya is dead. He's cooperative and agrees to a DNA swab as well as a search of his truck. And remember, the night before Tanya was discovered, someone saw a truck driving slowly with its lights off in the same area. Jose says that Tonya has been in the truck once, but insists that their relationship was limited mostly to interactions around their kids. According to him, they were never closely involved, and he said they definitely didn't have sexual relations in that initial interview. He points to Tonya's allegedly abusive boyfriend Bradley as a possible suspect. But then DNA results come back and the data tells a completely different story. In true Jerry Springer form, it turns out he is the father, leaving investigators asking why he would lie about his relationship with Tanya. So they start uncovering some new evidence, and each piece is more incriminating than the last. So good, so good, so good.
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After 23 year old Tanya Wise is found dead in St. Lucie County, Florida on August 24, 2018. Police zero in on the culprit. They think her killer is 41 year old Jose Soto Escalera. When they initially asked Jose what his relationship to Tanya was, he claimed they were just friends and he'd sometimes help out with her kid. But a DNA test shows that he is the father of her unborn child, a child who was also killed when she died. And when authorities keep digging, they learn that Tanya was supposed to meet with Jose the night she disappeared. They also find surveillance footage from Tanya's neighborhood showing a truck similar to Jose's driving down her street at 8:26pm on the night she died. Police pull his cell phone records and find that he'd called Tanya one minute earlier, which solidifies the witness's statement and places them together on the night she was killed. And according to a witness from his past, Jose also had a history of violence. As the police investigate his background, they speak to someone who tells them that 25 years earlier, in 1993, Jose had shot and killed a man in Bridgeport, Connecticut. But he was never caught because someone else had been arrested. But by the time prosecutors realized that they had the wrong person and identified Jose as a real suspect, the five year statute of limitations had already passed, meaning Jose may have gotten away with taking someone else's life. And it wouldn't be his last. One of Tanya's friends, a woman named Cassie Adams, swears that Jose knew Tanya's unborn child was his. According to Cassie, he had tried to pay Tanya $500 to get an abortion. Tanya took the money, but she decided to keep the baby. Cassie also says that Tanya gave the money to a former boyfriend. And when Jose found out, he was allegedly furious. He told a confidant that Tanya was blackmailing him and that he felt trapped. Remember, he already had a family of his own. According to witness testimony, this was when Jose began actively making plans to get rid of Tanya, including a conversation where he tried to procure a possible murder weapon. In August 2018, shortly before Tanya went missing, Jose approached one of his co workers named Kenneth Brady Baron and asked if Kenneth could help him get a ghost gun, which is a weapon that cannot be traced. Kenneth brushed him off and told Jose that he didn't have anything illegal to sell. He never asked what Jose wanted it for, but prosecutors said that is proof Jose was planning Tanya's murder. That isn't the only evidence of premeditation either. Around this time, Jose also had a conversation with his nephew. Where he said several incriminating things and they were all caught on tape. Jose and his nephew Eric Alvarado, worked at Waste Pro, a garbage collection service in St. Lucie County, Florida. Unbeknownst to them, the company's trucks are equipped with cameras and microphones to monitor activity in and around the vehicle. And on August 21, 2018, three days before Tanya's body was found, one of those truck microphones picked up something pretty shocking. In a recorded conversation, Escalera was heard telling Eric, quote, I'm going to blow her brains out so she doesn't talk. He allegedly attempted to enlist Eric as an accomplice and asked him to be his getaway driver. He said that he had already had plans to dump the body where there were no cameras and and get rid of any evidence tying him to the crime. While he didn't specifically name Tonya, he did tell his nephew that he had no choice. He said he would lose everything if he didn't commit this heinous crime. Eventually, investigators were able to place him in Tonya's vicinity the night she died, along with the sighting of a truck near her house that looked very similar to his. The police learned that at 9:55pm on the 23rd, Jose called his wife from the area around Russo Road where Tanya's body was discovered. The next morning, the pieces were falling into place, and investigators were certain that Jose had the means, the motive, and the opportunity. On August 28, 2018, four days after 23 year old Tanya Wise was found dead, police obtained a warrant to search her home. But they couldn't find any evidence that implicated a specific killer. They also got a Warrant to search 41 year old Jose Escalera's truck. Roughly one month after Tanya and her unborn child were found dead in a drainage ditch, Police believe they now have enough evidence to move in on their killer. On September 21, 2018, law enforcement arrived to arrest Jose for the murder of his mistress, Tonya. Jose is armed with a handgun when the police show up, but he ultimately goes quietly. Assistant State Attorney Jeffrey Hendricks calls the murder cold, calculated and premeditated, and confirms that his office intends to seek the death penalty against Jose. Seven years later, they finally got to make that case in front of a jury. Jose's trial started just last month. On September 15, 2025, prosecutors presented all of the evidence to prove Jose murdered his mistress in cold blood after getting her pregnant in order to hide their affair. And apparently, Jose appears to still be married. But on the flip side, Jose's defense attorneys pointed to other abusive and dangerous men in Tanya's life to show that someone else could have killed her. Jose's lawyers also say that it will be impossible for him to receive a fair trial in Port Lucie because it's similar to a case that received a great deal of attention in the news and on social media. In December 2018, shortly after Jose was arrested, a jury convicted 25 year old Checkinson Sinclair for murdering his pregnant wife. Sinclair, also of Port Lucy, Florida, was found guilty and sentenced to two life sentences. Jose's lawyers argued that the fervor around this case would bias a jury and make a fair trial impossible. But the trial was allowed to move forward, and over the week of September 15, 2025, prosecutors methodically laid out their case against Jose. Now, seven years after the crime, Jose watched the proceedings with the same drawn expression. But now he has glasses, thinning hair, and a beard flecked with gray. He often fidgeted in his chair and his recorded conversations were played and multiple witnesses testified against him. Then, after four days of testimony, the state of Florida rested its case. On Thursday, September 19, Jose declined to take the stand in his defense and and his lawyers rested their case without calling any witnesses, which happens fairly often for a variety of reasons. While we can't speak to why they didn't do it in this case, it's likely that they didn't have anyone who could credibly speak in Jose's defense. So on Friday, September 19, both sides made their closing arguments and after deliberating for barely an hour, the jury returned a verdict. They found Jose guilty of first degree murder. The sentencing phase of his trial began on September 24, with the prosecution seeking the death penalty. The stakes were high, and on the 25th, a jury recommended that Jose be put to death in an 8 to 4 vote. That means Jose had to go on to a Spencer hearing, which if you remember, is a hearing that lets defendants appeal directly to the judge after the jury has recommended their sentence. On October 6, Jose's fate was decided. He was not sentenced to the death penalty. Let's not forget the victims in all of this. Tanya Wise and her unborn child suffered gruesome ends, and we can only hope that her family is given their time to grieve. We're keeping a close eye on this case, so as always, we'll give you any updates as they come in. What did you think of tonight's case? Drop your thoughts and theories in the comments. You stay curious and I'll stay on the case. See you next time. If you haven't already. Subscribe to our YouTube channel rimehousedaily and follow us on social media rimehouse24.7 for real time updates because the pursuit of justice never stops. Twisted Tales with Heidi Wong is perfect for spooky season. Dive into the real events behind the world's most terrifying blockbusters and beyond. Twisted Tales is a crime house original. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes out every Monday.