Courtesy "Killer Investigations" on A&E.
Company cameras in the cab of a garbage truck captured Jose Soto-Escalera discussing his plans to murder his 23-year-old pregnant lover, Tania Wise — after he apparently forgot he was being recorded as he told his nephew how he intended to kill his victim. The tapes became key evidence against him at trial.
The murder of Tania Wise is featured in a new "Killer Investigations" episode, "A Mother's Murder," premiering on Thursday, June 25 at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT on A&E.
In St. Lucie County, Florida, police responded to a report of a body found in a roadside ditch. When they arrived, they discovered a young pregnant woman with two deep lacerations to her throat.
"They said that they found her. They said they found my daughter in a ditch. I thought it was a lie," Tania's mother, Elizabeth Bedolla says in the episode.
Tania Wise was nearly nine months pregnant. Just two months earlier, Wise's family had thrown her a baby shower celebrating the upcoming birth of her second son, who she was going to name Josiah Thomas Wise.
"She was looking forward to having another little kid and just looking forward to being a mother to another," says Wise's son, Jamar Bedolla who was looking forward to being a big brother.
Detectives first looked at Wise's on-again, off-again boyfriend, who had recently been thrown out of the family home after an aggressive argument. Investigators brought him in for a lengthy videotaped interview where they grilled him about his relationship with Tania, but detectives told Law&Crime they determined he was "sincerely upset" about her passing and not a likely suspect.
Detectives discovered that Tania had a secret lover, Jose Soto-Escalera, a married garbage truck driver who was suspected to be the potential father of her unborn child. Investigators learned Soto-Escalera had given Wise $500 to have an abortion but she did not follow through with it. DNA results confirmed Soto-Escalera was the father.
"People believed that she was going to blackmail him for more money. He didn't want to lose his livelihood and his wife," Detective Newman says in the episode.
But the most damning evidence came from company cameras installed in the cab of Soto-Escalera's own garbage truck. On the footage, he can be heard discussing his plans to kill Wise.
"I'm going to blow her brains out so she doesn't talk. I have to do it, Erick. I have no other choice," was read aloud to the jury by a police lieutenant from a translated transcript. "Did you see the blood?" Erick asks after the murder.
"I think that it shows an incredible degree of arrogance that these guys thought that they could do that and get away with it," says prosecutor Donald Richardson. "As a prosecutor it was, you couldn't have asked for better evidence."
Investigators also synced neighborhood surveillance cameras with Soto-Escalera's phone, placing his truck near Wise's home the night of the murder. Blood found on the floorboard of his truck tested as a high-probability DNA match to Tania Wise.
At trial, Soto-Escalera chose not to testify. His defense team called no witnesses. In a surprise closing argument, the defense suggested Soto-Escalera's wife may have followed him and committed the murder herself.
The jury deliberated for just over an hour before returning guilty verdicts on both counts: first-degree murder of Tania Wise and first-degree murder of an unborn child.
The case then moved to a penalty phase. Wise's son Jamar addressed the court.
"My mother was the closest person to me, and she was like my best friend. On that day, I lost more than a mother. I also lost the chance to have my mother watch me grow," Jamar told the court.
By a vote of eight to four, the minimum required under Florida law, the jury recommended death. Jose Soto-Escalera was sentenced to death.
"My daughter didn't deserve to die. Tania did not deserve to die. My grandson did not deserve to die," Elizabeth Bedolla says. "I see her dancing, laughing. Every day, every minute. That's how I want her to be remembered."
"Killer Investigations," written by Emmy Award- and Peabody Award-winning journalist Brian Ross, examines major homicide cases through law enforcement interviews, forensic evidence, and trial testimony. Executive Producers for Law&Crime Productions are Brian Ross & Rhonda Schwartz. Executive Producers for A&E are Brad Abramson, Michael Gelman and Elaine Frontain-Bryant.
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