{"id":1944,"date":"2025-10-14T09:26:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T09:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/1944\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T09:26:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T09:26:12","slug":"man-convicted-of-killing-woman-and-unborn-child-in-st-lucie-county-sentenced-to-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/1944\/","title":{"rendered":"Man convicted of killing woman and unborn child in St. Lucie County sentenced to death"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">A man convicted of killing his girlfriend and their unborn child was sentenced to death Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">&#8220;Therefore, Jose Soto-Escalera, I hereby sentence you to death for the first-degree murder of Tanya Wise. I also independently sentence you to death for the first-degree murder of her unborn child,&#8221; Judge Lawrence Mirman said in court on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">WATCH BELOW: Jury recommends death for man convicted of killing girlfriend<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Last month, Soto-Escalera <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wptv.com\/news\/treasure-coast\/region-st-lucie-county\/jose-soto-escalera-found-guilty-of-first-degree-murder-in-2018-killing-of-23-year-old-pregnant-girlfriend\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">was found guilty<\/a> of two counts of first-degree murder. Prosecutors said that Soto-Escalera killed Wise so his wife would not find out that he and the victim were involved in a relationship. DNA evidence confirmed Soto-Escalera was the unborn baby&#8217;s father.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">In August 2018, the body of Wise, 23, of Port St. Lucie, was found face down in a ditch off a rural road in northern St. Lucie County. Soto-Escalera, who was 41 years old at the time of the killing, was arrested 28 days after Wise&#8217;s body was discovered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wptv.com\/news\/treasure-coast\/region-st-lucie-county\/trial-underway-for-man-accused-of-killing-woman-and-unborn-child-in-st-lucie-county-in-2018\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">During the week-long trial<\/a>, the jury was shown autopsy photos where Wise suffered trauma to her head and throat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Read more of WPTV&#8217;s related coverage below:<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Region St Lucie County<\/p>\n<p>Jury recommends death for man convicted of killing girlfriend<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Region St Lucie County<\/p>\n<p>Man found guilty of\u00a0murdering pregnant girlfriend<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Region St Lucie County<\/p>\n<p>Trial underway for man accused of killing woman and unborn child in 2018  <\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2025 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man convicted of killing his girlfriend and their unborn child was sentenced to death Friday afternoon. &#8220;Therefore,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":{"0":"post-1944","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-port-st-lucie","9":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}