Adrian Aviles says his late wife, Regina Santos-Aviles, exchanged roughly 3,500 text messages, some of which were sexual in nature, with her boss, Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales.
Santos-Aviles, 35, died in September 2025 after pouring gasoline on herself and igniting it with a lighter in the backyard of her Uvalde, Texas, home. She died the following day.
Aviles and his attorney, Bobby Barrerra, spoke publicly on Thursday. The interviews mark the most detailed account yet from the family's side of a story that has shadowed Gonzales as he seeks a third term representing Texas' 23rd Congressional District, with Republican primary voters set to head to the polls on March 3.
Aviles says the discovery came on a specific date. He told reporters:
"I found out about this on May 31st of 2024."
He said his wife handed him her phone with a warning: "You're not gonna like what you see." He left the house with it and read every message. Attorney Barrerra described the contents as communications that "clearly indicate something more than a non-professional relationship." He said there was "nothing graphic," but added:
"The context is sexual in nature, where she's asking her to send him pictures of herself when she is at a motel. And so the clear implication of that is that he wanted nudey pics."
According to both Aviles and a former Gonzales staffer, the alleged relationship lasted no more than a month. The couple separated in the fall of 2024, according to the NY Post.
On September 13, 2025, Santos-Aviles poured gasoline on herself and set it alight. Uvalde authorities ruled the death a suicide. Her husband disputes that framing.
Aviles insists his wife was coherent when EMS arrived. He recounted her final moments:
"She was completely coherent as EMS arrived on scene and she had a whole conversation with them stating that she didn't want to die. She didn't mean to do this."
Barrerra echoed the point, calling the act a "desperate cry for help and attention" rather than a deliberate attempt at self-destruction. He noted the sheer agony involved: "That's the worst, most painful death you can inflict upon yourself."
Aviles described his wife as "a completely stable … mentally-sane person before all of this." Whatever happened in that backyard, a 35-year-old mother is dead and an eight-year-old boy lost his mother. That fact should anchor every other detail in this story.
The congressman posted on X Thursday with a statement that left little room for ambiguity:
"I WILL NOT BE BLACKMAILED. Disgusting to see people profit politically and financially off a tragic death. The public should IMMEDIATELY have full access to the Uvalde Police report."
He also posted a screenshot of an email from Barrerra. Gonzales has previously dismissed a leaked text in which Santos-Aviles referenced an "affair" as a "smear," and has characterized the allegations as "people throwing rocks at me, saying I'm doing nasty things."
But Barrerra fired back directly:
"Tony left out the part that he didn't want people to read. We downloaded Regina's phone and it is replete with communications — including dates, locations and pictures — of a sexual nature. He conveniently left that out."
Gonzales, a married father of six, did not respond to additional requests for comment.
Barrerra has been privately seeking an up to $300,000 settlement with Gonzales' office under the Congressional Accountability Act, alleging sexual harassment and workplace retaliation. Gonzales has accused the widower and his attorney of seeking "six-figures" in damages, framing the effort as opportunistic.
Barrerra pushed back on that characterization as well:
"He, I guess, fails to comprehend that we really state: We don't want to go public. We don't want to destroy his career. We don't want to do any of that."
Whether this constitutes a legitimate legal claim or a leverage play is a question the public will have to weigh. What is clear is that the private channel failed, and now the details are out in the open with a primary days away.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office determined in December not to release additional security camera or bodycam footage, the 911 dispatch call, or associated police reports. Aviles himself had asked for the records to be sealed, citing his son:
"Son doesn't need to get on YouTube and be able to see this in five years."
That a father wants to protect his child from seeing his mother's death is understandable. But the sealed records also mean the public is left to adjudicate competing narratives without a complete evidentiary record. A forensics team is currently downloading communications from Santos-Aviles' phone, and Aviles and Barrerra have promised to release the contents "imminently."
Aviles says he confronted Gonzales directly after discovering the texts, telling the congressman to "take care of your family." He said Gonzales was not welcome at the funeral. And he did not mince words about the congressman's public posture:
"I see a man that runs from accountability — that's a coward."
He accused Gonzales of "abuse of power and manipulation" and said the congressman "tripled down" on what Aviles calls "lies." He also rejected any suggestion that his motives are political:
"This is not a f–king political thing for me."
He said he tried to stay quiet. He said he wanted it behind them. But Gonzales' public denials, Aviles claims, forced his hand:
"He will not be allowed to lie about my wife again. … He's already done it twice, and I remained silent because I have an eight-year-old son."
Republican primary voters in Texas' 23rd District face a choice on March 3. They will cast ballots with a contested, incomplete, and deeply personal story hovering over the race. Gonzales' primary opponent, Brandon Herrera, a YouTuber and Second Amendment enthusiast, is the alternative on the ballot.
The facts that are undisputed: a congressman's aide is dead. Her husband says thousands of texts exist. The congressman says he's being blackmailed. The attorney says a forensics download will settle it. And a little boy in Uvalde no longer has a mother.
My son lost his mother, Aviles said. "That's the biggest heartbreak of it all."