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A shocking police report obtained by The Post revealed that a dying aide to Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) told first responders her estranged husband was having an extramarital affair with “her best friend.”
Regina Santos-Aviles, 35, a regional director for Gonzales in Texas, made the claim after she set herself on fire and emergency responders fought to save her life.
The Uvalde, Texas, police records released Monday shed light on the tragic ending for Santos-Aviles, a mother who allegedly had an affair with her married GOP boss the year prior, while still obsessing about her estranged husband in her final breaths.
Santos-Aviles lit herself on fire on Sept. 13, 2025 and died of the resulting injuries the following day.
The gruesome police report described the frantic scene of first responders trying to put out a fire in the backyard, while a burned Santos-Aviles tried to tell officers what drove her to take such a drastic final act that was later ruled a suicide.
First responders found Santos-Aviles with “severe burn injuries” on the front porch of her home claiming “she discovered her husband was cheating on her with her best friend, and as a result, she poured gasoline on herself and set herself on fire,” one officer’s report stated.
Another officer wrote in the report that Santos-Aviles “stated her husband is gay and is having an affair with her best friend.”
Both the husband, Adrian Aviles, and a former colleague of Santos-Aviles rejected the claims.
“Those allegations are completely false,” Adrian told The Post, adding that the “best friend,” who is a female, “is also my childhood friend, and there was no sexual relation between the two of us.”
Some medications were recovered from the scene, and Aviles later told officers that his late wife “had been taking antidepressants and consuming alcohol regularly, sometimes mixing the two.”
The bereaved husband told The Post previously that “Regina was not pregnant” and “was a completely stable … mentally-sane person before all of this.”
But other details in the police records reveal a very different mental health history — including a friend’s reference to officers that Santos-Aviles had “possibly been to a mental health hospital in her teenage years.”
Her husband, Aviles, was “watching UFC fights at Hotel Valencia, accompanied by a female friend whose identity he declined to provide,” other police files noted.
“When asked about Regina’s history, Mr. Aviles advised that Regina had previously made self harm threats,” Uvalde detective Gregory Villa wrote. “He described a prior incident where Regina contacted him while pointing a firearm at her own head.”
“Mr. Aviles reported that their son could be heard screaming for his mother during that incident, and police were dispatched to that location. Mr. Aviles was unable to provide an exact date for this prior incident,” Villa added.
On the night that Santos-Aviles self-immolated, her husband had also gotten a text from a friend “informing him that Regina had sent a video of herself pouring gasoline on her body,” the detective noted.
“Mr. Aviles provided me with screenshots of text messages between Regina and his friend, identified as Alfred Garza Jr.,” Villa’s report continued. “In those messages, Regina expressed that she believed Mr. Aviles was with Alfred and stated, ‘Tell baller I’m setting myself on fire right now, so have fun raising our son.'”
“This message was followed by a five-second video showing Regina pouring gasoline on herself,” it concluded.
Adrian and Regina shared an eight-year-old son but separated in August 2024 — just months after the husband discovered sexual text messages between his wife and Gonzales in May 2024.
“She used to think Adrian was cheating all the time. Why? Because She was always scared he was going to leave her after what she did with Tony,” a former colleague of Santos-Aviles’ in Gonzales’ office said.
“You have to understand that the affair she had with Gonzales led to sharp mental decline. It led to drinking, medication use, and insecurities,” the ex-staffer added.
“I knew Regina before and after this affair. Before she was normal, calm, and happy. After she was the opposite of all those things. I worked with her every day for two years, every day.”
The Texas Republican in the May 2024 exchange asked for racy photos and what his aide’s preferred sexual positions were — prompting a handful of GOP colleagues on Monday to call for him to step down.
“These text messages are disgusting and inexcusable,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) said in a statement. “A Member of Congress. Harassing his own staffer in the middle of the night.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) also demanded Gonzales’ resignation. Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) said the congressman should drop out of his re-election bid.
“The allegations are clearly very serious,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters, while cautioning that both House and state-level investigations need to play out first.
The March 3 primary pits Gonzales against YouTuber Brandon Herrera and other GOP candidates.
The three-term House pol accused the widower Aviles and his attorney of seeking to “blackmail” him with the disclosure of the text messages last week.
The attorney Bobby Barrera and the husband were additionally seeking an up to $300,000 settlement under the Congressional Accountability Act for alleged sex harassment and workplace retaliation on behalf of Regina.
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