michel escoto found guildy of murding wife

12 Years After Beating His Newlywed Wife to Death, Michael Escoto Found Guilty

Miami, Florida – Michael Escoto, now 42, has been convicted by a jury of his peers in the savage beating death of his wife Wendy Trapaga presumably during the couple’s honeymoon in Miami. The coupled had only been married four days when Escoto bludgeoned her to death using a tire iron. Trapaga was only 21-years-old.

Prosecutors provided a motive for the killing: money. Escoto stood to gain $1 million from a life insurance policy he had taken out on his wife. According to the state, Escoto’s initial plan was to drug his wife and strangle her to death inside a hot tub. However, she was able to resist that method which ultimately led his use of a brute force object. It is likely that love, or a deeply cognitively distorted sense of the emotion, played a role. Escoto had an accessory to murder in the killing: his girlfriend Yolanda Cerillo.

As it turns out, Cerillo was at the murder scene and was herself driven to hatred of Trapaga for stealing her boyfriend’s attention with claims of being pregnant. The prosecutor’s case against Escoto must have relied on a fair bit of circumstantial evidence because they had to rely upon Cerillo’s testimony to establish their murder case against Escoto. Cerillo’s testimony came with a price tag though: immunity. She gave up her former lover in exchange for her own freedom from prosecution. For his part, Escoto represented himself and was said to exhibit no emotion at the jury verdict. The sentencing phase will take place on May 7.

During the trial, Escoto made a death threat to the Trapaga family’s attorney in the civil case. This led to his serving a 30-day jail sentence. It also didn’t help out his defense case. He actually made the threat in front of the jury.

Source:
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/michel-escoto-killed-wendy-trapaga-in-miami-to-collect-her-1-million-life-insurance-policy/story-fnixwvgh-1226894021024
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-man-guilty-in-2002-tire-iron-bludgeoning-death-of-bride/