By Daily Mail Reporter A Miami man's plan to drown his 21-year-old wife in a jacuzzi in order to collect her life insurance policy failed when he couldn't keep her head under the water, a court heard on Monday. Prosecutors labelled Michel Escoto a 'controlling, manipulative schemer' who plotted to murder his spouse, Wendy Trapaga, in October 2002 in order to claim $1 million from her death. In the closing arguments of Escoto's murder trial in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, prosector Gail Levine told jurors that, after his plan failed, Escoto choked and beat Trapaga to death with a tire iron outside a Northwest Miami-Dade warehouse.
@highlight
Michel Escoto is accused of murdering his wife of four days, Wendy Trapaga, in 2002
@highlight
Authorities say he planned to kill Trapaga to collect the life insurance money and then run off with his former girlfriend, Yolanda Cerrillo
@highlight
Cerrillo admitted to helping Escoto plan and carry out the murder in exchange for immunity from prosecution
@highlight
She was the star witness against him
@highlight
In the closing arguments on Monday, the prosecution called Escoto a 'controlling, manipulative schemer'
The defense, however, insisted that @placeholder concocted the entire story only after she believed Escoto might have implicated her.