day he was a no-show in court. wendy s mother got the insurance money and prosecutors got to hear firsthand about his constantly shifting stories. the state attorney sat in the courtroom and was taking notes. did you have a little chit-chat in the hallway outside? we did. what did you say? this is your case. you have all the evidence right now. of course, we gave them the deposition testimony and everything. we had everything outlined. michel escoto was arrested three days after his court no show and was charged with the murder of his bride, wendy trapaga. but police still thought they needed more, so they fixed their eyes on the girlfriend, yolanda cerrillo. i knew eventually as time goes by that that relationship would deteriorate. would deteriorate. why did you think that? if they have that secret amongst each other, that was
results. in the meantime the investigation was turning up a new lead, a former girlfriend of michel s. her name, yolanda cerrillo. yolanda cerrillo is a person that had a relationship with michel before he met the victim. according to her, michel left her for wendy. she loved michel escoto. she was very much in love with him. yolanda a single mother. was she also a woman scorned? he left her six months earlier and to add insult to injury, asked her to watch his dog while he was on his honeymoon with wendy. to go to the extent of taking care of somebody s dog during their honeymoon, it s just, as a woman, very strange to me. does yolanda become a suspect? a woman who feels she was cashiered, fired because of this younger woman and nobody gets away with that and i m going to kill you? there s a lot to yolanda. there s a lot to yolanda. a lot of bad if you ask ramon santa cruz.
make the hotel reservation. it wasn t wendy s idea at all. a factual discrepancy also known as a lie. during the deposition, michel also admitted that yolanda was no longer his ex. he had moved back in with her not long after wendy s death. are you still intimate with yolanda? yes, we are. do you have any plans of marrying yolanda? plans as such, no. there had been one question about michel and yolanda that had nagged detectives since 2002. they learned through phone records that on the night of the murder, michel paged yolanda at 3:00 in the morning. but why? both michel and yolanda told police at the time he wanted to check on her sick daughter. he claims that he beeps her because he thought her daughter, yolanda s daughter, was sick. we later find out that yolanda s daughter is not sick. so there s no reason for a middle of the night communication? no reason whatsoever. when the civil case finally went to trial, escoto got so roughed up that on the second
from michel asking if she was at her mom s, was worrisome. a few hours later, he was waiting for wendy s mother at the school where she worked. he met her at her job. she tells me he was very disheveled and very worried about where she could be. michel escoto, it turned out, was about to get an official answer to his where is she question. and while we re talking the phone rings and it s michel escoto calling. again asking his mother-in-law if she had heard from wendy. detectives grabbed the phone and asked where he was. they headed over to michel s apartment to deliver the news of his girlfriend of eight months, his bride of four days. we walked into his apartment when he blurted out is she dead? and we explained we re investigating the death of wendy, et cetera. he started balling up. doubled over, crying. police gave him a few minutes to compose himself before asking him to come down to headquarters to answer some more questions. there he recounted the brief honeymoon. m
so many years after wendy s murder. now, in moments, her family would know. the years of waiting. the years of mourning her. all of a sudden we re told the verdict is in. before i got to the courtroom i was already crying. i was shaking. wendy s family members held their breath. escoto appeared to do the same as the judge instructed the clerk to read the verdict. we the jury in miami-dade county, florida this 22nd day of april 2014 find the defendant michel escoto guilty of first-degree premeditated murder. michel sat stone-faced in his chair, his lips downturned in a grimace, nodding. for the family there were more tears but of a different kind. now sorrow, mixed with relief and satisfaction. wendy s mother dropped to her knees and gave thanks. for detective maria medeiros a 12-year-old case was now officially stamped closed. he ll never do this to another woman again. his lies and his charming and his planning and his evil plan will not affect another person.