FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The trial for a man accused of murdering his wife began in a Broward County courtroom on Wednesday.
Police said Munwar Toha reported his wife, Surya, missing in April 2010 and made a tearful public plea for help to find her. Detectives later uncovered surveillance video which, they said, shows Toha pushing his family car into a canal. His wife's body was discovered in the submerged vehicle.
So far, the jury has heard opening statements and five witnesses have taken the stand. The state portrayed Tohas as anything but a loving and caring husband.
"The cause of the death was blunt force trauma to the skull," said prosecutor Tom Coleman. "Surya was struck at least five separate times with something large enough, heaving enough or hard enough to fracture her skull."
Toha's wife of 10 years, who was also 26 years younger than him, was found with a plastic bag over her head and beaten to death.
Later Wednesday, the jury will see the surveillance video showing Toha putting his wife in the trunk of her car and then pushing the car into a lake behind his workplace on Powerline Road.
"You're not going to hear that his fingerprints were found anywhere, you're not going to hear that his DNA was found anywhere, or any direct evidence at all," said Toha's defense attorney.
If convicted, Toha faces life in prison.
He is currently serving a 30-year sentence for conspiring to kill four witnesses who are expected to testify him in his murder trial.
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