SAN DIEGO -- A prosecutor told jurors Monday that an Ocean Beach man killed his estranged wife and got rid of her body because she took him to court for child support, but a defense attorney said his client panicked and disposed of the victim's body when she fell down some stairs at his house and died.

Henry Lisowski, 69, threatened the 50-year-old victim as early as November 2006 by saying he would make one phone call and she would be dead, Deputy District Attorney Nicole Cooper said in her opening statement.

Rosa Lisowski walked her 6-year-old to school the morning of March 24, 2008, and was "never seen or heard from again," the prosecutor told jurors.

Friends and family searched for her until September 2008, when the defendant wrote a letter to a San Diego police detective confirming that his estranged wife had died and that he had "thrown her in a Dumpster like a piece of trash," Cooper said.

In the letter, the defendant said he put the woman in his car after she fell, but she died on the way to the hospital, Cooper said.

Lisowski wrote that the victim's death "was an accident" and it "would look bad for him" if her body was found, the prosecutor said.

When police asked the defendant where he had dumped the victim, he said he couldn't remember, according to Cooper.

When Rosa Lisowski -- who had four children, including two young sons by the defendant -- asked him for child support, he threatened her, called her a "whore" and began a "campaign of terror" against her, the prosecutor said.

"He made it abundantly clear that he was not going to pay," Cooper told the jury.

The defendant told his estranged wife that "the children would be raised without a mother before I pay child support," according to the prosecutor.

Henry Lisowski had been ordered to pay $1,000 a month in child support, and a hearing was scheduled for April 29, 2008, to determine whether he had underreported his income, Cooper told the jury.

A few weeks before she disappeared, Rosa Lisowski met with the defendant but refused to drop her request for child support, the prosecutor said.

The day she disappeared, she was in good spirits because a disability claim against her employer had been settled and she was expecting a check for $30,000, Cooper said.

The victim dropped her son off at school and told friends that she needed to get back home because her 4-year-old was sleeping and an older son needed to get to college, Cooper said.

The older son waited all day for his mother to return, then reported her missing at 7:30 p.m., according to the prosecutor.

The victim's family directed police to the defendant, who told officers he wasn't surprised when they told him she was missing, Cooper told the jury.

Lisowski told officers that his estranged wife was an addict hooked on prescription drugs. He also told officers that a drug cartel probably got to the victim, Cooper said.

When contacted, Lisowski had red scratch marks across his cheek, according to the prosecutor.

When friends asked Lisowski if he wanted to take the children since his wife was missing, he responded, "My day's not until Wednesday," Cooper told the jury.

On March 25, 2008, Lisowksi told a friend "that stupid woman left, and now (police) are all over me," according to the prosecutor.

Police searched the defendant's home and found Rosa Lisowski's blood on his kitchen counter and in the cargo area of his Lexus SUV, the prosecutor said. During a subsequent search, police found part of a bloody handprint with DNA matching the victim's, Cooper said.

In a court declaration, Lisowski underreported his monthly income by more than 100 percent, meaning his child support payments would have been increased at the April hearing, Cooper said.

Lisowski also underreported his overall income by $1.3 million, which he would have had to pay it back plus an additional $11,000 a month in child support, the prosecutor said.

"It's a lot of money he stood to lose," Cooper told the jury.

Defense attorney Richard Gates, in his opening statement, said an expert will testify that Rosa Lisowski fell and hit her head at his client's home and quickly died.

"Henry came to her aid within minutes and she died," the attorney said.

The defendant has only himself to blame for not taking her wife to a hospital, Gates said, but "science does not condemn him."

After the defendant met Rosa Lisowski in 1995 or 1996, they ran off to Las Vegas to get married and he had her sign a prenuptial agreement to keep their assets separate, Gates told the jury.

Back in San Diego, Lisowski and his wife never lived together but maintained a casual, intimate relationship, the attorney said.

When their first son was born in 2001, the defendant cared for him and when a second son was born, he lived with his mother while the defendant paid for all his needs, according to Gates.

"This was the nature of their marriage," the attorney said. "It was unusual. Mr. Lisowski never shirked from his responsibility to provide for both of his children."

Gates said the disagreement between Lisowski and his wife was about spousal support, not child support.

"It was never about the child support," Gates told the jury.

After Rosa Lisowski filed for support, the couple didn't get along and the request for spousal support was something "that stuck in Mr. Lisowski's craw," Gates said.

Gates conceded Lisowski didn't respond well to his estranged wife's court demands.

The defendant had visited his wife's family in Honduras and "had seen some things," his attorney said. "He was afraid," Gates told the jury.

Lisowksi initially lied to police about his wife's disappearance because he panicked, but the defendant will testify about what really happened, Gates said.

"The (scientific) evidence and the law will save Mr. Lisowksi," his attorney said.

Lisowski faces life in prison without parole if convicted of murder and a special circumstance allegation of murder for financial gain.

The trial is expected to last about a month in the courtroom of Judge John Einhorn.