Jurors will soon be asked to decide whether a motivational speaker’s stabbing death amounted to murder. The stranger accused of killing him says he was only assisting a suicide.

Closing arguments were being held Tuesday at Kenneth Minor’s trial. Both he and prosecutors say self-help expert Jeffrey Locker paid Minor to kill him in a staged robbery so Locker’s family could collect life insurance money.

The 52-year-old Locker was found dead in his car in East Harlem in July 2009. He had chest wounds and his hands were tied behind his back. Prosecutors say 36-year-old Minor stabbed Locker to death. Minor says he only held a knife while Locker repeatedly lunged into it.

Locker’s family has declined to comment.

Minor could face life in prison if convicted.