The gruesome slaying of a motivational speaker was either the work of a cold-blooded, contact killer or a cunning con man, who pulled the ultimate fraud, his own death, clashing lawyers said today.

East Harlem resident Kenneth Minor is facing second-degree murder for the July 16, 2009 killing of Jeffrey Locker, a motivational speaker from Long Island.

Both sides agree that Locker, desperate and swimming in debt, wanted to die so his family cash in on $18 million in life insurance policies. Locker was stabbed to death inside his car, after convincing a man he’d never met before that night, Minor, to help.

“When you’re paid money to kill another person …that makes you a contract killer, a murderer,” prosecutor Peter Casolaro told jurors in his opening statement.

“This isn’t a case about helping a close family member or friend.”

But defense lawyer Daniel Gotlin countered that his client Minor is a victim too and lashed out at Locker for engineering this tragedy.

“Mr. Locker was the ultimate con man, a motivational speaker,” Gotlin said.

“This is an arrogant inidividual who used another person to end his life.”