UNIONTOWN (AP) – A Western Pennsylvania judge declined to dismiss a homicide charge against a man in the beating death of an elderly man that authorities allege stemmed from a love triangle involving the younger man’s girlfriend.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review said Fayette County Judge Gerald Solomon also refused to exclude from trial statements 36-year-old Jonathan Godines of Brownsville made in phone calls from jail.

Godines originally was charged with aggravated assault in the November 2011 beating of 75-year-old John Eicholtz but was charged with homicide after the victim died. Godines has denied the fight was because of jealousy and cited a traffic dispute.

In a call prosecutors played during a Sept. 25 hearing, Godines is heard telling an unidentified woman she is at fault for his predicament.