PITTSBURGH (AP) — Federal prosecutors accuse a man of killing a woman more than four years ago to keep her from talking to them about his New Jersey-supplied heroin ring.

Price Montgomery is on trial in the August 2014 shooting death of 34-year-old Tina Crawford and the wounding of her 63-year-old mother in Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports .

Assistant U.S. Attorney Heidi Grogan told jurors that shortly before the killing, the defendant visited the younger woman to warn her against cooperating, and that a shaken Crawford moved in with her mother and made plans to talk to federal prosecutors — but never got the chance.

“You will hear that Price Montgomery killed Tina Crawford to prevent her from testifying against him in a drug-trafficking case,” she told jurors.

Wiretapped calls played for jurors Friday indicate that the defendant and victim talked regularly and traveled to Newark, New Jersey, where agents allege they brought heroin from his supplier.

Defense attorney Jay McCamic argued that the government lacked evidence that his client was responsible for the murder. He said that a phone recovered from the scene had DNA from other people, as well as his client, and that no one could place him at the scene.

“There is not going to be anyone to tell you, ‘I saw Price Montgomery,’” he said.

James Perrin, alleged by prosecutors to have been Montgomery’s “right-hand man” in the drug ring, is charged along with Montgomery with gun and drug counts but isn’t charged in the murder.

His attorney, Michael DeRiso, argued that Montgomery, not his client, paid for the stolen guns and left with them, and he urged jurors to treat the two defendants separately.

“Don’t confuse the two,” he said. “Don’t confuse the facts.”