UNIONTOWN, Pa.—A western Pennsylvania judge has 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 ( http://bit.ly/TqVbNW) says Fayette County Judge Gerald Solomon also refused to exclude from trial statements that 36-year-old Jonathan Godines of Brownsville made in phone calls from jail.

Godines was originally 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 that the fight was due to jealousy and cited a traffic dispute.

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

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Information from: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, http://pghtrib.com