WASHINGTON — One of two men charged in connection with the fatal shooting of a woman inside her Smith Township home in June said he and his accomplice were looking to rob her when the home invasion turned deadly.

Shackled and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit during a preliminary hearing Monday morning, Walter Lee Winland testified against his co-defendant, Michael Coury Pyles, blaming him for shooting and killing 37-year-old Renee Lynn Gill while robbing her in the early hours of June 16.

Winland said he used to date Gill and they were still friends, but he planned to rob her of drugs and money in what he promised would be an “easy lick” when he asked Alexis Podlasiak to drive him to the home at 132 Eleanor St. in the village of Langeloth. But Podlasiak then got her boyfriend Pyles involved, and the two men began planning the robbery, Winland said.

“I was going to act like I was buying (drugs) there and then steal them,” Winland said.

“I didn’t want anyone to get hurt,” he added.

The trio traveled from West Virginia after Pyles retrieved a handgun from his father’s Moundsville home, and they drove to Washington County on June 15, although no one was at Gill’s house when they arrived, Winland said. They came back later in the night and dressed in black hooded sweatshirts with masks covering their faces as they entered through an unlocked door in the basement in the early hours of June 16.

Winland testified that while inside the house, Pyles struck Gill in the face with his handgun and they were soon confronted by the woman’s 21-year-old son, Ronald Brown, who heard his mother’s cries for help.

“They were tussling,” Winland said of Pyles and Brown. “That’s when I heard the gun go off.”

Brown was shot once in his hand and fell to the floor. Winland said Gill then tried to defend herself when she was fatally shot.

“It happened so quick,” Winland said.

Brown testified that he went to help his mother when he saw two strange men dressed in black inside their house. Brown said he saw “fear” in his mother’s eyes so he sprung into action to protect her.

“I knew they weren’t friends,” Brown said. “They weren’t welcome.”

After Brown was shot in the hand, he laid on the ground in a daze for a few minutes before he heard his mother refer to one of the men as “Walt.” She then called out to her son, letting him know she was wounded by gunfire.

“I heard my mom say, ‘Ronnie, I’ve been shot.'”

By then, the men had left and Brown made sure his 9-year-old brother was safe as he tried to comfort his dying mother as he called 911 for help.

“I saw she was in terrible shape,” Brown said.

Gill died of a single gunshot wound before first responders could arrive at the scene. Brown was taken to a Pittsburgh hospital for treatment and he testified he is still having problems with his hand.

Winland testified they left with 200 stamp bags and $2,200 in cash. Pyles, who sat at the defense table and was shackled while wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, could be seen shaking his head in disagreement as his co-defendant testified against him.

Pyles, 38, of New Martinsville was charged July 9 and is facing a laundry list of felony counts that include homicide, conspiracy, attempted homicide, robbery, aggravated assault, trespassing and burglary. After listening to testimony for more than an hour in Washington County Central Court, District Judge Gary Havelka ordered Pyles to stand trial on all charges.

Winland, 38, of Canonsburg was arrested in Wheeling on June 20 and was found to be in possession of 61 glassine packets with the same BitCoin markings on the drugs that had been at Gill’s house. Winland agreed to waive his case to court Monday and is cooperating with investigators.

Both men are jailed without bond while they wait for their cases to be adjudicated. Podlasiak has not been charged and she did not testify at Monday’s preliminary hearing.