A Topeka man accused of shooting a rural Lecompton man to death during a home burglary two years ago will be tried for first-degree murder later this year.

Douglas County District Court Judge Michael Malone made that ruling following a preliminary hearing Friday for Allen D. Smith, 35, who also is charged with aggravated burglary.

During the hearing, Leonard W. Price, 45, also of Topeka, testified that Smith was the gunman who shot Clarence Boose in the head on April 29, 2005. Price has pleaded guilty to felony murder in the same case.

Price said he and Smith, his cousin, were cruising rural areas looking for houses to burglarize so they could obtain money to buy methamphetamine. They didn’t think anyone was in Boose’s house when they entered through a back door.

Price was in a bedroom taking change from a bowl on a dresser when Boose, 77, appeared.

“I heard a voice say, ‘What are you doing in my home?'” Price said. “At that point I started looking for a way out.”

Price said he walked out of the bedroom and saw Boose.

“We were looking in each other’s eyes. At the same time I heard this ‘boom,'” Price said, describing how Boose was shot. Price said he then found Smith in the kitchen holding a pistol. He said he didn’t actually see Smith shoot Boose.

Price said he wanted to leave after the shooting, but Smith wanted to stay and continue the burglary.

“We need to leave and we need to leave now,” Price recalled telling Smith.

The two did leave, taking a wallet and a cell phone they found in the house, authorities said. Smith threw the gun and the phone out the window as they drove over a bridge, but he didn’t throw away the wallet. Investigators later found the wallet in Price’s camper-trailer where he lived in Topeka.

Boose’s body was found that night by a friend who drove from Topeka to check on him.

Smith and Price were later arrested for and convicted of a shooting and burglary in Pottawatomie County. Both are now serving prison sentences for that crime. Smith was brought to Douglas County from the Ellsworth Correctional Facility and Price from the Lansing Correctional Facility for Friday’s hearing.

Malone ruled that there was probable cause to try Smith in Boose’s death and set a Sept. 24 trial date.

Earlier this year Price pleaded guilty to felony murder and agreed to testify in the Boose case. In return, prosecutors dropped a charge of aggravated burglary against Price.

His sentencing has been continued to Oct. 5. The mandatory sentence for felony murder is life in prison with a chance for parole after serving 20 years.

“In my mind I’m probably never leaving prison,” Price said when questioned about his plea by Smith’s defense attorney, Tom Bartee.