Jurors this week must sort through the conflicting stories of two mothers and two fathers about the night Jermaine Woods was killed in 2007. Each has a personal stake in the jury's verdict.

Defendant Tyson Smith faces life in prison for the slaying. Witness Joseph Alexander has already pleaded to third-degree homicide and agreed to spend 15 to 30 years in prison for the killing, which took place Jan. 25 in the Forest Hills apartment of Shadina Garner.

That night, Ms. Garner made a 911 call after gunfire erupted at around 11:30 p.m. in her apartment. She told officials her boyfriend, Mr. Woods, had been shot by one of two unknown intruders. The 22-year-old died later UPMC Braddock of a single bullet wound to the heart.

After multiple interviews with county homicide detectives, Ms. Garner, 23, admitted that one of the intruders was her child's father, Mr. Alexander. She added that her 20-month-old daughter was present during the shooting and that Mr. Alexander fled the scene with the little girl in his arms. Ms. Garner failed to show up and testify against Mr. Alexander. Only after she was arrested for trying to pass through the Allegheny County Courthouse metal detector with an unlicensed handgun did she pick Tyson Smith from a photo array as the man who pulled the trigger. A judge sentenced her to five years' probation.

Defense attorney Robert Foreman challenged her yesterday on her identification of the shooter. She told police at first that the unknown shooter came up to her chin. So Mr. Foreman asked her to remove her heels, come down from the witness box and stand beside the defendant. He stood several inches taller.

Mr. Alexander, 25, first denied any involvement in the crime. Yesterday, the admitted drug dealer told the jurors he went to the house to "get revenge" on his romantic rival and to get his daughter away from a potential drug dealer.

He had previously entered into a plea deal with the district attorney and promised to testify against Mr. Smith, who he said pulled the trigger. In exchange, the prosecutor agreed to give him no further penalty for burglary and heroin possession charges. He told the jury Mr. Smith shot Mr. Woods.

The second mother, Constance Smith, presented an alibi for Mr. Smith. She was pregnant with his child on the night Mr. Woods died. The 21-year-old testified yesterday that she had labor pains that night and the defendant drove her to the emergency room at Magee-Womens Hospital, where they stayed until the early morning. The hospital furnished 115 pages of records, but had no documentation of the Jan. 25, 2007 visit.

Jurors also were privy to prison correspondence and phone calls between Ms. Smith and the defendant in which Tyson Smith, 22, refers to the pair as "Bonnie and Clyde."

In one, he instructed her not to let her school commitments get in the way of "memorizing what needs to be said" about the night of the homicide.

Mr. Smith is charged homicide, robbery, burglary, endangering the welfare of a child, simple assault, and criminal conspiracy.

Testimony resumes today before Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Borkowski.