LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A trial is scheduled to begin for a Eudora health care attendant who claims he killed a client as an assisted suicide.

Douglas County prosecutors have charged 49-year-old Ronald Eugene Heskett with premeditated first-degree murder in the Sept. 12, 2014, suffocation death of 65-year-old Vance Moulton.

Heskett has called it a “mercy killing” because Moulton was depressed, helpless and in pain from cerebral palsy.

Prosecutors say Heskett, who was Moulton’s home health care provider, killed him by twisting a towel around his throat.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that prosecutors plan to argue at the trial, which starts Monday, that some of Moulton’s money has been missing since his death.

Heskett’s attorney, Mike Warner, has said no clear evidence has been presented to support financial motive in the killing.