GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A judge has found sufficient evidence for a suspended correctional employee to stand trial in a fatal western Kansas shooting.

The Great Bend-Tribune reports that the ruling was issued after Freddie Alec Thomas appeared in Barton County District Court on Thursday for a preliminary hearing. Thomas is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of 39-year-old Jeremy Alan Saldana outside a Great Bend home.

The shooting happened after Thomas went to the home with a woman whom Saldana had dated previously. Saldana was living with the woman’s daughter and grandchildren but wasn’t at the home when the visit began. Witnesses testified that a pushing match ensued when the unarmed Saldana arrived, and he was shot.

An Ellsworth Correctional Facility spokesman said previously that Thomas is on administrative leave.