WILKES-BARRE -- The man accused of killing his girlfriend's estranged husband was in court Wednesday.
A magistrate in Luzerne County found enough evidence to send a homicide case to trial.
During the court hearing, we heard what may have been the motive for the suspect to allegedly kill his girlfriend's estranged husband.
That preliminary hearing was at the Luzerne County Courthouse in Wilkes-Barre for safety reasons.
Preliminary hearings are typically short. This one lasted seven hours had 10 witnesses and 55 pieces of evidence.
And the accused murder was kicked out of the court room for most of the hearing.
Elezar Yisrael of Hazleton is accused of murdering Samuel Vacante of Drums and dumping his body in Carbon County.
During the preliminary hearing, Yisrael refused to sit down and was taken out of the courtroom for several hours. When he did come back, he kept saying he was wrongly accused wants to fire his lawyer and represent himself.
In between the drama, 10 witnesses took the stand, including Jennifer Daley, the girlfriend of Samuel Vacante.
After testifying that she got weird text messages the night Vacante went missing, she broke down walking off the witness stand.
Vacante's son Brandon also testified. He said he got a text message from his dad the night he went missing.
"We got a group text that was about how he was fed up with everything. He was going to leave. Lisa (Vacante) should have power of attorney and all of his assets."
Brandon testified that the text messages he received did not sound like his father and he believes they were sent by someone else.
Last to testify was Lisa Vacante. She's the estranged wife of Samuel Vacante and the girlfriend of Eleazar Yisrael.
She says she also got text messages from Vacante the day he went missing. At the time of Vacante's death, their divorce was not final.
She also testified that she doesn't think she discussed splitting her assets with Samuel Vacante in front of Yisrael but she wasn't sure.
Newswatch 16 spoke with Yisreal's family after the hearing
"First and foremost, we want to send our condolences to the victim's family and friends because, ultimately, that's why we're here," said the accused's brother Agur Yisrael.
But the family also believes Yisrael did not commit any crime and says the evidence presented in court is not true.
"That he's innocent, there is corruption happening. He's being framed."
Even though Yisrael's family disagreed with the evidence at the court proceeding, the magistrate thought there was enough information to send the case to trial.
No date has been set.