The trial began Tuesday for a Silver Spring man facing criminal charges that he asked two men to kill his lover after purchasing more than $400,000 in life insurance in the man’s name.

Erik Collins, 44, was indicted in March on a charge of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder because he allegedly offered to pay two District men to kill Lorenzo Boone, according to court documents. One of the men contacted D.C. police, who then initiated an undercover sting operation.

The witness recorded several phone calls with Collins, who spoke about the logistics of the murder, according to the arrest warrant. The document states that the man later brought Collins to an undercover officer posing as a drug dealer to buy a firearm, but Collins proposed strangling the target after worrying the dealer was a law enforcement agent.

Collins was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and possession of a prohibited weapon in 1999 after fatally stabbing Dwayne Feaster, another lover, in Southeast D.C. He was released in 2005 and given five years of probation.

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Warren Gorman, an attorney for Collins, said in opening arguments that there was no proof of a money transfer or purchase of a gun; no evidence that Collins named a specific target in attempts to hire out the killing; and no evidence of a set location for the alleged hit attempt.

Boone testified in D.C. Superior Court on Tuesday that he first met Collins online, and had been living with him in Silver Spring for several months. The conflict began in summer 2007 when Boone, 22, threatened to go to California and Collins pressed charges against him for illegally using his credit card. 

After his arrest in September, Collins was hospitalized when physicians determined he was suicidal. He was pronounced competent to stand trial in mid-December.

Prosecutors played an audiotape they claim is of Collins pretending to be Boone while buying accidental death life insurance over the phone. He made himself the largest benefactor of four policies.

Boone testified Tuesday that he was unaware of any accidental life insurance policies.

“I never knew none of this stuff, and I didn’t give him permission at all,” Boone said.

The trial will resume today when the two men whom prosecutors say Collins asked to perform the murder are scheduled to testify.