MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WDHN) – A woman used as the “third party” for Jason and Darin Starr to make payments in a murder-for-hire case gave her testimony to the jury on Thursday.

Darin and his brother Jason are accused of plotting to kill Jason’s ex-wife, Sara Starr, on November 27, 2017.

Lilani Mahler took the stand. She is a Texas resident who knew Darin and was the reason a 2016 Triumph motorcycle ever came into the picture of this story. This motorcycle, prosecutors believe, was seen days before the alleged murder by a neighbor, who saw a motorcycle leaving an area near Sara’s residence.

Mahler took possession of the bike while driving near San Antonio, and she says a bike crashed into some trees ahead of her. She immediately stopped her car and tried to help the injured driver. Mahler helped lift the bike off of the bike with the help of a friend.

Mahler says law enforcement wasn’t contacted because the driver just got a new job, and he didn’t want to screw up his insurance premiums. After the driver’s wife came to assist in the situation, the driver decided to gift the bike to Mahler, with no specific reason for what she could do with it.

Fast-forward to September of 2017 when Mahler met Darin at a house party, where she was discussing the bike with a friend, and Darin appeared interested in buying the bike; Mahler then offered him the bike. She says that Darin took $40 out of his pocket and laid it down on a table as a deposit, where he then called his brother, Jason, to ask for the remainder of the money.

Jason later used a Zelle application to send money to Mahler for the bike, but this wasn’t the only payment Mahler received from Jason. Mahler says she received other payments from Jason whenever Darin would call him asking about money for different bills or different repairs to the bike.

During this period of obtaining money from Jason for Darin, Mahler says she began to develop feelings for Darin. Still, the brother did not reciprocate this, as he said he had feelings for somebody else. Despite this, Mahler says they remained friends through the process.

Mahler would receive the payments from Jason, go to an ATM to get the money, and then meet up with Darin to give him the money. After the final Zelle transaction between Mahler and Jason, Darin no longer “hung out” with her.

Prosecutors believe Jason paid Darin nearly $3,000 through Zelle to murder his ex-wife.

This money allowed Darin to buy a 2016 Triumph motorcycle.

The same motorcycle that prosecutors believe was caught on a barn’s security camera driving on Coffee County Road 643 just a couple minutes from the alleged crime scene

Sara was found on the driveway of her home on County Road 647 in Chancellor with two gunshot wounds from a shotgun.

Jason’s attorney, Jim Parkman says it is just one brother helping another brother out in a time of need. Darin’s attorneys, Aimee Cobb Smith and J. Taylor say there was a reason for each payment because Darin’s bike was considered to be a wreck and was in need of repair, which Mahler said was the reasoning Darin gave her when she asked.

FBI investigators were later able to trace the motorcycle back to Darin after the Triumph was involved in a house fire in December 2017, through the VIN number was able to track the motorcycle to Mahler, which tracked it to Darin.

In recorded phone calls retrieved by investigators Darin was heard talking to family members while in a jail in Texas, where he continually asked for someone to get in contact with Jason because Darin felt like Jason “owed” him and that his brother had money set aside for him.