RALEIGH - A lawyer for a Raleigh woman accused of running over and killing another woman in a fit of rage contended today that the death did not amount to first-degree murder.

Victoria Graham Goode, 55, is charged with killing Veronica Malone, 38, in a July 1 confrontation over the loss of Goode's girlfriend.

"She's guilty of homicide but not first-degree murder," Collins said in court today before the start of jury selection in Goode's trial. He'll make the argument in hopes that jurors will convict on a lesser charge, which could come with a shorter prison sentence.

Goode, described otherwise as a caring woman committed to helping homeless women, has been in jail since Malone's death.

Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty. If the Wake Superior Court jury convicts Goode of first-degree murder, she would face a life sentence.

All three women involved in the episode -- Goode, Malone and Tanya Mattison, Goode's ex-girlfriend -- had dedicated themselves to helping others, according to family and friends.

Goode worked at Urban Ministries' shelter for homeless women. Malone was a mother of three who opened her home to foster children, three of whom she was in the process of adopting. She also worked as a front desk receptionist for Rock Quarry Road Family Medicine. Mattison worked for the Healing Place, a nonprofit organization that helps homeless people with drug and alcohol problems.

On July 1, Mattison was moving out of Goode's home on Bentley Lane with the help of Malone and Malone's teenage nephew, police say. The three were loading Mattison's belongings into a Dodge Durango when Goode drove up in her Toyota Camry, police said.

Witnesses said that Goode rammed the Camry into the Durango, then leapt from the car, waving a hammer. She then got back in the Camry and began to drive away, only to turn around and run over Malone and Malone's nephew, breaking his legs, according to witnesses.

Goode drove off, and police apprehended her three miles away.

The relationship between the three women has been widely reported as a love triangle, with witnesses saying that Mattison was leaving Goode for Malone.

But Malone's twin sister, Monica Malone-Alston, said today that her sister was just helping out a friend and wasn't having a romantic relationship with Mattison.

Darian Alston, the nephew who was injured, is recovering physically but the emotional pain has been harder to get over, Malone-Alston said.

"It's been hell," she said.

Malone's three children, ages 15, 7 and 4, now live with Malone's mother, but three sisters Malone was trying to adopt returned to the foster care system, Malone-Alston said.

If a jury is seated today, the lawyers could make opening statements this afternoon or tomorrow.