A man who jumped into the Snake River to avoid capture by Idaho authorities testified on Tuesday at his rape and murder trial in Olympia.

“Cowboy” Mike Braae is accused of strangling a 44-year-old woman nearly seven years ago in Lacey. He told court members that he had sex with the woman, but did not kill her. Prosecutors say DNA evidence links Braae to the crime.

A separate Braae trial in Yakima in 2006 ended in a mistrial when a Yelm woman who had been shot in the head was unable to testify because of her brain injury.

Braae, 48, is already serving an assault sentence in Idaho where he was arrested in July of 2001 after shooting at officers and jumping into the Snake River.