The "cold case" murder trial of Darnell Griffin ended abruptly yesterday afternoon after Griffin decided not to take the stand to explain how his DNA was recovered from the body of victim Evelyn Luka.

Griffin, 50, is accused of raping and murdering Luka, 19, on Sept. 6, 1999. He wasn't charged in the case until a DNA sample taken from him in 2006 was matched the following year with sperm recovered from Luka's body as she lay in a coma after the 1999 attack.

Defense lawyer E. Edward Aquino said in his opening statement that the jury would hear during the course of the trial that Griffin and Luka had consensual sex two days before she was attacked.

But no such evidence or testimony was introduced at the trial, as Griffin decided not to testify in his own defense.

Luka was seen shortly after midnight leaving Venus Nightclub on Kapi'olani Boulevard in a Nissan Pathfinder driven by an African-American man.

Through questioning of nightclub employees who testified during the trial, defense lawyer Aquino attempted to establish that Luka could have had sex with someone in an alley outside the nightclub two nights previously, when Luka, her husband Kevin and Griffin had all been present at the club.

A defense expert witness also testified that sperm samples could have been recovered from Luka two or three days after she had engaged in sexual relations.

The victim's husband, Air Force Maj. Kevin Luka, testified that on the night his wife disappeared, she called him from the nightclub and told him she was catching a ride home from someone who lived in the Salt Lake area.

That's where Griffin was living at the time with his wife Nancy.

Nancy Griffin testified earlier that Griffin was home with her the night Luka was attacked because that was a Sunday night and Griffin was always at home on Sunday nights.

Griffin was paroled in 1996 after serving 16 years in state prison for murdering a 28-year-old woman, Lynn Gheradi, in 1980.

Under a new state law enacted in 2005, Griffin and other convicted felons were required to supply DNA samples to law enforcement for inclusion in state and local databases.

Griffin was charged with Luka's murder in 2007 after his DNA sample was matched to evidence collected in the Luka case.

The victim was found near death on the morning of Sept. 6, 1999, lying in a dirt median between the H-2 Freeway and the northbound Ka Uka Boulevard freeway on-ramp.

She died the following month without recovering consciousness.

Closing arguments will be delivered this morning.