A man on trial in state court for murder said he did not strangle the 81-year-old victim but admitted having sex with a tenant of the same senior housing apartment building where the slaying occurred.

Gerald L. Austin, 54, is on trial in the July 1989 murder of Edith Skinner. He took the witness stand in his own defense Monday.

Austin said he went to visit his grandmother in the Makua Alii apartment building in the Kaheka area. He said he struck up a conversation with a woman in the lobby and accepted her invitation to go to her apartment, where they continued their conversation.

"We talked more, and I don’t exactly remember what was said, but one thing led to another and we ended up having sex," Austin testified.

After the sex, Austin said he left to visit his grandmother.

Honolulu police recovered DNA from Skinner’s body but were not able to match it to Austin until 2011.

When detectives interviewed him in January 2012, Austin told them he didn’t know Edith Skinner and didn’t have contact with her. He said at that time he didn’t remember his sexual encounter or connect it with the murder.

Austin testified that he didn’t lie to the detectives because he couldn’t remember the name of the woman with whom he had sex. He also said the woman didn’t look like a picture of Skinner that detectives showed him or the picture of Skinner’s body in the morgue. He said he cannot say whether the woman with whom he had sex in 1989 was Skinner.

Under questioning from the prosecutor, Austin said he can’t even remember whether the woman was over 60.

Austin was 29 years old at the time of Skinner’s murder and on parole for burglary.