The 43-year-old woman testified that the man who shoved her on her bed and straddled her as he choked her with his hands was Thomas William Abney, 31, an Oregon man she invited to visit her after they began a relationship on the Internet.
Abney is on trial in Superior Court Judge Joan Weber's courtroom on charges of premeditated attempted murder, torture, mayhem, robbery and auto theft.
If convicted, Abney faces three life prison sentences plus 16 years.
Abney has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Abney visited the woman at her Vista studio apartment about a month after they first met online, the woman said.
During the visit the woman decided she did not want a romantic relationship with Abney, but she did not tell him her feelings had changed, she said. The woman suggested that Abney return to Oregon because she was busy with work, she testified.
Early the morning of May 12, Abney and the woman were hugging good-bye, and the woman said they would keep in touch by e-mail, she testified.
Then Abney pushed her on the bed. She initially thought Abney wanted to "make out," but that he climbed on top of her and started choking her, she said.
"I was shocked, terrified," she testified in a soft, monotone voice. "I didn't know why he was doing this. He was strangling so hard I couldn't speak. I tried to scratch his face and his arms. He was strangling so hard, I passed out."
The woman said she recalled taking a breath and opening her eyes, only to have Abney get on top of her and choke her a second time, causing her to pass out again.
The next time she woke, the woman was dizzy and disoriented and saw Abney standing at the foot of her bed with his right fist raised. She said she could not see anything in his hand.
The woman got up from the bed after realizing Abney was gone, stumbled to the door to try to lock it, and stumbled to the phone to call for help. The woman saw blood on her clothes and bed, and she put a towel on a her head injury to stop the bleeding, she said.
The woman's claw hammer, which had been sitting on a box, lay on the bed, she said.
When deputies arrived, she told them Abney tried to kill her and was taking a flight back to Oregon that morning. Her purse and car keys were missing, she said.
Police arrested Abney aboard an Alaska Airlines flight at Lindbergh Field that morning.
Weber told jurors the prosecution's case likely will conclude today.
Abney's defense case also may start and end today, the judge told the jury.
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