SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The trial of a man charged with allegedly beating, abducting and sexually assaulting a Palo Alto high school student in 2007 began in Santa Clara County Superior Court Monday with the victim's own tearful testimony.

Todd David Burpee, 21, has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder, kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon and sexual assault.

Known in court documents as Jane Doe, the victim was a 17-year-old senior at Gunn High School in Palo Alto when she was attacked after riding her bike home from school Oct. 30, 2007.

In his opening statement, prosecutor James Leonard told jurors not to expect the victim to point at Burpee and say he did it.

"As far as I am aware, she has not looked at the defendant or a picture of the defendant for longer than a second if he could help it," he said.

The victim later confirmed that she purposely looks down while speaking and conceals her face with her hair during testimony.

"I don't want to see him," she said.

When Judge Griffin Bonini requested she look up and say whether her assailant was in the courtroom, the victim was silent for about two minutes, then replied haltingly, "I can't do that."

Leonard told jurors that the victim encountered a man after parking her bike outside her apartment complex on Arastradero Road.

She asked if he was locked out, and opened the door for him, but "something in her said, 'don't go in the stairway with him,'" Leonard said.

That instinct proved correct, he said, when the man grabbed her by the throat and demanded she take off her pants. He choked the victim until she blacked out and fell to the ground, he said.

Struggling to contain her emotion, the victim told jurors that the man attacked her and twisted her neck in a manner similar to removing a twist-off cap from a plastic bottle.

"It was so painful in that moment that I wanted to die," she said.

Next her assailant slammed her face against the pavement several times, she said, and dragged her across the ground into the backseat of his car.

The woman said she feigned unconsciousness to avoid further harm as the attacker covered her with a large cloth and drove away with her lying motionless in the backseat.

During a stop, the girl managed to retrieve her cell phone from the backpack she still wore, and tried to call for help. However, her conversation was cut short when her attacker returned to the car.

On a subsequent stop, the victim said, he opened the car's back door, pulled down her pants and sexually assaulted her with his finger.

At that point, the victim heard the man yell at somebody to "get back into the house," she said, then closed the car door.

After some time passed, the victim took a chance and ran. Leonard described her fleeing down North Fair Oaks Boulevard in Sunnyvale with a bloody face and wearing only one red tennis shoe.

A man driving by saw the victim and helped get her to safety and call 911, Leonard said. Police worked with the victim to produce a composite sketch and Burpee was taken into custody several days later at a fast food restaurant.

In his opening remarks, Leonard listed several pieces of evidence he said connect Burpee to the incident, including bloodstains in his car that were identified as the victim's.

During cross-examination, defense attorney Daniel Olmos pressed the victim for definitive details in her recollection of the assault.

The victim said multiple times she was not entirely sure of details, such as exactly which way she was facing when the man began strangling her, or how the attacker could undo her belt if she was lying face down in the car.

Court documents indicate that Burpee's mental state during the events may be discussed during the trial. In a previous hearing a judge ruled that Burpee was competent to stand trial, according to district attorney spokeswoman Amy Cornell.

The trial continues Tuesday with more witnesses, including Fred Burgener, the man who found the victim in Sunnyvale. Olmos told the judge he will reserve his opening remarks until he begins presenting his case.