The trial to solve the December 2000 murder of an 80-year-old woman will be decided by blood.

Victor Guzman, 39, is charged with the first degree murder of Severina Dolores Fernandez a killing that was as mysterious as it was gruesome at the time of the crime. The only evidence connecting Guzman to the murder is a DNA sample taken from the scene.

In his opening statement on Tuesday, state prosecutor Scott Warfman described the scene in Fernandezs otherwise tidy apartment in East Little Havana.

Police found her body in a puddle of blood on her bed, naked, with 58 stab wounds. Blood splatters stained the armrest of a chair, a couch cushion, the dresser, the window and the sink.

The trial began on an emotional note, with the prosecution calling Isabel Reyes, the victims niece.

Reyes spoke affectionately of her aunt and the routine that she kept every afternoon. Tia Lola, as Reyes called her, would go outside every day at 5 p.m. to get her newspaper, come upstairs, fold the paper to the crossword and get a bowl of sherbet to eat while she solved it.

When police found her body on the afternoon of Dec. 9, 2000, the tub of sherbet was still melting on the counter. Warfman showed the jury two graphic photos of the crime scene, which he said looks like finger-painting, theres so much blood.

But not all of it came from the victim.

Fernandez managed to fight off her attacker enough to draw his blood, leaving behind DNA evidence that didnt match existing police records.

Some two years later, the same DNA turned up in the rape of a 12-year-old girl in Miami Beach, but police had no idea whose DNA marked both heinous crimes.

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DNA center stage in killing of 80-year-old East Little Havana woman