Wichita ? A Wichita man with a criminal history says he accidentally strangled a woman two years ago during sex, then dismembered her body and hid the parts at various places around town because he was afraid nobody would believe the death was an accident.

Buddy Jones, 52, is facing about 10 years in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 30 for the July 2006 death of 36-year-old Michelle Rawls. Though he initially was charged with premeditated first-degree murder, Jones worked out a plea bargain in which he would plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

Prosecutors went along with the deal because they couldn’t prove anything other than what Jones told them.

“Sometimes you have to make a deal with the devil,” Deputy District Attorney Kevin O’Connor said Friday after the deal was concluded during a short hearing before Sedgwick County District Judge Clark Owens.

But the evidence against Jones was shaky, at best, and even pointed at someone else. DNA recovered from Rawls’ house after she disappeared in July 2006 matched the genetic profile of a man who is a suspect in an unrelated, unsolved rape.

“There was somebody else there, and we don’t know who it was,” said Brad Sylvester, Jones’ attorney. “But the judge limited how we could present that evidence because it matched a case that hasn’t been charged.”

Jones led police to Rawls’ remains in September as part of the plea deal. O’Connor said it took another three months to confirm the identity of the remains.

“Her family has moved past Buddy Jones,” O’Connor said. “They actually had to pull me up about this plea. I was more upset about having to do this than they were.”

Police reports about Rawls’ disappearance were filled with sketchy information and the case remained a mystery in Wichita for more than two years.

Jones was arrested in April 2007 and charged with first-degree murder.

“Police were right about Buddy Jones,” O’Connor said. “He was involved in this.”