Matthew Jaeger addresses members of the jury as he describes the events of Oct. 9, 2007, while testifying in his defense Thursday.

Former Kansas University student Matthew Jaeger denied ever choking, punching or hurting his ex-girlfriend during testimony Thursday in his kidnapping and aggravated battery trial.

“I heard a male screaming, and I heard her crying. I heard pounding. I was scared for her life,” Jaeger said in Douglas County District Court.

He said he was worried for his ex-girlfriend’s safety on the night of Oct. 9, 2007, because she had sent him a cryptic text message earlier that someone was trying to get her drunk. Jaeger said she did not answer his calls after that so he had his friend, Evan Carroll, drive him to her apartment in northern Lawrence.

Prosecutors allege that Jaeger, 24, broke into the woman’s apartment and found his ex-girlfriend with another man, Dylan Jones.

Then, they say, after chasing Jones away, Jaeger re-entered the apartment and attacked his ex-girlfriend, who is now 23. They claim he severely mutilated her pelvic region and dragged her from her apartment.

But Jaeger testified Thursday that he never went into her apartment a second time and that his ex-girlfriend told him she fell getting out of bed onto a bed rail during the commotion.

Also Thursday, a defense expert witness testified that the woman’s injuries were “very compatible” with a straddle injury, similar to when a woman falls onto a bicycle bar.

Jaeger faces charges of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated battery, aggravated burglary and making a criminal threat. His defense attorneys have said their client found the woman injured and was trying to help her to the hospital.

Last week, the victim testified that Jaeger choked her until she was unconscious. She said she woke up later with injuries. Doctors who treated her at Lawrence Memorial Hospital have testified that the injuries to the exterior of her pelvic region were consistent with blunt force trauma.

‘I was concerned’

Jaeger said he broke in a window to his ex-girlfriend’s apartment because of concerns about what he heard inside.

“I thought she had a stranger in her apartment that was attacking her,” he said.

Jaeger said he saw a man, who he later learned was his ex-girlfriend’s friend, Jones, jump from the balcony and leave the apartment.

Jaeger said he never went back into her apartment because the woman told him to stop looking for Jones because he was her friend. Then Jaeger said he offered to take her to the hospital because he noticed she had blood on her arms, but he said he didn’t know the extent of her injuries until later.

“She had told me that she fell getting out of bed on the rail,” he said.

According to earlier testimony in the trial from police, the woman’s bed was broken before the incident.

Jaeger also testified at length Thursday about his relationship with the woman leading up to Oct. 9, 2007. He said they had broken up but remained close friends. They also still had a sexual relationship at the time, he said.

She testified earlier in the week, characterizing Jaeger as possessive and abusive, but he said they were in an on-again, off-again relationship.

Jaeger said the woman had told him at least twice that she had sex with other men, which had caused him to think twice about his relationship with her.

Defense attorney Pedro Irigonegaray also asked Jaeger about the angry tone in voice mail messages he left for the woman before he went to her apartment. Jurors heard the messages earlier in the trial.

“Sitting here, I’m absolutely embarrassed and ashamed for those phone messages. I shouldn’t be talking to anybody like that. I’m sorry,” Jaeger said.

He said she was not responsive to his calls and messages that night as he tried to get in touch with her, so he had Carroll take him to her apartment.

“I was concerned that due to her past and knowing her risky behaviors that she could possibly be in situation that was harmful to her, and I was concerned,” he said.

Jaeger said they were trying to get her help and that Carroll was confused about where the hospital was when officers pulled them over on Sixth Street. Jaeger also told jurors that during the police interview he licked his hands on the video because they had become crusty due to a DNA swab. He also licked part of his right arm because he thought a cut had glass in it, Jaeger said.

Injuries

A defense witness rebutted earlier testimony about how the woman sustained the injuries.

Dr. Edward J. Vogel, a New York-based gynecologist, testified Thursday that he could not rule out classifying the woman’s injury to her pelvic region as a “straddle injury.”

Dr. Kathy Gaumer, a Lawrence gynecologist who operated on the woman after the injury, said Wednesday the woman suffered a blood clot near her pubic bone and two hairline lacerations on the external part of her vagina. After surgery, the woman had to be hospitalized for 11 days. Gaumer said the injury was likely more consistent with blunt force trauma than a straddle injury.

But Vogel said the pelvic area is home to much vascular activity, making it susceptible to heavy bleeding.

“It would have to have force, but these tissues are very, very susceptible to this type of injury,” he said of a straddle injury.

Irigonegaray asked Vogel if it would “be fair to call the injuries as you saw them as a mutilation” of the woman’s vagina.

“No, these tissues are very forgiving, and what causes them to react the way they do to blunt force trauma and a straddle injury also allows them to recover,” Vogel said.

Gaumer said on Wednesday that the woman made a full recovery weeks after she was injured.

Defense attorneys will continue presenting witnesses at 9 a.m. Friday. Chief Douglas County District Judge Robert Fairchild told jurors that attorneys likely would give closing arguments on Monday.