HONOLULU -- A lawyer for murder defendant Kirk Lankford on Wednesday said his client did dispose of Masumi Watanabe's body but did not kill her.

Lankford will take the stand to say Watanabe accidentally killed herself while he was trying to help her, according to defense attorney Don Wilkerson.

"You might not like what Mr. Lankford did, but he didn't commit murder," Wilkerson said.

Lankford claimed Watanabe was only slightly injured and willingly got into the truck after he accidentally struck her during her walk on Pupukea Road. However, he feared even a minor accident threatened his $75,000 job, Wilkerson said.

"He believed that if he could get Ms. Watanabe home everything would be OK. He could save his job and everything would be alright. It didn't turn out that way," Wilkerson said.

After driving around Pupukea trying to find her house, Watanabe panicked, began screaming and near a vacant lot, leapt out of the pickup truck and struck her head on a boulder, according to the defense.

"He checked her pulse. She had no pulse. Her head was severely disfigured," Wilkerson said.

Lankford's attorney had kept the defense secret until the prosecutor wrapped up his case with a tour of Lankford's Hauoli Pest Control truck.

The jury was offered a second truck to open and look inside. Jurors appeared to check what type of compartments hid under the lid.

Lankford admitted that he hid her in the truck while running scared. His attorney said Lankford tried to bury the body at Kahana Bay, but hard ground and a homeless witness scared him off. Finally he took Watanabe wrapped in garbage bags to the reef by Chinaman's Hat, Wilkerson said.

"Took the body out of the truck, and walked her out into the ocean as far as he could," Wilkerson said.

Lankford denied any struggle with Watanabe, but the medical examiner said cuts on his hands were consistent with fingernails used in self-defense.

Prosecutors are expected to claim that Lankford's story has been crafted to match the evidence they have been laying out for three weeks. They said it also leaves them without a body, which they could have used to confirm either his story, or their theory, that she was murdered.

Lankford is expected to take the stand himself next week.