EL CAJON, Calif. -- A judge in El Cajon Friday denied a defense motion to dismiss a special circumstance allegation of murder during an attempted rape against a Spring Valley man accused of clubbing a Santee woman to death with a hammer.

An attorney for Robert Steven Carson argued there was no evidence that his client tried to rape 24-year-old Brittany Hart, who went missing last May 24.

Her body, which had been soaked in acid, was found three weeks later off Interstate 8 near Buckman Springs. The acid caused the removal of layers of skin and prevented DNA testing.

A forensic biologist with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department testified at a preliminary hearing last November that DNA from a cigarette butt found where Hart's body was discovered matched Carson's DNA profile.

Prosecutors allege the victim went to Carson's home, where she was assaulted by the defendant, who has two previous convictions for sex offenses.

Deputy District Attorney John Rice conceded that authorities don't know exactly what took place while the victim was allegedly in Carson's home. But "the evidence we do have is suggestive of sexual assault," the prosecutor said.

According to evidence presented at the preliminary hearing, Carson had started a clothing line with a sexually suggestive name, and met Hart at the La Mesa Costco where she worked.

The next morning, the woman searched the Internet for the name of the clothing line, and then went to the defendant's home.

When investigators found Hart's body, she was clad in a top, her shorts were torn and she wasn't wearing any underwear, deputy medical examiner Dr. Jonathan Lucas testified at the preliminary hearing.

Lucas said Hart was killed after receiving at least 10 blows to the head area from a hammer.

Carson, who was arrested last June 5, claimed in a television interview several months later that he killed Hart when she attacked him with a knife.

Defense attorney Stacy Gulley told a judge last year that Carson disposed of Hart's body in an "act of panic by a convicted sex offender."

On Friday, Judge Peter Deddeh ruled that the judge who oversaw the preliminary hearing correctly found that there was probable cause to believe the woman was killed during an attempted sexual assault.

Carson, 40, faces charges of murder and murder during an attempted rape, attempted forcible rape and possession of methamphetamine.

A hearing is scheduled June 2 for prosecutors to announce whether they will seek the death penalty or life in prison without parole for Carson if he's convicted.