SAN DIEGO -- A Navy man testified Thursday that he was most likely drugged, taken to a home and sexually assaulted by the same City Heights man accused of sexually assaulting and killing an Orange County resident 18 months earlier.

The 21-year-old witness, identified in court as Jeremiah R., was the first to be called to the stand in a preliminary hearing for 39-year-old Philong Huynh.

The defendant is charged with murder and murder during sodomy in the January 2008 slaying of Dane Williams, 23, of Huntington Beach.

Williams -- who had come to San Diego to work at a convention on behalf of a Costa Mesa-based skate and surfwear clothing company -- disappeared after leaving the Hard Rock Cafe in the Gaslamp Quarter in the early morning hours of Jan. 26, 2008.

He was intoxicated and seen falling to the ground when he left the club, prosecutors said. His body was found three days later in a City Heights alley, one block from where Huynh lived, authorities said.

Williams' underwear was missing, and DNA evidence was found on his shirt and body, said Deputy District Attorney Gretchen Means.

Jeremiah testified that he took a bus and taxi from Camp Pendleton to get to Horton Plaza for a night out on June 6 of this year.

The witness said he walked about three or four blocks before meeting the defendant, who introduced himself as "Phillip." He said the man asked him for a cigarette, and "I gave him one."

The witness said he declined the defendant's offer to go to strip clubs, but said yes when the defendant said he had a car and would drive him to the beach.

On the way, the defendant stopped at a liquor store and bought two bottles of Hennessey's whiskey and two bottles of Coke, Jeremiah said.

The defendant said he had just moved to San Diego and was recently divorced, the witness testified.

After going to Ocean Beach, Jeremiah said he had a headache and the defendant gave him a pill or two from a Tylenol bottle. He said at some point he blacked out, remembering that he visited a second beach but not a third.

The two talked about Mexico, and the witness testified the defendant must have driven him there because he later found a photo on his cell phone of himself under a Mexico sign.

He said his next memory was being driven to the defendant's house and seeing palm trees lining the street.

"I believe I told him I was tired," the witness said. "He said I could crash at his house."

He said he sat down on a living room couch, but soon after lay down fully clothed in a bedroom and closed the door behind him. The next thing he remembered, the witness said, was the defendant telling him to wake up and him saying he was still tired.

The young man testified that he didn't recall leaving Phillip's house and next remembered being on a bus and "busting" his nose after being thrown to the ground when the vehicle came to a screeching halt.

He said when he arrived back at Camp Pendleton, he ran into some Marines and tried to join in a horseshoe game, but threw a shoe at a 90-degree angle and knew something was wrong.

"I told them I woke up without my underwear on," the witness testified.

He said he was also missing his pocket knife, was disoriented and couldn't walk a straight line. An officer later recommended that he get a sexual assault exam, where they checked his body for injuries, he said.

The witness said he felt disoriented for five days after the exam and "just had a feeling that something happened" while he slept at the defendant's home.

The witness told authorities he would cooperate with the investigation as long as it didn't interfere with his deployment to Iraq, which could happen any time.

Jeremiah -- who works with postpartum mothers in the military -- said he called the defendant the morning he left his home and asked him about the supposed Tylenol he got the night before.

"I said, 'Are you sure those were Tylenol you gave me?'" the witness said.

The defendant hung up on him, he said.

On direct examination from Deputy District Attorney David Hendren, the witness said he asked the defendant about the pills because that's the only thing he could think of that might have made him disoriented.

The witness denied any sexual interest in men and said he didn't consent to any sexual activity with the defendant.

Prosecutors said doctors treating Jeremiah diagnosed him with benzodiazepine intoxication. Benzodiazepine is a central nervous system depressant. Doctors also said he had visible signs of a sexual assault consistent with sodomy.

DNA on the witness' body was matched to the defendant through DNA testing, and he was then linked to the Williams killing, Means said.

During a search of the defendant's home, pharmaceuticals were found, including a prescription for benzodiazepine in his name that was filled in January 2008 -- the same month Williams was assaulted and found dead, the prosecutor said.

The preliminary hearing will resume March 3 with testimony about the murder of Williams. At the end of the hearing, Judge Charles Rogers will decide if enough evidence was presented for Huynh to stand trial.

District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis will decide later whether the defendant will face the death penalty or life in prison without parole if convicted.