Accused murderer David Misch may or may not have done himself any favors in taking the stand in his own defense Tuesday, in a murder trial that has been ongoing for six weeks, stemming from the deaths of two young women in 1986.

As SFist reported earlier, Misch stands accused in the double murder of best friends Michelle Xavier and Jennifer Duey on February 2, 1986. Evidence only pointed to Misch for the murders in recent years, after his DNA was found under the fingernails of one of the victims, Duey.

Xavier, 18, and Duey, 20, had reportedly left a family gathering in the East Bay on that February night, and after being canceled on for a double date with their boyfriends, had decided to go rent a movie and share a pizza together.

The pair traveled to a video rental store at a Fremont shopping center, which is where authorities believe they encountered Misch — though the circumstances have never been clear to investigators. Somehow, and likely under duress and at gunpoint, the women were taken to a remote area on Mill Creek Road in Fremont, using Xavier's car.

Both women were found stripped naked, and Xavier was killed by having her throat slit. Duey was killed by gunshot wounds, and the car was still there as well.

Somewhere in the course of events, Xavier had managed to leave a clue, some scribbled numbers on her hand that investigators say partially match the license plate of a motorcycle Misch owned at the time.

As Bay Area News Group reports, in testimony today, Misch tried to explain away the DNA by suggesting he and Duey had shared a cigarette during a cocaine deal. He suggested that he was just your average neighborhood drug dealer at the time, and the young women were purchasing a significant amount — $250 worth — which prompted him to have them meet him at the shopping center. (Misch has previously had to explain why he knew that they were last seen at the shopping center, which was information that had not been publicized.)

"I walked off with her cigarette," Misch told the court, adding that he'd "never even heard of Mill Creek Road until this case."

It's not clear how a shared cigarette would lead to DNA under the fingernails, but the plausibility of this detail is likely the least of Misch's concerns.

Misch was a known and convicted rapist at the time of the killings, and he's been behind bars for decades now for the meth-fueled 1989 murder of 36-year-old Margaret Ball — a woman he did odd jobs for. And while the jury may not know any of this, Misch also reportedly attempted suicide in his jail cell when the DNA evidence linking him to Duey first arose.

Misch also is still set to stand trial for the 1988 kidnapping and murder of nine-year-old Hayward girl Michaela Garecht, a case that went cold for three decades until investigators matched a palm print on the girl's scooter to Misch, and charged him with the crime in 2020.