The wife of murder defendant Darnell Griffin testified yesterday that Griffin was home with her the night he allegedly raped and strangled Evelyn Luka in 1999.

Griffin, 50, wasn't arrested in the case until 2007, after a DNA sample collected by his parole officer was matched to DNA evidence recovered from Luka as she lay in a coma following the Sept. 6, 1999, attack.

His wife, Nancy Griffin, yesterday acknowledged on the witness stand that when police detectives questioned her in 2007 about her husband's whereabouts on the night of the Luka attack, she told them she didn't know.

But in court yesterday, she told Deputy Prosecutor Kevin Takata that Griffin was at home with her because the night in question was a Sunday.

"He's always home on Sunday," she said.

Asked why she changed her story, Griffin said that when she first talked to police, "I couldn't remember exactly; I was put on the spot. I was in shock."

But she testified she later realized her husband was home with her because "it was a Sunday. He's always home on Sunday, every Sunday of the year."

The defendant has acknowledged having sex with Luka but said it was consensual and took place two days before Luka was discovered near death lying by the side of H-2 Freeway.

Nancy Griffin also testified that she was watching television with her husband in 1999 when a police "crime-stoppers" segment was aired about the search for a suspect in the Luka attack.

Darnell Griffin "looked relieved" when the suspect's vehicle was described as a "green Pathfinder," his wife said.

The couple was leasing a black Nissan Pathfinder at the time, according to court records.

Prosecutor Takata also asked Griffin about her husband's reaction when he received a letter in 2006 that required him to submit a DNA sample.

" 'They can't do this,' " she recalled him saying. " 'I'm going to call somebody. They can't do this. This has nothing to do with me.' "

Griffin was paroled from state prison in 1996 after serving 16 years for murdering a 28-year-old woman in 1980.