The man accused of suffocating an Eastern Michigan University student in her dorm room does not deny that he was in the young woman's room the night she was last seen alive.

Orange Taylor admits that he became aroused when he saw 22-year-old Laura Dickinson's half-nude body lying on the floor the morning of Dec. 13, 2006.

But Taylor's lawyer insisted on Monday that none of that proves he murdered or tried to rape Dickinson, despite allegations from Washtenaw County, Mich., prosecutors.

"The evidence will show there was no penetration," defense lawyer Alvin Keel said in his opening statement in Taylor's trial. "Sperm does not equal penetration and it does not necessarily show asphyxiation." (VIDEO)

Taylor, 21, faces life in prison without parole if he is convicted of murdering Dickinson, who was in her first semester at EMU studying nutrition when she was killed. He is also charged with intent to commit sexual assault, home invasion and larceny.

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The incident drew nationwide attention to EMU when it was discovered that school officials misled the campus community for nearly two months, saying it was believed Dickinson had died from natural causes.

In his opening statement Monday, the defense lawyer said the evidence would show that not even the medical examiner was able to conclusively determine how Dickinson, 22, died.

The medical examiner did not arrive at his conclusion of "probable asphyxia" from suffocation or strangulation until March 5, the day before Taylor's probable cause hearing, and almost three months after Dickinson's death, Keel said.

Because Dickinson suffered from a heart arrhythmia in 2005, Keel asked the jurors to consider whether it was possible she died from natural causes.

Keel conceded that Taylor, a sophomore at EMU at the time, was roaming around the Hill Hall dorm in search of marijuana early on the morning of Dec. 13, 2006, when he came upon Dickinson's room.

"He finds Laura Dickinson in a compromised position, nude from waist down, on the floor," Keel said. "As fate would have it, unfortunately, as Mr. Taylor is inside of her room, the 20-year-old ejaculates."

But assistant prosecuting attorney Blaine Longsworth offered another explanation for the presence of Taylor's DNA on Dickinson's leg and bedspread.

"This case is about every woman's worst nightmare come true," Longsworth said in his opening statement. "Laura Dickinson was sleeping in her bed when an intruder, Orange Taylor, got into her room, sexually assaulted her and suffocated her to death." (VIDEO)

Security camera footage showed Taylor walking through Hill Hall and other dorms the night of Dec. 12, even though he had been banned from the residence halls in November 2006, Longsworth said.

The jury will not be told that Taylor, who lived off campus at the time, was banned from the dorms after run-ins with campus police over suspicions that he had broken into students' rooms and was selling drugs.

The prosecutor promised jurors that sweatshirt fibers found on Dickinson's body would prove that Taylor came into close physical contact with her.

On the way out of her room, Longsworth said, Taylor took her keys and locked the deadbolt from the outside so no one would discover her body. Her keys were never found.

Two days later, on Dec. 15, students living on Hill Hall's fifth floor began complaining of a foul smell, according to detectives who testified Monday.

The first investigators to arrive on the scene testified that the only sign of a struggle or disturbance they saw was that the sheets under Dickinson's body appeared to have been dragged off the bed with her.

They also noticed a used tampon tossed in a corner of the room, and prosecutors called witnesses to say that was something Dickinson would never have done.

Dickinson's friend and rowing teammate, Maria Clary, described her as a "very clean" person who would never dispose of a tampon in such a way.

Jurors viewed footage from the dorm's security cameras capturing Laura Dickinson as she stepped through Hill Hall's north entrance lobby at 11:02 p.m. the night she died.

Clary, 21, was one of the last people to see Dickinson alive when she left a "Secret Santa" party she helped organize for the rowing team. The occupational therapy student choked back tears as she identified pictures from the party and a singing toy hamster that Dickinson received in the gift exchange.

Dickinson's boyfriend, Travis Scott, the last person to speak to her after she returned to Hill Hall that evening, ranked her as an "8" when it came to personal hygiene. He said it would be out of character for her to throw a tampon across her room.

Despite prodding from Taylor's lawyer, Scott said it was also uncharacteristic of her go to bed nude when he was not with her.

"Normally, when I was with her, she would be in pajamas or nothing," said Travis, an engineer who met Dickinson in 2004 at her father's coffee shop in Hastings.

Evidence seized from her laptop indicated that she signed on to her school e-mail account around 12:12 a.m. and viewed pictures from the party that had been posted on Facebook.

Both Scott and Clary testified that they became worried when Dickinson failed to return their phone calls for the next two days.

Testimony continues Tuesday.