A man accused in a 1989 cold case involving the rape and stabbing of a woman in her San Mateo home pleaded no contest to the charges and now faces life in prison, authorities said.

John Harris Jr. entered the no-contest plea to attempted murder and aggravated mayhem just as jury selection was about to begin on Sep. 4, the San Mateo Police Department said in a social media post on Tuesday.

Harris, 59, was arrested in 2021 in San Joaquin County after advances in DNA technology enabled investigators to revisit the evidence and resubmit it, resulting in a match, police said.

On Feb. 4, 1989, a man entered the victim's apartment in East San Mateo near Los Prados Park at about 4:15 a.m., grabbed a kitchen knife, and went into her bedroom. With his face covered with a bandanna, he climbed into her bed, raped and choked her. He also stabbed her multiple times, ultimately slicing her throat, barely missing her jugular vein, police said.

Despite her injuries, the woman managed to fight back and negotiate with the suspect, convincing him to leave her apartment, and was able to call police.

Over the years-long investigation, police said detectives interviewed multiple people and periodically submitted DNA evidence in the case. In Dec. 2020, investigators obtained a match to Harris, who lived in the same neighborhood but was not known to the victim, police said. 

Following the crime, Harris was believed to have lived primarily in San Joaquin County, and in 2020, he lived in Arizona, police said. He was arrested on Feb. 24, 2021, in Manteca and booked at the San Mateo County Jail. 

Harris's trial was delayed for years over legal challenges. He was denied bail, and he challenged the ruling, which was vacated by the California Court of Appeal. 

The bail ruling eventually made its way to the California Supreme Court, which remanded the case back to the trial court. Court backlogs exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic likely contributed to the delay in getting the trial underway.

Harris faces a sentence of 19 years to life in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 3, and San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe told the San Mateo Daily Journal newspaper that the victim was expected to speak at the sentencing.