A woman who fought for her life as her family struggled to get away from Dale Wayne Eaton in 1997 testified against him Thursday but was not allowed to tell the jury what he did to her, her husband and their infant son.

Shannon Breeden, 36, of Santa Cruz, Calif., took the stand for the state the first day of the penalty phase in Eaton's case.

Eaton was convicted Wednesday of kidnapping, raping and killing 18-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmell in 1988. Ten years later, he was convicted of the aggravated assault on Breeden.

In that case, Eaton stopped and offered a ride to Shannon and her husband Scott Breeden, whose van broke down in a parking area off Interstate 80 about 45 miles east of Rock Springs.

The Breedens were driving from Michigan to their home state of Washington that September with their 5-month-old baby, Cody, their dog and their cat.

After waiting more than 12 hours for a ride, the family piled into Eaton's van, thankful that he'd offered to help.

Not long into their journey, Breeden took the wheel to let Eaton rest. But suddenly he pointed a rifle at Breeden's husband, threatened to shoot their baby and later wrestled Shannon Breeden to the ground in the Red Desert, where she'd brought Eaton's van to an abrupt halt.

The couple got the gun away from Eaton but he promptly grabbed his knife. Breeden fought Eaton as he repeatedly tried to slash her with the dull blade.

Scott Breeden got the knife away from Eaton, stabbed him and beat him down with his own rifle.

But the 7th District Court jury Thursday didn't hear any of that.

"That's him right there," is all Breeden was allowed to say, aside from when and where the assault occurred.

Judge David Park said he had "serious concerns" about Breeden going into too much detail.

For one, the jury could be led to believe that Eaton was undercharged and feel they need to compensate for that in this case.

Besides, the state only needed to prove the aggravating circumstance that Eaton has been convicted of other violent felonies.

In an interview after her testimony, Breeden said she felt a mixture of frustration and relief.

"I think it's just appalling that (Eaton's) family can get up there and cry and talk about him as a little boy and how they loved him, and poor, poor Dale, but I can't tell them that he had the gun to the head of a 5-month-old," she said.

After seeing Eaton in the courtroom for the first time since he attacked her, Breeden said, "I still think he's a sick son of a bitch."

While the memories of that day made her emotional, she said, what she is reliving is "victory."

"I'm not reliving something that resulted from my getting harmed, I'm reliving the fact that I survived something, that we got away," Breeden said. "So that's great."

"I'm mad, I've still got all this anger, and I didn't realize quite how pissed off I was," she added. "I think this has been a long time coming. I'm just really relieved to know that he's not out killing people."

Breeden said while she is generally opposed to capital punishment, she came to Casper to make sure Eaton receives the death penalty.

"In this particular case Dale has slipped through the cracks so many times that the only way I'm going to feel relieved is if he dies," she said.

Breeden said she communicated through sign language to her 4-year-old son, a special-needs child, that she had to leave home for a few days to go to the trial. Earlier she had told him about the attack his brother Cody survived as a baby.

"In sign language he said, 'Mommy is going to go help police lock up a monster.' I couldn't have said it any better myself, kid," she said. "I think in his head I'm kind of a superhero right now."