Last Updated: Monday, May 22, 2000, 2:09 p.m.

Fitzhugh enters plea of not guilty

Kenneth Fitzhugh entered a plea of not guilty today to the charge of murdering his wife, Kristine, in their Southgate neighborhood home.

"I am innocent," Fitzhugh declared in the North County Courthouse this afternoon when Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Charles Hayden asked him how he pleaded to the charge.

When the judge asked if Fitzhugh would request bail, Fitzhugh's attorney, Dan Barton, said they were not seeking bail at this time.

Fitzhugh, 56, has been held at the county jail in San Jose since Friday, when he was arrested by police and charged in the May 5 slaying of Kristine Fitzhugh, a music teacher in the Palo Alto school district.