Payne Street Murder Suspect Pleads Not Guilty

, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a charge that he murdered a 66-year-old Lake Elsinore woman.

Howard appeared in court at Southwest Justice Center with Judge Jerry E. Johnson presiding. A public defender was appointed for the defendant and a felony settlement conference was requested for July 24. At the conference, the public defender along with Deputy District Attorney Burke Strunsky, who is currently assigned to the case, will try to negotiate a resolution in front of a judge.

No bail was set for Howard, and he remains in custody at Southwest Detention Center.

Wearing a red jail jump suit and shackled, Howard quietly conferred with his attorney in between proceedings. He is charged with murdering The woman was discovered after deputies The tract home is located less than a half mile outside the Lake Elsinore city limits.

The defendant was arrested at the crime scene Sunday.

Officials would not confirm, but police scanner chatter on Sunday indicated that a man called into emergency dispatch and reported killing his wife. It is not clear who made the call or whether Howard and the dead woman were married.

that the woman’s lethal injuries were sustained at the Payne Street home, but her time and date of death are unknown, according to the coroner’s office. The coroner has not released how the woman was killed, and the complaint against the defendant does not provide any details.

Instead, they say the home seemed abandoned.

"We’ve always thought that house was vacant. It was always closed up … there were sheets on the windows," Lori Day, 44, told Patch Sunday.

“In four months I have never seen anybody at that house. I’ve never seen a wife at that house," Day said. "Nobody watering the yard," she said. “Nothing’s ever open. The windows are never open. The blinds are never open."

Just once in all that time, Day said she spotted a man drive out of the garage, back up and close the garage door.

Clarence Fulton, 77, said he’d occasionally see Ted Howard and another man at the residence, but not a female.

“I can’t remember ever seeing a woman,” he said Monday morning, noting that he had only spoken to Howard once, during a quick passing at the local Home Depot store.

Javier Hernandez, 52, lives in the neighborhood and said he remembers Ted Howard moving in around 1995, but thought the house might now be abandoned because the weeds are high, the windows are covered, and debris in the yard hasn’t been touched.

Speaking through an interpreter – his niece, Daisy Hernandez, 16 – Hernandez said he saw a car go in and out of the Payne Street garage regularly, but he couldn’t say for certain who was driving or whether anyone was actually living at the home.

However, Hernandez is sure the driver wasn’t female: He has not seen a woman at the Payne Street house for at least six months, he said.

“They hardly ever came outside,” he said of the men spotted at the residence. “It seemed like the house was alone.”