Teacher pleads not guilty in stabbing death of estranged wife

An elementary school teacher charged with murder in his estranged wife’s stabbing death pleaded not guilty Wednesday to all charges.

Michael Rodney Kane, 46, is charged with one count of first-degree murder, one count of burglary with a person present, one count of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of making criminal threats.

Kane entered his plea in the Van Nuys branch of Los Angeles County Superior Court. He was ordered to return to court July 9 and is being held without bail.

Kane was arrested in Yucca Valley early Monday after Michelle Ann Kane’s stabbing death on a quiet San Fernando Valley street touched off a hunt for her estranged husband.

Michelle Kane, 43, told police Friday that her husband had violated a temporary restraining order and that she suspected he was the one who broke windows in their home, where she lived with her two young children.

She and her daughter, 6, and son, 2, took refuge in the home of friends in West Hills, but police said Michael Kane found her there shortly before 8 a.m. Saturday and pushed his way inside. When his estranged wife ran outside, police said, he chased her down and stabbed her multiple times before fleeing in his car.

In earlier court documents seeking the restraining order, Michelle Kane said her estranged husband, from whom she had filed for divorce in December, had made numerous death threats against her and had harassed her and her children. She said he was abusing drugs and alcohol and last year was briefly hospitalized after expressing suicidal thoughts.

Prosecutors said they will ask that Kane be held without bail.

Kane is employed as a teacher at the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Nestle Avenue Charter Elementary School in Tarzana.

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Twitter: @jeanmerl