NEWHALL : Man Pleads Not Guilty in Stabbing

William Arthur Good, 27, of Santa Clarita, pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Newhall Municipal Court to charges that he tried to kill his ex-girlfriend, Dorre Wagner-Dow, 33, a coffee shop waitress, by stabbing her repeatedly with a knife upon her return home from work early Monday morning.

Judge H. Keith Byram set a preliminary hearing for Jan. 14 in the same court after Good entered pleas through a public defender, Jim Racusin, to one count of attempted first-degree murder, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, as well as one count of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of mayhem, or causing disablement or disfigurement. Wagner-Dow of Canyon Country remained in critical but stable condition Wednesday at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia, where she underwent emergency surgery for multiple wounds to her neck, chest, abdomen and right hand.

The prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Pamela D. Springer, said Wagner-Dow need not be present for the preliminary hearing if she is still incapacitated. Springer said the victim has been able to respond to her questions in writing because she is left-handed.

Wagner-Dow was attacked after she and the defendant argued over the breakup of their relationship, which she had ended several months ago, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said. A friend of Wagner-Dow, Lance Broderick, 24, who had driven her home from work, used his car phone to summon authorities and helped identify Good, who surrendered 12 hours later to deputies after a tracking dog had led them to a vacant Canyon Country apartment.