Prosecutors will request the death penalty against a rail-riding transient accused of killing a homeless man in Salem and suspected of 13 or more so-called boxcar slayings.
Robert Joseph Silveria, 37, pleaded not guilty Thursday before Marion County Circuit Judge Jamese Rhoades.Silveria's lawyer said an insanity defense might be used.
Authorities say Silveria has confessed to killings in Montana, Utah, Washington and California and is suspected in a death in Arizona. Kansas and Florida are seeking his extradition on suspicion of murder.
Silveria is accused of beating William Pettit Jr. to death in Salem Dec. 1. His body was found two days later in a boxcar at Millersburg.
Police in Utah say Silveria confessed to the April 1995 stabbing death of hobo Roger Lee Bowman, 28, in Salt Lake City and is suspected in the July 1992 death of Darren R. Miller, 29, who was found beaten to death in a sleeping bag alongside railroad tracks in Grand County.
Silveria was arrested in March in Roseville, Calif., after railroad agents, alerted by fliers on a homicide suspect known to ride the rails, found him in a rail yard and searched his belongings.
California detectives say Silveria told them of using birth certificates, Social Security cards and the names of his victims to get food stamps and other public assistance.
A homeless shelter in Bakersfield, Calif., issued papers in Pettit's name three weeks after he died.
Tom Bostwick, a Salem attorney representing Silveria, gave notice to Rhoades that he might use a defense of mental disease or defect. He said the notice was intended to protect his client's options and that no decision had been made.
Bostwick entered the plea for Silveria, who did not speak during Thursday's hearing.
Diana Moffat, a deputy Marion County district attorney, said prosecutors would seek the death penalty.
Moffat said prosecutors will have evidence needed for a death sentence, including that the crime was deliberate, without provocation and that the defendant poses a continuing danger to society.
California and Oregon police say a search of two locations in Roseville, Calif., this month turned up letters and notes purportedly written by Silveria and discussing killings.
The letters were to George Schlichting, a former Placer County jailmate who once occupied a cell next to Silveria, police said.
Rhoades set a trial date of April 7, 1997. Additional pretrial hearings were scheduled for July 24 and Nov. 14-15.