BROWNSBURG, Ind. — An Indiana man has pleaded not guilty to charges he fatally stabbed his estranged wife, who had been Miss Kaua'i 1990, with a steak knife while their daughters slept beside her.

Joseph L. Warnock, 41, of Brownsburg was being held without bond in the Hendricks County Jail after his initial court appearance. Prosecutors charged him yesterday with murder and invasion of privacy for violating a temporary protective order granted to his wife.

Warnock is accused of killing Angela Michelle Miller Warnock, 38, who filed for divorce Friday. Authorities say their daughters, ages 8 and 12, were not injured in the attack Sunday and hid in a closet until their father left their home in the western Indianapolis suburb of Brownsburg.

Authorities said the older girl called 911 and told a dispatcher, "Daddy killed Mommy."

Detective Sgt. Charles Morefield said Warnock forced his way into the home through a patio door just before midnight Sunday and went to a bedroom where his wife was sleeping with the girls.

Police said that when he began stabbing his wife, the girls ran into a closet and hid there for at least 15 minutes while their father was in the home. Police arrested Warnock on Monday.

Angela Warnock was a 1988 graduate of Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis and attended the University of Hawai'i, according to the Indianapolis Star newspaper.

She was encouraged to enter the Miss Kaua'i phase of the Miss America Pageant and was crowned Miss Kaua'i in 1990.

She went on to a modeling career before becoming a hair stylist in Indiana, the newspaper said.