Updated

A New York judge has ordered a mental exam for a man accused of fatally stabbing three women in 20 years.

Lucius Crawford, of Mount Vernon, N.Y., pleaded not guilty Monday at his Westchester County arraignment on two of the killings. A third murder case is being prosecuted in the Bronx.

Crawford's lawyer requested the mental evaluation. He says he believes the 60-year-old defendant may be mentally disabled.

Relatives of the victims who were in court said afterward that the claim was nonsense.

Crawford has spent 30 years in prison for nonfatal stabbings in New York and North Carolina going back to the 1970s.