A convicted sex offender charged with fatally stabbing an insurance company executive while she was running on a trail has pleaded not guilty.

The Hartford Courant reported that a judge Wednesday ordered 27-year-old William Winters Leverett to undergo a psychiatric evaluation after he entered his plea.

Leverett faces a murder charge in the November 2014 death of 54-year-old Melissa Millan, of Simsbury, a senior vice president at Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co.

Leverett told investigators he had attended a treatment meeting for sex offenders and was looking for human contact when he spotted Millan running on the trail near his Windsor Locks home. Authorities said he stabbed her in the chest and she pushed him away before falling over the guardrail into the road.

His public defender did not return a call.