SEATTLE, Wash. — A long-time Kenworth employee has plead not guilty to four of the Green River serial killings, which authorities say left 49 women dead nearly 20 years ago.

Gary Leon Ridgway’s lawyer, Tony Savage, entered the pleas during a brief arraignment in Superior Court.

Ridgway, 52, did not speak during the appearance in the packed courtroom. He is currently being held without bail at King County Jail pending a Jan. 2 hearing. Savage predicts it will take about two years to prepare for trial.

“We’re gonna get this fellow a fair trial, and that means we’re going to be prepared. We’re going to take as much time as we need,” he promises.

Ridgway was charged with aggravated first-degree murder in the deaths of Marcia Chapman, Cynthia Hinds, Opal Mills and Carol Christensen after investigators used DNA testing to link him to three of the four victims.

Police all along the West Coast are looking for possible connections to the 45 other killings. Canadian investigators met Washington state detectives last week to discuss possible links. But the meeting did not result in any “smoking gun,” says a spokesman for the King County Sheriff’s.

Ridgway was arrested Nov. 30 as he left his job at the Kenworth truck plant in Renton, Wash., where he has worked since 1969.