MONTICELLO, Ill. (AP) — Attorneys for an eastern Illinois man charged with murder in the 1990 death of his wife say he will plead not guilty.

Brendan Bukalski with the Johnson Law Group of Bloomington says 56-year-old client Gregory J. Houser waived his arraignment Monday morning. Bukalski tells The (Champaign) News-Gazette the Monticello man will plead not guilty at a preliminary hearing Oct. 7.

Police arrested Houser on Thursday after a warrant was issued charging him in the death of Sheryl Ann Houser. She was 29 when her 6-year-old son found her strangled with a rope around her neck in the garage of her home near Mahomet in October 1990. The Housers were in the process of divorcing.

Houser has been held in the Piatt County jail since his arrest.