Emotion has spilled over in the High Court in Wellington after the man charged with murdering a woman with an axe pleaded not guilty.

Retimana Nicholls of Upper Hutt is accused of killing Sandra Guerin in her home last December.

He'll also fight charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and male assaults female, after allegedly attacking three others in a rampage.

Members of the near-full public gallery wept as he entered the pleas, with one woman calling him a coward.