Teen pleads not guilty to killing of guardians

A 14-year-old Arkansas boy charged with capital murder in the deaths of his guardians pleaded not guilty in state court on Tuesday and was ordered held without bond.

Justin Staton, 14, and 17-year-old co-defendant Hunter Drexler, of Clinton, Arkansas, are being tried as adults for fatally shooting Robert and Patricia Cogdell, both 66.

Their bodies were found in July behind their home in Conway, Arkansas, a bustling university city of 60,000 about 30 miles northwest of Little Rock, the state capital.

Arkansas has the death penalty but U.S. law does not allow for those under 18 at the time of their crime to be executed.

Robert Cogdell was the longtime public works director of Maumelle, Arkansas, a suburb of Little Rock.

Staton, dressed in a green and white striped jail shirt and trousers, did not speak. Drexler had pleaded not guilty earlier.

Authorities have said the crime was conceived while Staton and Drexler were in a juvenile detention facility with a third defendant and that robbery was the motive.

Staton was arrested hours after his guardians' bodies were discovered. Drexler and two other teenagers were taken into custody in Texas shortly thereafter and returned to Arkansas.