PHOENIX - The man accused of killing two Phoenix high school students while on a camping trip in the Tonto National Forest has pleaded not guilty.

Thomas Brown, 31, appeared in court on Oct. 17. He is accused of two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Arcadia High School students, 18-year-old Pandora Kjolsrud and 17-year-old Evan Clark.

The backstory:

On May 27, the bodies of Kjolsrud and Clark were found in the Mount Ord area of the Tonto National Forest .

Brown was arrested more than four months after the murders.

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office says Brown contacted them after the bodies were found, saying that he had taken drone video on the mountain the same weekend that the teens were killed.

MCSO says Brown's DNA found on evidence, including

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