The teacher accused of fatally stabbing an Arkansas couple while they were hiking with two of their daughters pleaded not guilty to two capital murder charges on Thursday.
Andrew James McGann, a 28-year-old elementary school teacher, was arrested last month, accused of stabbing Clinton David Brink, 43, and Cristen Amanda Brink, 41, to death and charged with two counts of capital murder.
McGann hardly spoke and showed little emotion during the arraignment, which lasted around 30 minutes, according to NBC affiliate KNWA-TV.
Authorities said that McGann made statements to investigators “indicating that he had committed these heinous acts” and that his DNA was found at the crime scene.
In a brief statement, the Washington County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said that “the state continues to pursue the death penalty” in McGann’s case.
McGann’s lawyers from the county public defender’s office declined to comment.
The Brinks were hiking in Devil’s Den State Park, which lies in the northwest corner of Arkansas, with their young children, who are 7 and 9 years old, authorities say.
Investigators believe that Clinton was attacked first, while Cristen brought the kids to safety. Authorities said she then “returned to help her husband” before being attacked herself. The kids were not injured in the attack, and officials said last month that they do not believe they were targets.
A motive for the attack remains unknown.
Arkansas State Police Director Mike Hagar said last month that officials “have no reason to believe that there was any known association between our suspect and our victims.”
McGann evaded authorities for several days after the Brinks were found dead. He was arrested in a Springdale, Arkansas, barbershop while getting his hair cut, roughly 30 miles from Devil’s Den.
Officials said McGann recently moved to Arkansas for a new job at an elementary school after teaching in various schools throughout Oklahoma. He was recently hired to teach within Springdale Public Schools in Arkansas, but had not started the new role, according to a district administrator.
McGann passed background checks for his employment by Oklahoma’s Education Department and for the two districts in the state where he taught.
Some parents of McGann’s former students said they raised concerns that he was not properly teaching their children. Others said they worried he was “grooming” female students.
“In early May, late April, other parents start telling me that he was having special lunches during the lunch break, where all the kids would go to the cafeteria, but then he would ask some of the special girls to stay in his classroom and have lunch with him, which was weird,” parent Lindsay Camp Polyak previously told NBC News. “Other moms alleged that he had encouraged some girls to sit in his lap.”
Polyak added that her son told her that McGann would give candy and other prizes to female students, and that he “loves to play tag. He plays tag at recess every day with the girls.”
The Lewisville Independent School District in Texas, one of the districts where McGann taught and where Polyak’s son is a student, said in a message to the school community that an internal investigation “did not find any evidence of inappropriate behavior with a student.”
