Pearl - A teenager accused of slitting his mother's throat and then gunning down his ex-girlfriend and another girl in a shooting spree at a Mississippi school pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder yesterday.
Luke Woodham (16), also denied seven counts of aggravated assault stemming from gunshot wounds to other students. Police said the teenager went on the rampage because he was distraught over breaking up with his girlfriend. According to police, he slit his mother Mary's throat before dawn on Wednesday in their home in Pearl, a suburb of the state capital, Jackson. He then went to Pearl High School and shot dead his girlfriend and another girl with a rifle and wounded seven others.