Elkville Man Pleads Not Guilty to Killing Girlfriend's Son
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[An Elkville man has pleaded not guilty to charges he killed his girlfriend's son.
Jarrod Rudder, 24, of Elkville, entered the plea Friday during a preliminary hearing in Jackson County Court.
Rudder will be back in court July 19 for a pretrial hearing.
Rudder was charged in April with two counts of murder in the death of two-year-old Michael Pulliam.
Authorities say Rudder swung the boy by the arm, smashing his head into a lamp and a wall. Pulliam suffered bleeding on the brain and died later at a St. Louis hospital.
Rudder is being held in the Jackson County Jail on $1 million bond.
A motion to reduce his bond was denied during Friday's hearing.