BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) _ A judge set bail at $1 million Wednesday for a man charged with killing a Billings couple two years ago by tying them with duct tape, wire hangers and telephone cord, then beating and cutting them before setting their bodies afire to cover a robbery.

The bodies of 69-year-old Norman Leighton and 54-year-old Patti Hubbert were found by firefighters in their smoldering southside apartment in Billings.

Richard Covington is also charged in the shooting death of Gerald Morris, 43, who lived next door and disappeared about the same time. His decomposed remains were found two weeks later, south of Billings.

Charging documents were filed against Covington Tuesday afternoon.

District Judge Russell Fagg set bail at $1 million for Covington, 46, who was arraigned Wednesday on three counts of murder and a dozen other felonies.

Covington appeared for less than 10 minutes before Fagg, speaking in a steady voice as he pleaded not guilty to each of the 15 charges.

Montana's chief public defender, Randi Hood, and the office's regional chief defender, Kris Copenhaver-Landon, stood with Covington during the arraignment.

Leighton and Hubert were bound, beaten and burned. Firefighters responding to a 911 call shortly after 6 a.m. on Sept. 22, 2006, found the remains. Morris' decomposing body was found by a state road worker two weeks later. He had been shot in the neck and back.

Covington is also charged with six counts of criminal distribution of dangerous drugs, two counts of robbery, two counts of tampering with evidence and one count each of arson and theft.

Covington has been in jail since April of last year for a knife attack on a woman in a downtown parking lot. He is awaiting trial on a charge of felony robbery.