Two men have pleaded not guilty to killing two Chinese graduate students who were shot as they sat in a parked car near the University of Southern California last year.

The Los Angeles Times says 20-year-old Javier Bolden and 21-year-old Bryan James entered the pleas Thursday to murder charges.

Prosecutors say the men killed engineering students Ming Qu and Ying Wu a mile from campus in April of last year while stealing their cellphones. Authorities say GPS data was used to track Wu's phone, leading to the arrests.

At a preliminary hearing last month, prosecutors played a recording of a wiretapped phone call between Barnes and Bolden, in which they apparently discussed the attack on the students.