A man and woman accused of letting their dogs run loose and killing their neighbor appeared in court Monday to proclaim their innocence.

Jacqueline McCuen and her boyfriend, William Gladney, were inside an Elbert County courthouse to plead not guilty to criminally negligent homicide and two charges of owning a dangerous animal.

They face up to nine years in prison if convicted of all three felonies, prosecution spokesman Mike Knight said. An Aug. 25 trial was scheduled.

The couple are the owners of three pit bulls that mauled a woman to death and injured two other people in late November in the Meadow Brook Ranches subdivision in rural Elbert County.

Jennifer Brooke (picture, right), 40, was attacked by the three dogs, right outside her home, while she was feeding her horses on Nov. 30, 2003.

The dogs also attacked Bjorn Osmunsen, 24, and neighbor Clifford Baker, 42, before the dogs were shot to death by one of the victim's sons.

Investigators said Brooks was horribly mauled and the scene was so graphic that several firefighters who were called to the scene required counseling after responding to the attack.

McCuen and Gladney, who also face seven misdemeanors, were charged after a 2.5 month investigation. McCuen has said she had deep regrets over what happened and never expected the animals to hurt anyone.

She said she always kept the dogs in a fenced area and the attacks were accidents.

However, other people believe that the dogs were trained to be violent and that they had terrorized the neighborhood for years.

The pit bulls were also linked to an attack in April, when neighbor Diana Nichols was bitten by one of the animals as she walked near McCuen's former home.

McCuen says her five children played with all the dogs with no problems.

McCuen also had been cited for alleged animal violations in 2002 when she lived in Aurora. The citations included having unlicensed dogs, having too many dogs and letting dogs run loose.