CHICORA — The man accused of killing his millionaire father and stepmother in Brady Township said little Thursday, during his first appearance in a Pennsylvania courtroom.

Fresh from a six-hour drive from his home state of New Jersey, 40-year-old Colin Abbott was arraigned late in the afternoon by District Judge Lewis Stoughton on charges filed by Pennsylvania state police: two counts of homicide and a newly-added two counts of abusing a corpse.

Prosecutors believe Colin Abbott killed and dismembered Kenneth and Celeste Abbott at their Brady Township estate between June 6 and 7, according to court documents.

To hide the crime, prosecutors have alleged Colin Abbott burned and scattered the couples’ remains about in piles and in a pond on their 25-acre property and concocted a story about a car crash for inquisitive family members.

“He’s upset he’s charged with this situation,” defense attorney James Donohue of Butler said after the hearing. “He’s not guilty. He’s unjustly accused of this crime.”

Donohue, like the New Jersey attorney who represented Colin Abbott during an extradition hearing last week, asserted the defendant’s love for his father.

But prosecutors have cited greed as a possible motive for the killings.

Colin Abbott, the owner of a landscaping and stone paving business, may have had financial problems, prosecutors have said.

But Kenneth Abbott had no such issues.

Kenneth Abbott, 65, was a retired drug company executive, who owned his lush estate on West Liberty Road, was a decent investor and liked to collect pricey cars, antique toys and guns.

Authorities said Kenneth Abbott accompanied his son to a Slippery Rock bank on June 6 where the pair made an 11-minute visit to see Kenneth Abbott’s will, according to court records.

In the will, which had been updated only a month earlier, the younger Abbott stood to gain the bulk of his father’s fortune.

The police investigation began July 13 after Celeste Abbott’s daughter questioned the explanation Colin Abbott had given her about her mother’s demise.

Shortly after police discovered Kenneth and Celeste Abbott’s burnt bone pieces in Butler, Colin Abbott was arrested in New Jersey.

He had been in Morris County Jail in what Donohue called an “isolated cell” until Thursday.

Pennsylvania state troopers brought Colin Abbott, who did not to fight extradition, to Stoughton’s office in Chicora.

Authorities said Colin Abbott was not chatty during the drive, and he made no in-court statements.

However, Colin Abbott did promptly and politely answer all of the questions asked by Stoughton, including providing the information that he is single, has no children, owns the landscaping business and has in the past been arrested for what he characterized as “a variety of things” including resisting arrest and burglary.

Colin Abbott appeared in court wearing shackles and street clothes: a white T-shirt with a blue and black Yamaha logo, khaki colored cargo-style shorts, white socks and black tennis shoes. He has at least one tattoo on his right arm.

Although the court documents filed Thursday updated the prosecution’s case to include the two new charges of abusing a corpse, the documents contain only a few new details.

Most notable of the new information was the admission that a state trooper using a metal detector recovered “an apparent small caliber bullet” from pond where Kenneth and Celeste Abbott’s remains were found.

District Attorney Richard Goldinger later said the location where the bullet was found leads investigators to believe it is connected to the Abbotts’ death. However, Goldinger said they will not know more about it’s potential significance until the fragment is returned from a crime lab, where it was sent to be tested.

“It just thickens the plot,” Goldinger said.

At the conclusion of the hearing, Stoughton set a date of Aug. 3 for Colin Abbott’s preliminary hearing.

He will await the hearing in the Butler County Prison because there is no bail for suspects charged with homicide in Pennsylvania.

Kenneth and Celeste Abbott’s deaths occurred in the jurisdiction of District Judge Tim Shaffer. However, Shaffer recused himself, and Stoughton was appointed to preside over Colin Abbott’s arraignment and preliminary hearing.

Shaffer is a former attorney with the law firm of Dillon, McCandless, King, Coulter and Graham in Butler. Butler attorney Tom King represents Kenneth Abbott’s sister, Kathleen F. Neal of Virginia, who is temporary trustee of Kenneth and Celeste Abbott’s estate.

Shaffer recused himself to avoid any potential conflict.

Donohue said he represented Abbott on Thursday after he and Colin Abbott’s attorney in New Jersey, Alexander Rinaldi, “came together through mutual contacts” to discuss representing Colin Abbott.

Donohue, who later refused to discuss the details of the allegations against Colin Abbott, characterized the defendant as “a hard working man who loved his father and who was interested in helping his father and stepmother with whatever they needed.”

Eagle staff writer Jim Smith contributed to this report.