GRAND FORKS (AP) - A Minnesota man has pleaded not guilty to beating a man to death outside a bar here after the man came to his aid following a fight.

Travis Stay, 23, of Princeton, Minn., was a student at the University of North Dakota when he was charged in December in the October death of Joel Lovelien, 38, of Grand Forks. Stay faces up to life in prison if convicted of Class AA murder.

Authorities said Stay had gotten into a fight with another man in the parking lot of the Broken Drum Bar on Oct. 27 and allegedly turned on Lovelien when Lovelien came to his aid. Lovelien was with friends at the bar and had stepped outside to take a call on his cell phone.

Lovelien was found in the bar's parking lot a short time later with severe head injuries and died that night. Prosecutor Nancy Yon said during a Friday court hearing that Lovelien's blood was splattered on Stay's Halloween costume.

"(Stay) was angry; he missed his bus," she said.

Grand Forks Police Detective Duane Simon said Stay had been a passenger on a charter bus filled with Halloween revelers. The bus left without Stay after a fight between him and another man.