AUBURN – A two-time fugitive from Lewiston, captured after a nationwide manhunt and an appearance on “America’s Most Wanted” Web site, pleaded “not guilty” Thursday to more than a dozen charges, most of them felonies.

Jesse Caron, 29, appeared in Androscoggin County Superior Court dressed in bright orange jail garb, his once bleached-blond hair a natural brunette now. Justice Ellen Gorman set bail at $25,000 cash or $100,000 worth of real estate. He was represented by Auburn attorney Justin Leary.

Caron entered pleas on a string of charges from three grand jury indictments. They include:

• three counts of unlawful possession of scheduled drugs.

• aggravated trafficking in scheduled drugs.

• two counts of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.

• three counts of receiving stolen property.

• illegal possession of hypodermic apparatuses.

• forgery.

• violation of conditions of release and

• aggravated criminal mischief.

Of those, 10 are felonies.

Caron was being held at Cumberland County Jail in Portland.

He had jumped bail twice, the last time to flee to California where witnesses said he was with another man during an alleged purse snatching. He was caught near Los Angeles. He also was wanted in Connecticut in connection with an alleged robbery of an elderly woman last summer at Foxwoods Resort in Ledyard, Conn.

Police said Caron was trafficking in cocaine and possessed Ecstacy, a stimulant and hallucinogen, and Darvocet, a mild narcotic. They said he also bought and sold stolen boats and cars.

In Lewiston, police suspect Caron was connected to a party last year where a young woman said she was drugged and raped. That case remains under investigation.

In February, Caron was a fugitive when federal agents nabbed him at a bar in Gray where he had gone to ask his mother for money. He had pulled up to the bar with his 18-year-old girlfriend in a stolen Jeep Cherokee, police said. He was armed with a .45-caliber handgun, but surrendered peacefully.