NORMAN, Okla. (AP) – An Oklahoma man accused of beheading a co-worker and attacking another person at a food processing plant is due in court to enter his plea on a first-degree murder charge.
Alton Nolen tried to plead guilty in February, but Judge Lori Walkley wouldn’t accept the plea and instead scheduled the hearing for Friday. Nolen’s attorney had raised questions about his client’s mental competency, however Walkley found Nolen fit to stand trial.
Investigators say Nolen had just been suspended from his job at the Vaughan Foods plant in the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore when he walked into the company’s administrative office and attacked 54-year-old Colleen Hufford, severing her head. They say he also stabbed another co-worker, who survived, before a company executive shot and wounded him.