Republished April 11, 2017 - 9:26 AM
Original Publication Date April 11, 2017 - 8:45 AM
NORMAN, Okla. - An Oklahoma judge on Tuesday said she couldn't accept a guilty plea from a man charged with beheading a co-worker at a food processing plant because the defendant refused to speak to her.
Cleveland County District Judge Lori Walkley instead ordered a jury trial for 32-year-old Alton Alexander Nolen, whom sheriff's deputies had to subdue as he entered the courtroom.
Nolen said in May 2016 he wanted to plead guilty and be sentenced to death in the 2014 beheading of Colleen Hufford, 54, at Vaughan Foods in Moore. But he was required to acknowledge that he stood by the guilty plea in order for sentencing to begin.
"If you continue to not talk to me, I will have no choice but to reject your plea and set this matter for a jury trial," Walkley said.
Walkley last week heard the results of a mental examination she had ordered for Nolen, then ruled him competent to plea.
Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty.
Authorities say Nolen launched the attack in September 2014 at Vaughan Foods after the company suspended him for racial remarks. He killed Hufford and tried to kill co-worker Traci Johnson, also by decapitation, before he was shot by a company executive who was also an Oklahoma County Sheriff's reserve deputy.
Nolen is charged with first-degree murder; assault and battery with a deadly weapon; assault with a deadly weapon; and three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
News from © The Associated Press, 2017