Death penalty notice filed in Okla. beheading case

Prosecutor has filed formal notification that he’ll seek the death penalty against a man accused of beheading a woman at a food processing plant

October 03, 2014 04:31 AM

In this Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2014 photo provided by the Cleveland County, Okla., Sheriff’s Department, Alton Nolen is pictured in a booking photo. Nolen has been charged with murder in the first degree in the death of Colleen Hufford, in Moore, Okla.

Associated Press

NORMAN, Okla. — An Oklahoma prosecutor has filed formal notification that he’ll seek the death penalty against a man accused of beheading a woman at a food processing plant.

Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn filed notice Thursday that he’ll ask 30-year-old Alton Alexander Nolen to be executed if convicted of first-degree murder in last week’s beheading of Colleen Hufford in Moore.

Authorities allege Nolen attacked Hufford and another worker at Vaughan Foods after Nolen was suspended from his job at the plant.

The paperwork filed Thursday says the death penalty is warranted in the case because the killing was “especially heinous, atrocious or cruel.”

Nolen remains in jail without bond and no attorney has been appointed for him yet.