Jurors say man eligible for death penalty in beheading case

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) – Jurors deciding the punishment for a man convicted of beheading a co-worker say he is eligible to receive the death penalty.

Jurors in the first-degree murder trial of 33-year-old Alton Nolen ruled Tuesday that he is not “intellectually disabled” and ineligible for the death penalty.

The jury has already found Nolen guilty of first-degree murder for beheading his co-worker, 54-year-old Colleen Hufford, and trying to kill another worker at a food processing plant in the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore in 2014.

Jurors have sentenced Nolen to three life sentences plus 130 years in prison on assault and battery charges stemming from the attack on the co-worker who survived.

Nolen faces possible punishments of death or life in prison with or without the possibility of parole on the murder charge.