Man convicted in workplace beheading set for sentencing

NORMAN, Okla. –  An Oklahoma judge is to decide whether to sentence to death a man convicted of decapitating a co-worker in 2014.

Jurors earlier this year recommended the death sentence for 33-year-old Alton Nolen after convicting him in the beheading death of 54-year-old Colleen Hufford at a food processing plant. A judge will decide Friday whether to follow that recommendation or sentence him instead to life in prison without parole.

Investigators said Nolen had just been suspended from his job at the Vaughan Foods plant when he walked inside the company's administrative office and attacked his co-workers.

His attorneys argued that he is mentally ill and that he believed he was doing the right thing because of his delusional misinterpretations of the Quran.