Murder defendant was insane and getting sicker, defense expert says

NORMAN — The suspended food plant worker who beheaded a co-worker in 2014 was insane at the time because of mental illness and is getting sicker, a defense expert told jurors Tuesday.

Alton Alexander Nolen “failed to understand the wrongfulness of his actions,” Tulsa psychologist Jeanne Russell said at his murder trial.

“He thought what he did was right and he’s proud of it,” she said.

Nolen, a Muslim convert, admitted to the FBI and police that he beheaded one woman and tried to behead another at Vaughan Foods in Moore on Sept. 25, 2014, after being suspended.

“I felt oppressed,” he said in recordings played for the jury last week.

His defense attorneys are asking jurors to find him not guilty by reason of insanity. They have told jurors he thought what he did was “100 percent right” because of delusional misinterpretations of Islamic teachings.

Prosecutors contend Nolen, 33, of Moore, clearly knew right from wrong. They are asking jurors to find him guilty of first-degree murder and five assault offenses.

Jurors will hear more from the defense expert Wednesday and then hear from two prosecution experts and an FBI agent. Jurors could begin deliberating Thursday.

“I found him to be quite delusional,” Russell said.

Russell is a former director of psychology at the state mental hospital in Vinita, which is now known as the Oklahoma Forensic Center. Her work there included evaluating new arrivals found not guilty by reason of insanity.

She said she based her opinion of Nolen on visits with him at the jail over seven hours in May and June of 2015. She said she also reviewed his school records, his prison records, eyewitness reports from the plant, jail records and the police and FBI interviews of him.

In her testimony Tuesday, the defense expert went over in detail observations made by a psychiatrist and others at the Oklahoma Forensic Center while Nolen was there for 12 days last year. Those observations included paranoid thoughts, possible hallucinations, disorganized speech, grandiose behavior and an unclear remark about being able to read minds, according to her testimony.

“He has progressively declined, become more aggressive and, in my opinion, continues to get sicker,” Russell said.

If Nolen is found not guilty by reason of insanity, he will be sent back to the facility in Vinita, possibly for the rest of his life.

If Nolen is found guilty, jurors will hear more evidence and then be asked to decide his punishment. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.