Drummond files response opposing radical Islamist on death row for beheading coworker

OKLAHOMA CITY (June 2, 2025) – Attorney General Gentner Drummond is opposing an appeal from death row murderer Alton Nolen, also known as Jah’Keem Yisrael, a radical Islamist who was sentenced to death for a violent attack in 2014 against his coworkers at Vaughan Foods in Moore. 

Drummond filed a response to Nolen’s supplemental brief in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, asking the court to deny federal habeas corpus relief.

On Sept. 25, 2014, Nolen entered Vaughan Foods, enraged by a suspension from his employer and motivated by a series of high-profile beheadings that had just been carried out by ISIS in the Middle East. Armed with an 8-inch butcher knife he had retrieved from his home, he beheaded 54-year-old Colleen Hufford and badly injured another coworker, Traci Johnson.

Nolen was recorded in separate confessions to law enforcement confirming his motivation for the attack, stating in part: “I just felt like…I did what I needed to do. What Allah…says in the Qur’an to do.” 

Drummond said he is committed to seeing Nolen executed for his radical Islamic attack on innocent Oklahomans. 

“This vicious attack and gruesome murder were committed at the hands of a radical Islamist who was clearly motivated by his religious views,” Drummond said. “Colleen Hufford was tragically and violently taken from her loved ones. I will fight ardently for justice to be served until this monster is put to death.”

Nolen had converted to Islam the year before the attack, following the completion of a prison sentence for drug offenses and assault. Using his Islamic name, Jah’Keem Israel, his Facebook page featured images of the Taliban, Osama bin Laden, and what appears to be a partially beheaded man with someone standing over him and pulling back his head to expose the gruesome wound. 

In 2017, Nolen was sentenced to death for first-degree murder and life in prison for five counts of assault.