(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Cushing man accused of stabbing an acquaintance to death Friday night was arraigned today on a first-degree murder charge from the Payne County Jail where he was ordered held without bail.
District Attorney Tom Lee told KUSH that 36-year-old Nathaniel Becenti was stabbed with a kitchen butcher knife twice in the chest and once in the shoulder at his residence in the 1200 block of E. Pecan in Cushing about 8 p.m. Friday. He died at the scene, Lee said.
The defendant, Noel Lee Bryan, 21, who lived in the 1500 block of E. Moses Street in Cushing, was dating a girl who lived at the house where the victim was staying with a relative, the district attorney told KUSH today. The defendant appeared to have scratches on his face, Lee said.
The district attorney said that he believed the victim had been drinking before he was stabbed. A relative of the victim called police, Lee said.
Cushing police requested that the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation assist in the investigation, authorities said.
At his arraignment this afternoon, the defendant was given an application for a court-appointed attorney and ordered to appear in court Tuesday, court records show.
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