A man who is accused of fatally stabbing a co-worker at a Prestage Foods pork plant in Eagle Grove, Iowa, in February 2021, has entered a not-guilty plea related to charges of first-degree murder.
The suspect, Lukouxs Alan Brown, entered the plea, and a trial in the case has been scheduled for August 9.
In the incident that led to the legal proceedings against Brown, the victim, Wayne Smith, was found dead with his throat cut in an employee locker room at the Prestage Foods plant.
Several months after the incident, Brown was deemed incompetent to stand trial. Wright County Judge Gregg Rosenbladt ruled that Brown suffered from a mental disorder that prevented him from understanding the charges against him, the court proceedings or being able to assist in his own defense.
During most of the time that followed the incident, Brown has been undergoing restoration treatment at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center. It was earlier reported that Brown’s attorney stated that the suspect “exhibited an abnormal thought process,” and “appeared to respond to outside stimuli that were not present in reality.”
In early 2022, a treating psychologist determined Brown was still incompetent to stand trial, but when opinions were sought from other psychologists, it was determined that Brown was in fact competent, reported The Messenger.
Prestage Farms, which in addition to being a major pork producer is also a leading turkey producer, announced its plans to build the pork plant in Eagle Grove in 2016 and it began production in 2019.
The Prestage incident is one of several stabbing incidents at meat and poultry processing plants in recent history.
Earlier this month, a suspect was taken into custody after an employee at the Sanderson Farms facility in Flowood, Mississippi, faced life-threatening injuries following a “knifing altercation.” In April, at the Foster Farms plant in Farmerville, Louisiana, a worker was fatally stabbed. In the Foster Farms case, the suspect fled and remains at large.
