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Ranch hand pleads no contest in Nevada woman’s decapitation

ELKO — A former Idaho ranch hand who is not a U.S. citizen faces up to life in state prison without parole after pleading no contest to killing and decapitating a northeast Nevada woman in 2016.

The Elko Daily Free Press reports that 47-year-old Jose de Jesus Segundo-Huizar entered his plea Monday in Elko District Court in the slaying of Carmen Magallanes-Sanchez.

Authorities have said a motive for the slaying was unclear, but that Segundo-Huizar said he knew Magalanes-Sanchez.

Segundo-Huizar lived in Jerome, Idaho. He remains jailed in Elko pending sentencing.

Judge Al Kacin says she was struck with a hammer or similar object before she died.

Her severed head was found buried about a mile from her body northeast of Elko.

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