Accused Samurai sword killer Scott Hanks gave notice Tuesday, March 3, that he intends to plead guilty to second-degree murder in connection with the death of his former friend, William Solberg.

Hanks, 49, of Salem, was scheduled to face a jury trial later this month after police said he stabbed Solberg with a 15-inch sword on a Sunday afternoon last April.

Instead, he will now face a judge for sentencing on March 23. Under state law, Hanks could spend life in prison.

Court files at the Rockingham County Superior Court did not list a reason for Hanks’ notice of intent to plead guilty. Hanks also waived his right to have the state’s Probation Department make a recommendation on the length of his sentence. His public defenders could not be reached by press time.

Prosecutor Kirsten B. Wilson said she could not comment because she had not yet seen the filing.

Judge Kenneth McHugh will likely preside over the plea and sentencing hearing in three weeks. The judge will ask if Hanks made the plea in a sober state of mind before ruling on whether to accept it and handing down a sentence.

Hanks and Solberg had been fighting over a woman when Solberg pulled up in the driveway of Hanks’ home at 87 Lake Shore Road, police said at house shirtless with a sword and punctured the rear driver’s side tire on Solberg’s truck.

After a brief struggle, Hanks allegedly stabbed Solberg once in the abdomen.

Solberg, 46, a Pelham construction worker, was taken by ambulance to Holy Family Hospital in Methuen, Mass., where he died later that night. Hanks tossed the sword in nearby Canobie Lake, where a police dive team later recovered it.

Hanks was originally charged with first-degree assault and negligent homicide but was later re-indicted on two alternative counts of second-degree murder.