LAGUNA WOODS – Authorities have charged an 81-year-old man with murder after they say he hit his 94-year-old rehabilitation center roommate several times in the head with a metal rod after becoming angered by the other man’s singing.

William Leo McDougall will be arraigned Tuesday on a felony count of murder. If convicted, McDougall faces 25 years to life in state prison.

On Oct. 1, McDougall and his roommate, Manh Van Nguyen, were both recovering from hip surgery in a room at Palm Terrace Healthcare Center in Laguna Woods.

Prosecutors say McDougall became angry at Nguyen for singing in Vietnamese. They claim he took a metal rod from a closet in their room and struck Nguyen multiple times in the head.

A nurse walking toward the room witnessed the attack, prosecutors said, and McDougall was restrained by staffers.

Nguyen was taken to the hospital, where he died from blunt-force trauma to the head.

Staffers at the health care center told authorities that there hadn’t been any previous incidents between the two men, both of whom were Laguna Woods residents.

McDougall is in custody at Orange County Jail on a $1 million bail.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7939 or semery@ocregister.com