A Louisiana woman was beaten, stabbed, and set on fire inside a car in 2022. And the man accused of the “very gruesome, very evil” crime, which was live streamed on Facebook, has just learned his fate.
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It was April 18, 2022, when police found Janice David, 34, dead in a car on South Sherwood Forest Boulevard in Baton Rouge around 9:52 p.m. According to state police, a Facebook Live led authorities to the car where David was also found stabbed inside. The suspect, a Black man named Earl Lee Johnson, was charged with murder, theft of a motor vehicle and aggravated flight form an officer.
During his five-day trial, prosecutors named the 16-minute long Facebook Live where Johnson showed the gruesome slaying and “told you exactly what he was doing.” Prosecutor Dana Cummings added: “And he did it in front of you, and he wanted to do it that way, but that doesn’t mean that he is insane,” referencing how his defense attorneys argued that he wasn’t in his right mind at the time of the murder. “You saw him killing Janice David. I did not create this evidence; he did,” Cummings continued. “And he wanted everyone to see it because he wanted to be famous and he wanted his son to be famous.”
“You saw him say, ‘She was going to say I raped her, they’re going to believe her over me. If I’m going down, I’m going to live forever,’” Cummings said during closing arguments. Johnson’s attorney Hafiz Folami argued, per Law & Crime, how his client and David were on a days-long drug binge and that Johnson, 39, was suffering from a “severe mental defect.”
Folami told jurors, according to WAFB 9: “You have to listen carefully and think about every single thing that I’ve listed as far as what he’s done, the erratic speech, the waiting on police to come get him, you have to think to yourself, what normal person does that?” Folami even mentioned Tyler Robinson, the suspected shooter who allegedly gunned down Charlie Kirk last week. “Tyler Robinson knew what he did was wrong and fled,” Folami argued. “Earl Johnson waited for the police to come get him, but they never came.”
Dr. Laura Brown, a forensic psychologist, noted that Johnson said he knew he was going to jail, so he might as well make it worth it. That allowed her to determine he knew the difference between right and wrong, in addition to several psychologists and psychiatrists who evaluated Johnson and found he was sane and competent.
It only took the jury just over an hour to find Johnson guilty on Friday (Sept. 12). His sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 10.
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