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Earl Lee Johnson was charged with first-degree murder after tying a woman to a BMW steering wheel with a knife plunged into her neck. The 35-year-old Baton Rouge resident recorded the insidious moment on a Facebook live stream. The victim’s naked body was found by police in a partially torched vehicle.
A live stream viewer reported the heinous act to Facebook, and they went on to contact law enforcement. The 15-minute video, which has since been described as “gruesome” has since been removed from social media. Sgt. L’Jean McKeenly told reporters on Tuesday that the Facebook live session took place after a three to four day “drug-binge.” McKeenly said:
“Apparently they were involved in some drug usage together for a couple of days and the end result — as everyone has seen on Facebook Live — is a very gruesome, very evil act.”
Earl Lee Johnson reportedly choked, beat and then stabbed Janice David, the victim. The 34-year-old was reportedly a Domino’s Pizza employee in Louisiana.
Earl Lee Johnson’s Facebook live stream explored
Unfiltered with Kiran shared a snippet of the disturbing video in which Johnson was seen sweating shirtless in the BMW’s passenger seat. He seemed distressed with David, who was breathing heavily next to him in the passenger seat. The victim was being accused of “stealing my s***, jump out of the car with drugs.”
The suspect continued to talk until he turned to the cellphone camera and said “guess what?” The victim was then stabbed in the leg with the knife wrapped in an orange handkerchief.
The victim was heard pleading with Earl Lee to stop several times, as she panted heavily.
Law enforcement also found that Johnson attempted to light the stolen car up on fire.
McKeenly told reporters that the suspect had admitted to the crime. He said:
“We launched our investigation, had a recording of the video, already had him in custody, we interviewed him, he admitted to committing the killing.”
9News Investigators found that this is not the first time Earl Lee has committed a crime. In 2005, he was locked up after committing several armed robbery charges. He pleaded guilty to the same in 2007 and was sentenced to 15 years.
His attorneys filed a request for reduced time after he had served four years. However, they were never approved.
Earl Lee was released from prison in January 17, 2022. The release came roughly 90 days before he confessed to the Facebook live stream murder.
As of Tuesday evening, the suspect was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison. No court date was decided at the time of writing this article.
