BATON ROUGE - Accused killer Earl Lee Johnson is facing life in prison for a murder that he streamed on social media. Opening statements began on Wednesday at the 19th Judicial District Court, after two and a half days of jury selection.

The district attorney's office started laying out its case against Earl Lee Johnson by showing multiple pictures of the crime scene, along with two videos that were posted by Johnson the day of the murder. 

Prosecutors argue Earl Lee Johnson was aware of what he did to Janice David. Her sister Rebecca David was the first to take the stand. Answering questions from the prosecution about Janice's relationship with Johnson. She testified she didn't know the two were in a relationship, or even knew about Johnson. 

According to the state, Johnson and David had been in a drug binge for a couple of days leading up to her death. 

The prosecution also showed the jury a video of the crime scene setting up where David was ultimately found inside a car on Sherwood in 2022.

The state played the 16-minute Facebook live video of the killing of Janice David. Members of the jury seemed uncomfortable while watching the video. After it was over, a sigh of relief could be heard as if the jurors and others in the courtroom were waiting for the 16 minutes to be over.

While watching the video, members of the jury heard Johnson mention the name CJ. He is the son of Johnson. 

David was stabbed 32 times, choked, and hit with a tire iron during the course of the video.

The Jury heard Johnson telling David repeatedly, "Say you love CJ" and other things about his son. The jury also heard David complying, fighting for her life while begging him to stop. 

Tonight, Johnson's attorney argues he was not in the right frame of mind at the time of the murder. During their opening statement, they asked the jury to pay attention to the video and find Johnson not guilty by reason of insanity.

If convicted of first-degree murder and second-degree kidnapping, Johnson would spend the rest of his life in prison.