BATON ROUGE - An East Baton Rouge Parish jury on Friday convicted Earl Lee Johnson in the 2022 killing of a woman whose stabbing death was livestreamed on Facebook.

Jurors opened deliberations Friday afternoon and returned quickly with a guilty verdict. Johnson faces a mandatory life term for first-degree murder when he is sentenced Dec. 10. To justify the first-degree murder charge, prosecutors also had to prove the underlying element of kidnapping, which they did. 

After the murder conviction was announced, Johnson's lawyer asked that each juror be questioned individually. Each said they agreed with the verdict.

Prosecutors say Johnson and his victim, Janice David, had been on a two-day drug binge before Johnson killed her. Jurors watched a 16-minute video of the killing, with some squirming uncomfortably in their seats. An audible sigh of relief went through the courtroom when the video was over.

Police said Johnson stabbed David 32 times, choked her and also hit her with a tire iron during the assault. She begged him to stop through the attack.

Johnson's lawyer had said his client was not of sound mind during the assault and asked the panel to find Johnson not guilty by reason of insanity.