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Officers who responded to man accused of killing woman while streaming on Facebook Live testify

19 hours 12 minutes 39 seconds ago Thursday, September 11 2025 Sep 11, 2025 September 11, 2025 8:49 PM September 11, 2025 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - Accused killer Earl Lee Johnson is facing life in prison for a murder that he streamed on social media. The district attorney's office continued with testimonies on day four of the trial as they brought more witnesses to testify in the case of Earl Lee Johnson in the murder of Janice David.

Thursday, the jury heard from doctors and responding police officers.

One of them was the officer who was right behind Johnson when he took officers on a chase the evening he streamed him attacking David.

During the chase, the officer testified that Johnson hit seven or eight vehicles. When they finally caught him, he was telling her about the murder of David. 

However, she didn't believe him, thinking he was emotionally disturbed. Later, the officer learned about the Facebook Live attack. 

The jury was then shown crime scene photos, and many jurors seemed uncomfortable looking at the images of Janice's body tied up with cables, as well as the burned-out car.

Another officer testified in court, the one who interrogated Johnson. When asked what he hit Janice with, Johnson said, "I hit her with everything in the car," in the interview.

After that, family members of both David and Johnson left the room, clearly distraught. In the body cam footage, the detective asked Johnson how many times he stabbed her.

He replied, "What's the record?" multiple times.

A clinical forensic psychiatrist, an expert in evaluating insanity, testified that Johnson was competent and not insane. 

The mental health expert testified during an evaluation of Johnson to determine if he was fit to stand trial. He was not cooperative and also pointed to a statement Johnson made after his arrest.

"I'm already going to jail.. might as well make it worth it," the expert quoted Johnson as saying.

During cross-examination, Johnson's attorneys questioned the doctor about the information she had to make the sanity decision, since she was not able to interview him if he was not cooperative.

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