BATON ROUGE, La. — A Louisiana man has been charged in connection with the fatal stabbing of a Baton Rouge woman whose death was live-streamed on social media, authorities said.
According to WBRZ and KATC, police said Baton Rouge man Earl Lee Johnson Jr., 35, who was initially arrested Monday evening on charges of motor vehicle theft and fleeing a police officer, was charged with first-degree murder Tuesday in the death of 34-year-old Janice David.
In a news release Tuesday, the Baton Rouge Police Department said Louisiana State Police contacted East Baton Rouge sheriff’s deputies Monday after a 15-minute Facebook Live video showed a woman being stabbed and beaten. Deputies responded to South Sherwood Forest Boulevard and discovered David dead inside a car shortly before 10 p.m., the release said.
Posted by Baton Rouge Police Department on Tuesday, April 19, 2022
Investigators believe that Johnson tied David to the car’s steering wheel and began choking, beating and stabbing the woman, WBRZ reported.
“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,” Baton Rouge police spokesperson L’Jean McKneely said Tuesday, according to WBRZ.
Police said that when they questioned Johnson, who was already in custody, about the death, he admitted to killing David, the news outlet reported.
Johnson is being held in the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison, authorities said.
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