Investigators in Louisiana have learned that the suspect accused of viciously killing a woman and streaming the gruesome incident on Facebook Live was freed from jail just weeks before the violent crime.
The 35-year-old suspected murderer, Earl Johnson Jr., yelled he loved his son as he was hauled off to prison on Tuesday.
”Yeah I love my son. I do whatever for my son,” Johnson said.
Johnson will likely spend the remaining days of his life in jail now that he’s facing a first-degree murder charge after he brutally choked and stabbed 34-year-old Janice David to death while on a three-to-four day drug binge with her, according to the Baton Rouge Police Department.
The entire killing was streamed live in a 15-minute video on Facebook.
”Apparently they were involved in some drug usage together for a couple of days and as an end result, as everyone has seen on Facebook Live, it’s very gruesome,” said Sgt. L’Jean McKneely. “It was a very evil act.”
Investigators have learned that this is not Johnson’s first run-in with the law. He was jailed back in 2005 on numerous armed robbery charges. He pleaded guilty to the charges in 2007 and was sentenced to 15 years behind bars with credit for time served.
According to court documents, Johnson’s lawyer at the time filed a request to reduce his client’s sentence after he had served 4 years but that request was denied. Johnson did serve the full 15 years and WAFB reported that he was just released from prison in January this year. That release came roughly 90 days before police say he confessed to this fresh heinous murder.
”We launched our investigation and had a recording of the video. We already had him in custody. We interviewed him and he admitted to committing the killing,” said McKneely.
While it’s unclear why Johnson took David’s life, authorities say they are glad the murderer is off the streets.
