Trial begins for man who admitted to murdering his mother in gruesome case. Jury must decide whether he was insane at the time of the crime. – Magnolia State Live

A jury in Mississippi must determine whether a man who admitted to killing and beheading his mother did so because he was insane at the time of the crime in 2018.

The Biloxi Sun-Herald reports that testimony in Terelle Johnson's trial began Tuesday in Stone County.

Johnson's lawyers are demanding an acquittal for their client because he was not aware of his actions when he killed his mother, Sherry Johnson, in their home in Wiggins.

Prosecutors, however, insist that Johnson knew exactly what he was doing.

Officials said Johnson made a confession the day after his arrest, in which he said he beat and strangled his mother to death after an argument over credit cards and then severed her head with his hands and teeth.

When officers arrived for a welfare check on June 6, 2018, Johnson claimed his mother was on a cruise, but they found her decapitated body in the yard and her head on the other side of a fence.

The walls and ceiling of her locked bedroom were smeared with blood. Investigators also found two knives there. Prosecutors argued that Sherry Johnson was fighting for her life.

Click here to read more about the process as reported by the Biloxi Sun-Herald.