An Alabama prison inmate accused of hiring someone to gun down his girlfriend in a Birmingham park posted these words to Facebook moments after deadly shooting: “God forgive. Papa don’t.”

Demarcus Chandler, 27, went on trial Tuesday for the murder of 24-year-old Raven Swain.

He is charged with capital murder-for-hire in the deadly shooting of Swain, which happened July 28, 2020, in Underwood Park on Birmingham’s Southside.

Jefferson County Circuit Judge Michael Streety is presiding over the trial.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Police contend Chandler, who has a lengthy criminal history and is locked up in state prison on parole violations from previous crimes, hired 28-year-old Solomon Minatee III for $8,000 to kill Swain.

Chandler allegedly orchestrated the murder because he believed she had “ripped him off” while he was in prison.

“This defendant believes Raven had taken from him,” Deputy District Isabella Colombo told the jury of eight women and six men during opening statements Tuesday.

“This is not something he’s going to stand for. This defendant makes sure that she’s going to pay.”

Chandler was also charged in 2024 with conspiracy to commit murder of an Alabama Department of Corrections lieutenant who, at the direction of Birmingham investigators in Swain’s murder, searched Chandler’s cell and found a contraband cell phone authorities said was used to arrange the hit.

His charge in that case has been forwarded to a grand jury for indictment consideration.

Chandler’s attorneys from the Jefferson County Public Defender’s Office claim Swain’s family never liked her dating Chandler and quickly named him to police as the likely person who would want Swain dead with no proof of his involvement.

“They were unhappy Raven was still talking to Demarcus at the time of her death,‘’ said Chandler’s attorney, Blair Shores.

“You will also hear that Raven was making some bad decisions. She was making some risky decisions. She was engaged in a drug deal.”

The shooting happened just after 7 p.m. that Tuesday night.

Swain, who worked at UAB Hospital, was found unresponsive in her Hyundai Sonata, which had rolled into foliage after she was shot.

She was slumped over in the driver’s seat leaning toward the passenger’s seat.

Her window was rolled down, and she had been shot under the left arm, with the bullets penetrating her heart and lung.

Swain was pronounced dead on the scene.

Colombo said Swain and Chandler began an “unlikely friendship that developed into a very tumultuous, romantic one,” after Swain’s high school boyfriend was killed.

The relationship turned physical in 2019.

“Raven begins to alienate herself from her closest friends, her family begins to see Raven less and less and knows that she’s not the same,” Colombo said.

Eventually, Chandler was sent to St. Clair County Correctional Facility, where their relationship continued over various electronic platforms.

The prosecutor said Swain and Chandler had “significant ups and downs.”

“This defendant begins his plan to take care of Raven, but he knows he can’t take care of it himself. So, he enlists help,” she said, referring to Minatee. “The two come up with a plan to get rid of her.”

On July 28, Colombo said, Chandler texted Swain, telling her he needed to get the “dope” and he ultimately directed her to meet someone at the park.

At the same time, authorities said, Chandler was also texting Minatee, “I’m going to call you when she pulls up.”

Minatee, Colombo said, was dropped off at the park by a friend. Minatee was wearing a distinctive belt and a t-shirt that read, “Get your smile on.”

Gunshots rang out and Swain was dead.

Minatee’s final text to Chandler, Colombo said, was, “We need the money. The work is done.”

The lead detective in the case testified in a preliminary hearing that Chandler told another person, “She got what she deserved.”

Minutes after Swain was killed, Colombo told jurors, Chandler contacted Swain’s mother, brother, and her two best friends.

To Swain’s mother, Lolita Braxton, Chandler said, “Are you looking for Raven?”

When police arrived on the scene, they quickly developed Chandler as a suspect, knowing he had reached out via cell phone to Swain’s family and friends almost immediately after the shooting.

A lieutenant at the St. Clair prison was asked to go to Chandler’s cell and look for a phone.

“As he enters his cell,” Colombo said, “this defendant is putting a cell phone in a pipe in an attempt to conceal the contraband that he had, the cell phone he used to orchestrate Raven’s murder.”

The lieutenant continued to work at the prison where Chandler was housed.

In August 2024, the officer heard Chandler, and other inmates make remarks about him such as, “Why do you keep the lights on” at your home, and “You got two pickups in your driveway.”

The lieutenant, also a dog breeder, received a phone call from a woman inquiring about buying a dog.

Suspicious, the lieutenant told her if she wanted to buy it, they would need to meet at the Birmingham Police Department.

“He never heard another word from that female buyer,” Colombo said.

The lieutenant later heard inmates say, “Why do you want to meet at the Birmingham Police Department about that dog?”

Chandler told the lieutenant, “You better listen to them.”

On Aug. 20, 2024, the lieutenant arrived at his Birmingham-area home to find it and his vehicle damaged by gunfire.

No one was injured.

“Again,” Colombo said, “a cell phone was recovered and the messages orchestrating the shooting of (the lieutenant’s) house between Chandler and Justin Hendrix.”

Hendrix is charged in that crime, as well as an unrelated capital murder that was livestreamed later that night.

Chandler’s attorney in his opening statements told jurors that his client is a scapegoat.

“You will hear that Solomon Minatee brought a gun to his meeting with Raven. You will hear that Solomon Minatee fired the gun at Raven. You will hear that Solomon killed Raven,” Shores said.

“Before knowing the facts, Raven’s family immediately assumes that Demarcus is responsible. They blamed Demarcus without knowing.”

Shores said there’s no evidence Chandler hired Minatee to kill Swain.

“There’s no text message where he says kill Raven for money,” he said. “You won’t hear any of that. Demarcus did not order anyone to kill Raven.”

“People act tough on social media. People puff up on social media. People exaggerate on social media,” Shores said.

“Acting tough on social media or acting tough on the phone while you’re in prison does not make you a killer.”