A Southern Indiana man accused of killing his estranged girlfriend and eating parts of her brain and organs is on trial this week after years of delays related to his mental fitness.

Joseph Oberhansley, 38, was charged with murder, burglary, abuse of a corpse and rape in 2014 after 46-year-old Tammy Jo Blanton was found dead in her Jeffersonville home.

Clark County prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table — and instead will seek life in prison without parole if he is convicted — in exchange for barring "mental health defense evidence," according to an Aug. 13 court filing.

Here's what you need to know about the case:

More on this: Accused cannibal fell through legal cracks

Jury will be sequestered

Jury selection started Monday in Noblesville, Indiana, in Hamilton County just north of Indianapolis. Clark County Circuit Judge Vicki L. Carmichael agreed to allow the parties to select the jury from another county and transport 12 jurors and four alternates by bus to Clark County for the duration of the trial.

Oberhansley's attorneys argued he wouldn't get a fair trial in Clark County because of the public outrage over the alleged offenses and "prejudicial" news reporting that "castigates" him, according to court filings. The jurors will be sequestered during the entire trial, including weekends, and they won't be allowed to use electronics.

Barring any delays, opening statements will start Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning, according to Clark County Prosecutor Jeremy Mull.

Related: Attorneys for man accused of cannibalism, murder fight competency finding

Is Joseph Oberhansley competent?

Oberhansley's competency to stand trial was first called into question in February 2017. Evaluations from three state psychiatrists and psychologists in October 2017 deemed him unfit. The court ordered that he get treatment at Indiana's Logansport State Hospital until he could be deemed competent by the court. In November 2018, a state psychiatrist determined he was competent to stand trial.

But his lawyers, Bart Betteau and Brent Westerfield, maintain that he has a "debilitating" and "serious" mental illness that involves delusions, hallucinations and paranoia, according to court records. In an Aug. 13 filing by his attorneys — just days before the start of the trial — they wrote that mental illness is the only "true explanation" for the "bizarre behavior" he exhibited both in a video of his police interrogation and by his alleged act of removing and eating the organs of his ex-girlfriend.

In April, Carmichael ruled that Oberhansley, who filed a motion to withdraw the insanity defense his attorneys promoted, could reject the insanity plea. He told the judge he felt using the defense would admit guilt and is unlikely to work.

Earlier:Death penalty taken off the table for accused cannibal from Southern Indiana

The alleged crime

In the days before Blanton's murder, she started learning about Oberhansley's troubled past — he'd been convicted of manslaughter and spent 12 years in Utah State Prison after killing the mother of his child, according to court records.

Blanton ended their relationship and changed the locks on her doors.

About 3 a.m. Sept. 11, 2014 — just hours before her death — Blanton called the police to report that Oberhansley was trying to break into her home in Jeffersonville. When police arrived, he agreed to leave. Officers left her home. When she didn't arrive at work the next morning, her coworkers called police.

When Jeffersonville Police arrived again the next morning, Oberhansley answered Blanton's door. Police noticed signs of forced entry on the back door, as well as his bloodied knuckles. They said they found a knife in his pocket that was covered in his ex-girlfriend's hair and blood.

Police soon found Blanton's body in the bathtub, covered with a tent. Oberhansley admitted he killed her, according to court records. He said he stabbed her in the head, neck and body. Then he cut her open with an electric saw and removed part of her brain and ate it raw, then cooked and ate another section. He cut out her heart and ate that too, along with part of a lung, he said.

Reach Kala Kachmar: 502-582-4469; kkachmar@courierjournal.com. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/subscribe.