Updated

Opening statements are to begin Wednesday in the trial of a North Carolina man accused of handcuffing an 11-year-old boy by his ankle to a porch with a dead chicken around his neck as punishment.

Dorian Harper is charged with felony child abuse, false imprisonment and maiming. If convicted, he faces up to 21 years in prison. The jury was seated Tuesday.

The 58-year-old Harper rejected a plea deal Monday from prosecutors and said he wanted the trial to go on.

Harper and his girlfriend, 58-year-old Wanda Larson, were arrested after a sheriff's deputy found the boy in November 2013. Larson was the boy's guardian and a Department of Social Services supervisor in Union County.

Larson faces similar charges. She has pleaded innocent.