Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
A sordid story of sex , lies and the story of Jodi Ann Arias. It was a trial that transfixed the nation.
Vinnie Politan ,HLN
Vinnie: this is a case this is a story ,this is criminal defendant unlike any other we´ve met before.Vinnie:Jodi Aries beautful young women. accused of brutaly murdering her ex boyfriend travis alexander. a young guy ,they seemingly had this great sexual relationship but then she stabs him 29 times almost decapitates him , schoots him in the head. …jodi arias wasn´t attacked no, travis alexancer was the who was attackacked, slaughtered and killed.
This tale of passion gone wrong cost travis alexander his life. now it could cost jodie arias hers . she faces the death penalty.
Vinnie :The evidence in this case was overwhelming about her obession and her fatal attraction to travis. alexander.
An attraction that began in of all places .Sin City.
Travis alexander was a motivational speaker,compelling and and effective.He was also a close friend. and co -worker of david huges in the fall of 2006.on an convention.
David Huges
David: we were there for a convention our company had a big event there.i was there , i was there in las vegas with him.and i knew he was single and he was always looking for miss alexander.
Enters saleswomen and a aspiring photographer jodi arias.
David : and i told travis ,hey there´s this cute girl that i work with , you should meet her. and he says introduce me. so i introduced them and they were able to develop a relationship .pretty quickly from there .
Vinnie: they met in Vegas. the night they met , it seemed that they .. things heated up very quickly because jodi arias has said within a week or so they having sex in the car.
Jody and travis had an instant physical connection a whirlwind romance. but a long disstance one with her i n palm dessert, california . and him five hours away in Mesa. Arizona. still that wouldn´t slow them down.
Shanna Hogan is the author of picture perfect about the Jodi Arias case
shanna Hogan
shanna : from the very beginning travis and jodi were almost in constant communication.they talked every day they exchanged thousands of emails and text messages .
Jodi was so attracted to travis that she converted to the churche of latter-day saints ,because travis was a mormon .
Daniel : she stared to inquire mor about the Lds faith and ended up joining the church . which brought their relationship made it even stronger.
to outsiders ,travis and jody appeared devout a pure mormon couple.
but appearances as was oftgen the case with these two would prove deceiving.
Shanna :secretly behind the scenes travis and jody´s relationship was not pure ,they had this intense sexual relationship. they kept hidden from everyone.
but jody couldn´t keep everything hidden. especially from travis longtime friends.meny of whom found his new love a bit odd. an a bit troubling.
david huges recalls a chilling encounter. between his brother ,his sister- in -law and jody arias.
David : while they´re having this conversation trying to convince travis to break up with her , she is right outside upstairs door listening to the whole conversation and she walked in .and the had this face on like she was the devil and she was going to commit a murder right there
Shanna :right away travis´s friend were concerne.it was clear that she liked him a lot more than he liked her. Travis wanted a normal life.jody wanted to be with him more than anything and it was extremely unhealthy bond they shared
And a normal healty life was something travis had wanted desperately. since growing up in riverside.california.
Shanna : travis childhood was full of poverty neglect , physical violance.
David:Hes parent as both addicted to to drugs and so . he wasn´t raised by his parentseventually his grandmother is the one that raised him. but ,yeah. it was a tuff upbringing.
Jodi too had said she didn´t have int easy growing up ,but she was no stranger to abuse .
Shanna : she grow up being very artistic., she played the flute. she had a lot of brothers and sisters. and was very close with hem all .Jodys childhood was fairly ideal compare to travis´s but she does describe like incidences of pyhical violance.
Jody and travis burned red hot at least for a while. but by the summer of 2007 their relationschip had cooled in. part because of jodys increasing jealousy over travi´s intrest in other women .
Shanna :Jody went to his phone and discovered these flirty messages to other women and she decided to end the relationschip at that point.but at the same time ,travis was looking end the relationship.
jodi and travis did break up but that didn´t mean they werent still friends. with benefits.
Shanna :clearly jody enjoyed her sexual life with travis. but it must have been tormenting. in her diary jody writes s about how she loves travis so fully and completely that she dosen´t knwo any other way to be. he was just her entire focus. and she was extremely obsessed. with him.
so obsessed apparently that jody never took her eye of off travis no matter how far apart, they were.
David : I absolutely know that she was stalking him many times .just when she went in through the back door when he was kissing another girl in his couch .she ´s spying on them . that´s what really happening.
Shanna : she slashes tires, she broke into his email account. she hacked into his facebook page,she broke into his house and stole his journals she read his diary.she just did these crazy stalking behaviors
then on june 4th 200s8 she made one last visit to her estranged lover´s. home . arriving in the earlie morning.
Vinnie:travis is there according to her and he´s online. and they go to sleep.but when they wake up, the they get back to what travis and jody always do.which is engage in sex and they didn´t just engage in sex. they brought cameras into play,travis taking pictures of jody.jody taking pictures of travis ,neither one of them wearing any cloths but it´s what they do. what they ´ve always done. since they met.
A sex -fueled afternoon explodes into an orgy of violance.
Monday june 9, 2008 90 minutes until midnight in Mesa Arizona community called mountain ranch, nobody had heard from travis alexander.in five day. so a handful concerned friends went looking for him.
shanna : through another friend they get the code to the garage. they go inside the house .it smells ,there´s a foul odor hanging in the air .
they found their friend pale and lifeless on the shower floor.
his friends had immedate suspicions about who did it.
travis´s body had nearly 29 stab marks . including the slash across his neck from ear to ear.there was a 25 s caliber gunshot wound over his right eyebrow and massive amounts of blood. all over the master suit soaked into the bedroom carpe. and splattered all over the bathroom. the sink , the mirror. the floor.
but when investigators reached jody by phone. she insisted she´d been nowhere near Mesa….for month. this was version one of her story.
but when investigators are able to placey jody at the crime scene thanks to hand print and hair and travis camera discovered in his washing machine.
Beth: can you imagine,when the police found that camera and they said “oh,the camera is destroyed” it´s been through the washing machine but they take that little memory card. and they find this photos. the memory card survived the the wash.
those photos lay out a timeline
at 5.30 . pm.jody uses the camera to take the last picture of travis alive. he´s in the shower.
Beth : she taking pictures of him and probably said to him “oh ,let me get a picture of you seated.” because she needed to level the planfield. she is able to stab him in the heart.
investigator say there is a struggle in the bathroom. and jody follows travis into his bedroom.
Beth : he´ falls , maybe he´s he´s on his handss and knees and that´s when she did the Kudegra. across his neck and then turned him over and turn him around and draged him down the hall.
this is at 5:32 p, it is on one of the three accidental photos.
taken after the last shower shower picture.
prosecutors will later claime it´s jody leg over travis ´s upper body.as she prepares to drag him back to the shower.
by now it was july ,jodi was in police custody. but she was still
sticking to version one.
During that same interview there was this, yoga moves ,stretches. and even a headstand.
Vinnie :i believe it tells you that jodi arias s trying to get comfortable. in that room. and she is not able to get comfortable because she has to change her story because investigators have more evidence than she thought they were going to have.
the very next day jodi decided to change her story to :
Beth :she talked about two intruders coming in to the house.and they attacked travis.and they´re attacking her and she gets wounded in the incident and he´s being stabbed and he´s yelling and he´s screaming and telling her go to the neighbors and get help…
Jodi took version two to the public opinion. months later.on the show inside edition.
Jodi : i witnessed um..travis being attacked by two other individuals.
reporter: hwo ?
Jodi : i dont know who they were.i couldn´t pick them out in a police lineup.
and she made this bold prediction.
Jodi: no jury is going to convict me.
reporter :why not ?
Jodi: because i´m innocent and you can mark my words on that one.
then in 2010 .two years after the murder.jodys lawyers. file a shocking court dokument indicating jody will change her story .yet again.she would finall admit to killing travis.
but claim it was self-defense.
Vinnie: story one .” i wasn´t there.”! i wasn´t there ,what are you talking about?version number two.” alright ,yeah ,i was there but .there were these two ninjas that came in .and they killed travis and they threatened to kill me and and i was able to get out of there.story three , i was there and i did it.but ,but , i did it in self-defense because travis was travis was going to kill me.
jodi takes the stand to give her side of the story .
Jodi: he called me a bitch and kicked me in the ribs.
“the state of arizona versus jody ann arias indictement count one.
first degree murder ,premeditated murder.”
it´s been more than four years since friends discovered travis alexanders dead body crumpled up in his bathroom.shower. after telling two different stories about her innoncence jody now admitted under oath ,she was the killer. but she denied the charege against her ,that she had planned travis´s murder.she pled not guilty claiming self-defense. that she was forced to kill travis.
vinnie: in a death penalty case you want sympathy ,you need an explanation for the defendant´s actions and what they did.
the defense´s explanation was to blame the victim.
Beth karris has been in the court room every day of the trial.
Beth: that´s what they have to to in a self-defense case. they have to blame the victim. they´re saying “look he was attacking me.he was about to kill me i had no choice.her problem is that self-defense is ,you can use force when you being threatened.but you have to use equal force.
the defense called witnesses.inclouding a close friend.to try and shatter the image of travis as the pure mormon man.
Beth: travis alexander ,there´s no question he was conflicted, he was trying to be good mormon and probably was . except. when it came to jody arias.he would have sex with her and they kept it a secret.but if this got out it would hurt his standing in his church.in his social cirle. it might have hurt him professionally.
Jody was in the words of her defense attorney travis´s dirty little secret.somehing he vividly demonstrated in this phone call.
jodi´s attorneys argued that travis was just the last in a long line of people ,familiy and boyfriends who had physically and mentally abused jodi.
Beth:it appears their strategy was that everthing that happened in her life ,from her childhood and through all the relationships with men .culminated in this killing.
Jodi told the court that her father inflicted great pain.
jodi and her dad.
Jodi : as i becam a teenager my dad woud get rougher and rougher. he would just shove me into furniture,sometimes into the piano or ..um. things like that ,went into tables, chairs desks whatever was around . just pusch me really hard and i would flying into that.
and with her mother looking on from the front row.jody also accused her of being abusive.
Jodi´s mom
Jodi: my mom began to carry um… a wooden spoon in her purs, if we were missbehaving she would us it on us. she would hit us with it .
Jodi portrayed herself as a victim of a string of bad choices when it came men. describing one abusive relationship after another .especially travis alexander. addmitting that she loved him.despite being what she described as demaning physically abusive and controlling.
Jodi recalled that the day travis babtized her what was supposed to be a new beginnig.turned out to be more otherwise.
for the victims family sitting in the courtroom the portrayal of an allegedely domineering and sexual travis was difficult to hear.
text messages from travis appaearing to treat jody as his sex slave.
travis”that photoshoot is gonna be one of the best experience of your life and mine.
he also says.
travis” you´ll rejoice in being a whore that sole purpose inlife is to be mine to have animalistic sex with and to please me in any way i desire “
Jodi even accused travis of being a pedophile.
Vinnie: the defense is trying, literally to trash travis.attack his character .make the jury dislike him. hate him. loathe him because he´s the bad guy. he´s the evildoer, he´s the pedophile. he´s the sexual deviant. this guy is bad news and he´s the one who ruined jodie arias life. he´s the one that made her do it.
to the defense it was travis the monster.jody his victim. but to the prosecution it was all an unsustainable lie.the prosecutor goes on the attack.
Jodi Arias has since admited to killing travis alexander.but claimed it was a justified split -second decision to save her own life.
Vinnie: the road to the death penalty here is paved with premeditaton. that´s what the prosecution has to prove.so ,were do they go for premeditation ?
For starters. the prosecutor juan martinez goes what he says was jody´s attempt at a cover -up.like wanting a less conspicuous rental car for the drive to travis house. and just hours after killing travis ,calling his cellphone and leaving a message.
but despite her early efforts at a cover -up ,Jodi now took the jury.through the grisly details of the killing. starting when she dropped Travis´s s new camera.
Jodi : at that point….travis, flipped out again.he stood up and he stepped out of the shower and he picked me up as he was screaming that i was a stupid idiot.and he body slammed me again on the tilehe told me that a five-year -old could hold a camera beter than i can. when i hit the tile i rolled over on the side and started running down the hallway. so i ran into the closet and i slammed the door,then Jodi reached for a 25 caliber gun.she said travis kept on the shelf.
Jodi: i grabbed the gun , i ran out the closet he was ..chasing me.i turned around, we were in the middle of the bathroom,i pointed it at him with both of my hands.i thought that would stop him.if someone were pointing a gun at me i would stop.but he just kept running. he got …like a linebacker ..he got kind of low and grabbed my waist.but before he did that as he was lunging at me the gun went of.
Vinnie: there is zero evidence,independent evidence,evidence other than words out of jody arias mouth. that establish travis alexander as a gun owner .there is none.
prosecutor juan martinez´s theory was that one week before killing travis ,jody had staged a bruglary at the home she shared with her grandparents.
Vinnie: prosecutors where questioning this burglary.because thay believed the 25-caliber gun. that was allegedly stolen from her grandfathers house was actually the gun used by jody arias to shoot travis alexander.
when travis body was found in the shower .there was only one bullet wound. but almost 30 knife wounds and he nearley been decapited and an unforgettable scene. that jody claims she dosen´t remember.
Jodi: i have no memory of stabbing him.i was in the bathroom.i remember dropping the knie and it kling to the tile.,it made a big noise. and i just remember screaming i dont remember anything after that.
Jodi: there´s a lot of that day that i .dont remember. there are lots of gaps.like ,i dont know if i blacked out or what . there´s a huge gap.
Beth: she had such memory recall of things from years before, “details of meails and how many people were in the elevator ,” what happened on this day and what of kind of sex she had on that day.and when it came to slicing and stabbing travis alexander 29 times ,she had no recollection.
Juan Martinez ,prosectuor
Martinez: are you saying that you´r having a hard time remembering things that are happening now that you shot him?
Jodi:yeas.Martinez: so it appears then that your memory becomes foggy immediately upon you shooting him.?
Jodi: yeas ,things get very foggy from there .
Martinez: that immediatly ,the shot takes him down and creates a fog for you.iss that what your saying?
Jodi:it begans to cresate a fog.
Dr Richard Samuels, psychologist.
A psychologist for the defense testified that the fog was caused by the stress of travis´s attack.
D R .Samuels: it appears as if she suffered from dissociative amnesia. and according to the research, the more intens the trauma. the more likely and the more complete the amnesia.
Dr samuel said jodys´s amnesia was caused by post -traumatic stress disorder. PTSD.
Alyce Laviolette,Domestic violence Expert. Jodi Arias .
another defens expert tesified that that jody was a victim
of domestic violence.
Alycia: yeas i believe she was in an ehm . abusive relationship
Defense lawyer: do you believe in your expert opinion that jody was a battered women or is
Alycia: yeas , i do .
But martinez tore in into the defense experts.and on his final exhange with jodi arias. martinez made perhaps his most important point .that she is a liar.and with that , prosecutor juan martinez abruptly ended his grilling and gripping cross -examination of jodi arias.
In Arizona lawyers, aren´t the only ones.who can grill witnesses. after weeks of testifying jody arias faced questions from the jury.
Vinnie: it´s rare that jurors get to ask questions and this jury asked hundreds and hundreds of questions to witnesses and to the defendant herself.i mean ,this is the women who´s facing murder one charges and the death penalty.and the jury ,asking her questions ,some of them very,very important questions , others ,little sarcastic .
They had questions about jodys sex life with travis,question about her killing travis.and question after question about jody´s many lies.
Vinnie: i believe the jurors who sked those questions did not believe her.after the barrage of questions and testimony from few more defense witnesses.next up prosecutor juan martinez rebuttal wittnesses.
Martinez worked to cast doubt on every aspect of jody´s story . both what she claimed happened and what the defense witnesses said was her state of mind.
Janine Demarte .clinical psychologist
clinical psychologist Janine Demarte had conducted a 12 hour clinical interview with jody.
Demarte: i diagnosed her on access to as borderline personality disorder.you can think of it similar to what we see in teenage´s often
this sense of immaturity, unstable interpersonal relationships,unstable emotions and an unstable sense of identity meaning who am i as a person. there´s this constant fluctuation. there is a lot of manipulation
the defense attempted to discredit demarte´s diagnosis by calling one last witness.
Robert Geffner ,psychologist.
Geffner: Dr demarte dosen´t not appear to have either an adequate understanding of their uses or their interpretation or the actual ways those tests are to be used.
finally closing arguments.
Vinnie: the key for the prosecution is premeditation.premeditation in this case is the road to first degree which is what then puts this case into the death penalty phase. premeditation. that she reflected upon her plan to kill travis alexander.doesn´t have to take a week doesn´t have to take a month. can just be a moment but he has to prove that jodi arias planned the killing ,had time to reflect on it and then acted on that plan.
Juan martinez.prosectuor.
Martinez: this individual, the defendant jodi ann Arias killed Travis Alexander.and even after stabbing him over and over again and even after slashing his throat from ear to ear.and then even after taking taking a gun shooting him in the face she will not let him rest in peace.
but now instead of a gun ,instead of a knife. she uses lies and she uses these lies in court when she testify,she´s an individual,who is manipulative,this is an individual who wants to play the victim.
Vinnie: juan martinez closing arguments ,clear theme. is manipulation the Jodi arias manipulates everybody including the members of the jury by lying to them,lying to travis,lying to investigators. that´s a theme throughout
then it was the defense´s turn. with kirk Nurmi making their case.
Kirk Nurmi.
Nurmi: i it´s not even about whether or not you like jodi arias. nine days out of ten, i dont like jodi arias.
Vinnie : anything less than first degree is a victory for the defense here so what you wanna play is obviously the story of self-defense. that something happened in the heat of passion.between this two people. who one time were linked as lowers .
Nurmi: jody arias says travis alexander yelled at her for dropping the camera.he called her stupidhe says even a ” five year old could hold a camera” and then he jumps out and then he attacks and then he holds her down. and she remembers that on a previous occasion when he held her down he choked her to to the point where she lost consciousness.she feared that it might go futher this time was was different ,he was angry.he was angry in a diffrent way , she was in reasonable fear that he was going to end her life.
After foour months of testimony and 18 days of jodi arias taking the stand her fate rested with the jury .
Vinnie: single count against jody arias.first degree murder.if they don´t find first degree.they can godown to second degree if there´s no premeditation. if they find that it was done in the heat of passion ,then it´s manslaughter or if they believe self -defense then it´s not guilty.
it would just take over 15 hours to reach a verdict.
Vinnie :12 people all agreing that this was pre- meditated murder. huge win for juan martinez.juan martinez convicted 12 people that it was her attacking him ,that she planned it.it was her idea and she executed it.
the victims family breathed sights of relief.
family and sibblings
while the public celebrated outside.
Vinnie: you have more reaction from travis alexander´s sibblings who are all seated behind everything and you can hear them,you can see them some are hugging.othersare just breaking down and crying.
Jody Arias reaction… ?measured.
Vinnie : i dont think jody arias was shocked but i think this is a confusing part of her life,because i think she always got her way. because she took advantage of her looks.she took advantage of who she was . she was able to talk her way through everything.but you cant talk you way out of first degree murder.
Minutes after the vedict jody would do more talking this time with
local tv station .
Jodi:um …i think i just went blank.iit was unexpected,for me yeas ,because there was no premeditation on my part .
Vinnie: i´ve prosecuted cases ,i´ve been covering the nation´s biggest trials for more than a decade i have never seen this . you just been convicteed of first degree murder. and the first thing you do . you dont huddle with your lawyers ,you dont talkt to your mom.
jody also talked about her possible death sentence.to the reporter.
“if i hurt travis, if i ever killed him travis ,i would beg for deeath penalty -Jodi Arias.
Vinnie: she saying ” i´d rather die then spend life in prison.”
that´s up to the jury to decide.
Vinnie: well, next for jodi arias is sitting in front of those same 12 jurors the eight men and for women who found that she premeditated killing travis alexander and they´re going to decide whether or not she lives or die.
During the death penalthy phase , a mistrial was declared du to a hung jury .arias was eventually sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole on April 13 ,2015.