Jodi Arias found GUILTY of stabbing and shooting dead her ex-boyfriend in sex-driven murder that gripped America
- Verdict marks the end of sensational four-month trial in Phoenix, Arizona in which the jury heard tales of sex, lies and jealousy
- Arias, 32, stabbed her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander nearly 30 times, shot him in the head and slit his throat, nearly decapitating him
- She had claimed she had killed him in self-defense after months of abuse
- Arias now faces life in prison or the death penalty
By Lydia Warren
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Jodi Arias has been found guilty of first-degree murder in the brutal stabbing and shooting of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander, who was found dead in a pool of blood in his shower in 2008.
In what marks the end of a sensational case wrought with sex, lies and jealousy, a jury in Phoenix, Arizona delivered the verdict on Wednesday afternoon, four months after the trial began.
Arias, 32, became emotional as the jury announced the first-degree murder charge.
The jury, which took two days to reach the verdict, will convene for the next stage in the case tomorrow to decide on Arias' sentence. She could face life in prison or the death penalty.
The bloodied body of Travis Alexander, a Mormon motivational speaker and salesman, was found by friends in the shower of his Mesa, Arizona home five days after he was killed in June 2008.
Guilty! Jody Arias, 32, has been found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of her ex, Travis Alexander
Insistence: Arias, 32, had claimed that she killed Alexander in self defense after she attacked him
Shock: Arias struggles to keep her emotions in check as the guilty verdict is read on Wednesday afternoon
In grisly scenes that were photographed and shown in court, he suffered nearly 30 knife
wounds to his body, was shot in the head and had his throat slit so deeply he was almost decapitated.
Arias then
dragged his body into his shower before dumping it for his friends to find.
Testimony in the trial began in early January, with Arias later spending 18 days on the witness stand.
The trial quickly snowballed into a made-for-the-tabloids drama, garnering daily coverage from cable news networks, and spawning a virtual cottage industry for talk shows, legal experts and even Arias, who used her notoriety to sell artwork she made in jail.
Arias and Alexander had dated for only several months after meeting at a conference in Las Vegas in 2007, but they continued a sexual relationship after their breakup.
Killed: Arias said she killed Alexander, left, in self defense but prosecutors said the attack was planned
Justice: Family and friends of Travis Alexander react after Jodi Arias was found of guilty of murder
Reaction: Spectators outside the court react with excitement after the verdict was announced
Invested: Spectators who have followed the case closely become emotional outside the court
WHAT'S THE NEXT PHASE? JURY MUST DECIDE ON DEATH PENALTY
In the next phase of the Jodi Arias murder case, prosecutors will have a chance to present extra evidence and jurors will have to decide whether Travis Alexander's death was caused in a cruel manner.
The prosecution and defense will now start arguing over aggravating and mitigating factors that could lead to the sentence.
First of all, prosecutor Juan Martinez will need to prove an aggravating factor - that the murder was cruel, heinous or depraved - in order to reach the death penalty phase.
If such a factor is found, the jurors will then decide on whether there are any mitigating factors, i.e. any evidence regarding the defendant's character or the circumstances of the crime (such as mental illness, age etc) which would lead to the punishment. This phase is also more about Jodi's character.
If they believe there are such factors, the death penalty hearing will begin in front of the jury.
During the death penalty phase, the defense and prosecution will both give opening statements, and then the jury will hear victim impact statements, typically given by relatives of the victim.
Prosecutors claimed that Arias had planned the brutal attack in a jealous rage after being rejected by Alexander as he planned to head on a trip to Mexico with another woman.
Arias initially any denied involvement - even calling Alexander in the days after the killing and leaving friendly messages on his voicemail - and later blamed the killing on masked intruders.
But
two years after her arrest, she eventually admitted to killing him - but said it was in
self-defense. She said she recalled Alexander attacking her in fury for
dropping his camera after a day of sex at his home.
She said Alexander came at her 'like a linebacker', body-slamming her to the tile floor. She said she managed to wriggle free and ran into his closet to retrieve a gun he kept on a shelf.
She said she fired in self-defense but had no memory of stabbing him.
But throughout the trial, prosecutor Juan Martinez attempted to paint Arias as a manipulative liar and said her account did simply not line up with the facts and how she had appeared to plot the killing.
'It's like a field of lies that has sprouted up around her as she sat on the witness stand,' Martinez said of Arias. 'Every time she spat something out, another lie.'
Martinez sought to show how Arias had planned out her attack weeks in advance, explaining how she stole the .25 -caliber gun used in the
attack from her grandparents' home where she was staying in Yreka,
California, two days after a heated text-message exchange between Arias and
Alexander.
During the text exchange, Alexander described her as a 'sociopath' and 'evil.'
'How absolutely prophetic,' Martinez had said to the court.
She rented a car at an airport in Northern California to drive to Alexander's home, but refused a red car as she thought it might attract tickets, Martinez said.
Tears: Arias, who became emotional, now faces a hearing to see if she will receive the death penalty
Shock: Sandra Arias, center, reacts after her daughter was found of guilty of first-degree murder
She
then filled up three gas cans in Pasadena and turned off her cellphone
before she reached Arizona, Martinez said, suggesting these decisions
were so that there was no proof she was in Arizona at the time she
killed Alexander.
He said such actions are those of someone committing first-degree, premeditated murder.
Throughout the trial, the prosecution repeatedly showed grisly crime scene photographs of Travis Alexander, including blood-splattered walls and images of his deep knife wounds.
The images were too much for Arias and Alexander's relatives, who buried their faces in their hands or otherwise looked away as the photos were displayed on a giant screen.
In
a bizarre twist, a camera, which she apparently dropped, also snapped
photographs of her dragging his body. It was later found in a
washing machine and water-logged but authorities were able to retrieve
the images. Others showed Arias and Alexander on the day before his
death.
Arias acknowledged trying to clean the scene of the killing, dumping the gun in the desert and working on an alibi to avoid suspicion.
Dramatic: Prosecutor Juan Martinez sought to paint Arias as a manipulative liar who planned the killing
Defense: But Kirk Nurmi said that Alexander was a sexual deviant who emotionally abused Arias
Decision: Judge Sherry Stephens is handed the decision after the jury deliberated for two days
She said she was too scared and ashamed to tell the truth, and didn't want to sully Alexander's name by revealing their raunchy sex and his violent episodes.
After her arrest in June 2008, she displayed bizarre behavior, such as singing, laughing, talking to herself and doing a 20-minute headstand while alone in the interrogation room. Footage of the strange behavior was deemed too prejudicial to show the jury.
Arias and her defense team had argued that Alexander had grown physically abusive in the months before she killed him, once even choking her into unconsciousness, yet she loved him.
The defense sought to portrayed Alexander as a cheating womanizer who used Arias for sex and abused her physically, sexually and emotionally while keeping her hidden from his friends.
Arias testified for 18 days and described her abusive childhood, cheating boyfriends, dead-end jobs, a shocking sexual relationship with Alexander, and her contention that he had grown physically abusive in the months leading to his death, once even choking her into unconsciousness.
Moments before: Photographs on Alexander's camera showed him in the shower moments before his death
Crime scene: The jury was shown numerous photographs of the bathroom where his body was found
Grisly: Images inside his home showed where Arias had dragged his body after repeatedly stabbing him
She claimed she felt ashamed following sex with Alexander - even though prosecutors played voicemails where she told of how much she enjoyed their dalliances and named her favorite types of lubricants.
As a way to absolve she and Alexander - both of whom were Mormon - from their activities, she has testified that she felt anal sex was considered a ‘grey area’ as opposed to vaginal sex, though she did admit that they had vaginal sex on more than one occasion as well.
'I acted like I liked it,' she said of the first time she had oral sex with Alexander, but she went on to say that she did not enjoy it 'internally'.
In a bid to portray Alexander as controlling, the defense also showed images of Arias wearing a shirt reading: 'Travis Alexander's.'
Together: The couple only dated for several months but continued a sexual relationship after they broke up
Death: Alexander was found dead his shower by his friends five days after he was killed by Arias
Among the shocking testimony that
threw doubt on Arias' claims that she was sexually victimized, a tape of
Arias and Alexander having phone sex was played for the court.
On the recording from May 2008, Arias was heard breathing deeply, moaning and discussing how she loves that Alexander is 'hairless and smooth all over'.
The couple discussed previous times they had sex and graphic activities where they would experiment sexually with Pop Rocks and Tootsie Rolls.
During the 30-minute conversation, the pair also encouraged each other to pleasure themselves, discussed oral sex and talked about having sex in bubble baths.
On the tape, Alexander said that Arias introduced him to lubricants and talks about her bikini waxes.
At one point, he said he wanted to 'zip tie her to a tree' before performing anal sex and videotaping the experience.
Captivated: Spectators wait outside Superior Court in Phoenix before Arias appeared to hear the verdict
Following: Several of the dozens of spectators enjoyed pizza as they waited for the verdict in the case
Waiting for news: People gather outside Superior Court in downtown Phoenix ahead of the verdict
Trial: The murder case was held at Maricopa County Superior Court for more than four months
She responded: 'It is so debasing... I like it.'
Arias later told the court that he wanted her to dress up like Little Red Riding Hood while she was tied to the tree, which she said she connected to his desire for young boys and girls. Prosecutors said there was no evidence for these claims.
Alongside the scandal of the murder trial, the case was wrought with problems. Three members of the jury were dismissed within a month.
A 52-year-old man, Daniel Gibb, was released from the case after being arrested on a DUI charge and was allegedly so drunk, he told arresting officers he was a juror on the case.
Juror No. 11 - another man - was excused because of health reasons on April 12, and a woman who was Juror No. 5, later identified as Meliha Omanovic, was dismissed on April 2, reportedly for making statements that showed a bias.
It left the jury with 15 people - nine men and six women.
A LOVE AFFAIR TURNED INTO TRAGEDY: THE COMPLEX ROAD FROM ROMANCE TO RUIN THAT LEFT TRAVIS ALEXANDER DEAD
By MEGHAN KENEALLY
Jodi Arias spent weeks on the stand in the Phoenix courtroom telling the graphic and sometimes lurid details of her on-again off-again relationship with Travis Alexander that eventually led to his brutal murder.
The two met in September 2006 at a conference in Las Vegas and she said that she was instantly attracted to Alexander, who was a motivational speaker and devout Mormon.
At the time, she was based in California and he in Mesa, Arizona, but they would frequently travel together, checking off spots that they both wanted to visit by going through a book of 1000 Places to See Before You Die.
The beginning: Arias looked like an entirely different person back in 2006 when she and Alexander met
Happier times: She met Travis Alexander, a Mormon and motivational speaker, at a Las Vegas conference
The MySpace album featuring pictures of the two of them on those various trips is still online, showing the then-happy couple on their tours of the Grand Canyon, the picturesque landscape of Sedona, Arizona, and the crashing water at Niagara Falls.
They broke up in late June 2007, but continue to have sex. Alexander is thought to have wanted to pursue other women- and the prosecution argued that he was looking for a Mormon woman that he felt was suitable to marry. Arias had converted to Mormonism after her relationship with Alexander began, but he apparently did not see her as a possible wife.
Though Alexander's friends had met Arias on numerous occasions while she and Alexander were dating, they apparently did not approve of her, so when they split, Alexander kept his sexual dalliances with Arias a secret.
Because of the secret nature of her relationship with Alexander between the summer of 2007 and his death in June 2008, Arias was left as the sole person who could give insight into their meetings.
When it came to giving details, Arias left little to the imagination, as she explicitly explained the graphic sexual encounters she and Alexander had during their sexual relationship.
Watching her lies: The court saw videos of Jodi Arias' various police interrogations (right) in the months following Travis Alexander's June 2008 murder
In addition to her own testimony, the prosecution combed through her personal journal and the text messages that she and Alexander exchanged, which made specific references to their romps.
Prosecutor Juan Martinez tried to use the evidence to show that Arias was a willing participant in the sexual encounters- which goes against the claims that she and her lawyers tried to make, saying that she felt pressured and like a prostitute during her anal sex encounters with Alexander.
At one point in the trial in late February, Martinez read salacious text messages, one of which has Arias describing how she wanted to be treated 'like a dirty little schoolgirl' by wearing braids during sex. This marked a clear contrast to her previously testimony that was just one of Alexander's 'deviant' sexual fantasies that made her uncomfortable.
Arias said he is misunderstanding the context of the text messages and calls, during which one segment played for jurors has Arias telling Alexander: 'You are amazing. Seriously, you made me feel like a goddess.'
Refreshing her memory: Arias's lapses in memory dating back to crucial times around the murder of her boyfriend have been serious points of inquiry for prosecutor Juan Martinez
'You did enjoy dressing up though, right?' Martinez asked.
'Um, yes,' Arias replied.
'It was a consensual mutual relationship sexually speaking, wasn't it?' Martinez prodded.
'Yes, always,' Arias said.
'No indication that you were offended?' the prosecutor continued.
'Correct,' Arias replied.
She spoke at length about the merits of different brands of lubricant, and told how one time she and Alexander used candy Pop Rocks and Tootsie Pops to spice up a sexual encounter.
One of the most graphic points of the trial came when a lengthy phone sex recording was played out loud, where Alexander is heard talking about how he wanted her to dress up like Little Red Riding Hood and tied her to a tree during sex.
Arias took multiple different tacks in explaining herself over the course of the last five years- initially telling police that she was not in Arizona at the time of the murder, then later that she was there but that there were two masked intruders who killed him.
Adding to her problems when it came time for the trial was the fact that she granted numerous media interviews from behind bars, including the infamous 48 Hours interview where she boldly said that 'no jury will convict me'.
Her own words: because she gave a number of media interviews while in jail, those stories are being played back for the courtroom. Now she admits that much of what she said during those interviews were lies
At that time, she maintained that two mysterious intruders killed Alexander, but when the trial began in January, she and her legal team submitted a plea that she killed him in self defense.
With no evidence to back up her claims, she told various stories about how Alexander hit her on at least two different occasions.
'Confused': Arias could not offer an explanation as too why Alexander wanted her to wear boy's Spiderman underwear while they had sex (stock picture)
She showed how one of her fingers was sprained to this day, and she said that it happened during a fight with Alexander. The prosecution countered, saying that the injury was sustained when she stabbed Alexander 27 times on the day of his death.
She also came up with the unsubstantiated claim that Alexander was a pedophile, saying that she caught him pleasuring himself to pictures of a young boy. Though she made no such mention of the incident in her personal journal, she explained to the court that she did not want anyone to learn this dirty secret about a man that she loved.
She also said that he made her wear little boy's Spider-Man underwear when they had sex, adding to the narrative that Alexander was a sexual deviant and she the submissive woman trapped under his spell.
Though she maintained her composure for much of the trial, she broke down sobbing on the day that her court-appointed lawyer, Kirk Nurmi, walked her through the explanation of how she killed Alexander.
In her version of events, she was on a rambling road trip in early June 2008 with stops for various work events, and decided to visit her on-again off-again lover at his house in Mesa, Arizona with his permission. She spent the night on June 3, and the couple decided to have an intimate photo session in the shower after sex.
Sobs: Arias broke down as she spoke about the day where she killed her lover at his Arizona home in 2008
Arias claimed that the camera slipped causing her to drop it on the bathroom floor, and Alexander’s alleged temper flared. He dove at her ‘like a linebacker’ and she ran towards his walk-in closet where she knew that he kept a gun. The prosecution argued that she did not actually go to get his gun, but rather she must have used the .25-caliber gun that had been reported missing from her grandparents’ house a month before the murder.
After that, her memory blacks out until she comes to while in her car, cleaning off the blood from her hands in the middle of the desert.
Police found the bloody crime scene five days later, only after his friends went to his house after days of not hearing from him to find his crumpled body in his shower and blood all over. He had been shot with a .25-caliber gun, stabbed about 27 times with his neck slashed ear to ear.
During the 911 call, the friends immediately tell police to question Arias.
In her spotty testimony, she said that though she did not remember physically stabbing him, Arias did remember dropping the knife in the dishwasher downstairs. She explained that the knife was in the bedroom at the time of the incident because they had used it to cut the rope that she had been tied up with during their final tryst just hours earlier.
'Last photo': Among the images on the camera was this one showing Travis in the shower before his death
Seedy: The images from the camera were time-stamped as June 4, 2008
Another damning piece of evidence found at the scene was the camera, filled with time-stamped photos of a naked Alexander in the shower. She had tossed it in the washing machine after the murder, not knowing that it had actually captured a picture of Alexander’s body on the floor bleeding during the altercation.
Her actions after the murder did not help her case, either. After leaving Alexander’s house, she left a number of messages on his voicemail, acting as if she had not been with him- effectively setting up a defense that would theoretically ‘throw off the scent’ to investigators.
She drove to the house of a friend-turned-lover named Ryan Burns who lived not far from Mesa and proceeded to spend the night with him just hours after killing Alexander.
She returned to her home state of California on June 7 but police did not question her until June 19. She was indicted on first-degree murder charges and arrested about a week later on July 15.
Explaining her stories: Even her own defense attorney asked 'why should we believe you now?'
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About time!
- zachkhan , bradford, 09/5/2013 09:12
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