Waiting for news: People gather outside Superior Court in downtown Phoenix ahead of the verdict. 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 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. 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 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 Places to See Before You Die.
The beginning: Arias looked like an entirely different person back in when she and Alexander met. 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 , 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 and his death in June , 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 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. 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.
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 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 The prosecution argued that she did not actually go to get his gun, but rather she must have used the.
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. During the 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. Another damning piece of evidence found at the scene was the camera, filled with time-stamped photos of a naked Alexander in the shower.
Her actions after the murder did not help her case, either. 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 She was indicted on first-degree murder charges and arrested about a week later on July Explaining her stories: Even her own defense attorney asked 'why should we believe you now?
The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. Argos AO. Privacy Policy Feedback. 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 Published: GMT, 8 May Updated: GMT, 9 May e-mail View comments.
Later photos showed him bleeding while on the floor. The camera also contained pictures of Arias posing naked on Alexander's bed at 1. On June 9, his friends went to his upscale home after he had failed to return their calls. They found him dead in his shower and his body was ' well into the decomposition process'. Troubled: Alexander's friends said she stalked him in the months before his death and slashed his tires.
Missed: Alexander, a motivational speaker from Arizona, was found several days after the killing. Wounds show that Alexander attempted to fight back, court records show. An autopsy found he sustained 27 puncture wounds and one gunshot wound, with the bullet found in his left cheek.
Investigators also found a bloody left palm print with Arias' DNA on the bathroom wall. After initially claiming that she had not been at his home that day, Arias changed her story to admit she had been there - but had not killed her ex-boyfriend. I don't know. I couldn't pick them up in a police lineup. Scene: A grab shows Alexander's home in Mesa surrounded by police tape after his body was found.
Deceit: Police found a camera in Alexander's washing machine, pictured, that contained pictures of him having sex with Arias on the day of the killing. There were also pictures of his dead body. She later changed her story once again, telling the court that she killed Alexander in self defense after he became angry when she dropped his camera.
She claims he had been sexually and physically abusive throughout their relationship. As well as the inconsistencies in her story, Arias' case has been plagued with difficulties with her legal representation. She asked to represent herself but when she submitted letters to the court that she claimed Alexander had written - saying he was a pedophile - they were found to be forgeries, and she told a judge she was in 'over her head'.
In court: Arias has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder but prosecutors want the death penalty. Her defense team was reinstated but in December , her attorney, Victoria Washington, was granted a motion to withdraw from the case. Jennifer Willmott, a death penalty-qualified defense attorney, had now been assigned to represent Arias. In Jnauary , a judge denied a motion asking for the death penalty to be rejected.
The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. Argos AO. Privacy Policy Feedback. Share this article Share. There were also pictures of his dead body She later changed her story once again, telling the court that she killed Alexander in self defense after he became angry when she dropped his camera. Read more: Ariz.
Share or comment on this article: Jodi Arias case: Woman, 32, facing death penalty 'for brutally stabbing boyfriend to death in his shower' e-mail.
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Comments 81 Share what you think. View all. Arias' bloody palm print would be discovered in the bathroom hallway. Alexander's friends immediately told police they should investigate her. They called his relationship with her a "fatal attraction.
According to Dr. Kevin Horn, of the Maricopa County Medical Examiner office, Alexander's stab wounds were inflicted with major force and his cause of death was excessive blood loss.
He had multiple self-defense wounds to his palms and fingers. Police also found a digital camera in the washing machine with time-stamped images of Alexander and Arias in sexually suggestive poses and one of her reflection in his eyes in the moments before she killed him. Ten days after Alexander's body was discovered, police questioned Arias about the murder.
Arias originally told police she wasn't in Mesa when the murder occurred, claiming she last saw Alexander in March of She changed her story in September, and told various media outlets that two masked intruders attacked her and killed Alexander.
Two years after her initial arrest, Arias took back her account of the "home invasion. She wanted everyone to believe that he was as amazing as they thought he was My sister is innocent of the crime they are accusing her of She did kill Travis but it was not in cold blood, it was not for revenge, it was because she was afraid for her life. In August , Arias was granted a request by a judge to represent herself, as long as her public defenders stayed on as advisory counsel.
But the judge reinstated her defense counsel after it turned out letters from Alexander, which Arias requested be admitted, were forgeries. Another surprising move in the trial, in February , Arias took the witness stand in her own defense, sticking to her third story of self-defense. And in April, juror Meliha Omanovic was dismissed after the defense claimed she'd made prejudicial comments, according to Arizona Republic.
Two other jurors were later dismissed. In May , Arias was found guilty of first-degree murder, but the jury could not reach a unanimous decision on whether to sentence her to death. On October 21, , a retrial began, with jurors hearing the same evidence. A judge declared a mistrial on March 5, , saying jurors could, again, not reach a consensus. Arias is currently at Arizona State Prison Complex and will spend the rest of her life in prison.
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