The Jodi Arias Trial--Fatal Attraction – The Murder of Travis Alexander

[HairOfTheDog]

During the trial today when Jodi commented that her cell was smaller than Travis's closet, I could not help but think of how small a "cell" she forced Travis to be in forever, because of the choices she made that day. I think the Prosecution has done a great job in exposing the truth in all of her lies. I hope for Travis's family that she gets life in that prison.

I would be okay with LWOP too, though in Jodi's case, the death penalty would not bother me. Anything less than LWOP will be a slap in the face to the Alexander family, imo. I thought the prosecution's final day of cross-examination (yesterday) was incredibly damning to Jodi.

Here's a picture of the closet in Travis's bedroom, shown in court yesterday.

Jodi claims that she ran in here after she escaped Travis's initial attack in the bathroom. The closet is totally undisturbed, nothing out of place. But, Jodi claims there was a gun on the upper right shelf and that she somehow managed to stand on another shelf, grab this gun, and run to the middle of the bathroom before Travis (who for some reason took forever to chase her from the bathroom into this closet and back into the bathroom) caught up to her and lunged at her like a "linebacker", forcing her to shoot him to save her own life. She claims that's when the memory "fog set in".


Here's a picture of a bullet casing found inside of Travis's bathroom; shown in court yesterday.

The bullet casing is clearly on top of a pool of blood. The Medical Examiner believes that Travis was stabbed first and shot last. But, Jodi says she shot first just to stop him from attacking her (self defense) and can't remember any stabbing. Martinez argued that she couldn't have shot first or there would be no blood for the casing to land upon. Jodi responded, "that's not where the cartridge landed". Martinez didn't push it. Either Jodi's lying about not remembering what happened after the shot, or Jodi's lying about shooting first. I think it's the latter, but Martinez busted her out either way without going further.


Here's a diagram of wounds to Travis's back, Jodi was shown the actual autopsy photo in court yesterday (which includes stab wounds to the head as well).

While Jodi says she shot first in self defense, Travis has 29 knife-inflicted wounds altogether, with 9 of them to his back. Martinez essentially asked Jodi during his final day of cross, "ok, let's go with your version and assume you shot first; you say you shot him and he cursed at you and then hit the ground; so he's incapacitated and no threat and yet you stabbed him 9 times in the back, why?" Jodi can't answer that question, the memory fog had already set in.

Other really incriminating info that was tied together in the last day of cross-examination:
1. Jodi claimed she borrowed gas cans to fill up in Arizona because gas was cheaper there than Cali. However, she actually filled them up in California on the way to Az. Martinez has the receipts. He argues she premeditated the murder and used the canned gas after the murder so that there would be no record that she was in Arizona that day. Premeditation.

2. Jodi claims that she was in a fog after shooting Travis, but she had the presence of mind to try to clean/alter the scene, delete nude photos from Travis's camera, put sheets (and camera) in washing machine, call Mr. Burns and lie about getting lost to explain why she would be late arriving to his house, etc... Shows guilt; immediately trying to cover tracks.

3. Jodi left cheerful voicemails for Travis after she killed him. 3 days after she killed him, she also sent him an email calling him "sweetie" and apologizing for not being able to get off work to come and see him before he goes to Cancun. She indicated she would probably be in town when he was in Cancun and she planned to sleep on his comfy couch*. Shows guilt; intentionally trying to mislead investigators; covering tracks.
*Yikes, Travis told his friend Mimi that he had a stalker named Jodi who used to crawl into his house through the doggie door and sleep on his couch - Mimi told the police this when they first questioned her after she and his friends found his body - she testified about it on the first day of the trial).

I don't think there's any way that Jodi can be found guilty of anything less than first degree premeditated murder given all of the facts. I hope the jury sees it the same.