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

[HairOfTheDog]

I wish I had more faith in Martinez, as a closer.

I'm a little nervous about two points that I believe the state has failed to address adequately and could really benefit Arias.

1. The Hughes's email painting Travis as an abuser:
This was pounded by LaViolette. The fact that Travis's supposed best friends called him abusive and cited examples of that using women other than Jodi is very damning.

I know that Martinez asked Mimi, Lisa and Deanna if they were abused in any way and all firmly said, "no". That helps minimize the email's importance. But, they were only 3 of many women in Travis's life and Martinez never offered any context around the damning email and he never called one of the Hughes's to explain/rebut.

I think the Hughes's were just self-righteous gossipy buttinskies (JMO) and they didn't really mean what they wrote literally, but I could see it being an area of focus for some on the jury.

2. What came first: the shot or the stabbing?:
Horn was not a good witness for the state, imo. The apparent misunderstanding between what he communicated to Flores and what Flores subsequently misstated (that the shot came first) needed to be neatly and definitely cleaned up and Horn needed to be very affirmative on the stand. He was not.

Last night, he seemed liked a very hostile witness. He seemed extremely pissed to be called to the stand again. It was palpable. He was the same way with Martinez and Willmott.

-On cross, he said that he'd never heard of anyone with a gunshot to the frontal lobe of the brain not being incapacitated.
-Willmott asked him if he was sure he'd never read any stories about people getting shot in the brain without it immediately ending motor functions or if he'd done any research on the subject. Horn said he sometimes reads articles, but he's never seen it happen in his experience and he only goes by what's in front of him and his colleagues in the ME office.
-He argued with Willmott about having used the word "liquid" to describe Travis's decomposed brain in the past, and then he used that adjective to describe Travis's brain about 5 minutes later.
-A juror is the one who caught the inconsistency in the testimony about the membrane around Travis's brain and Horn's report/exhibit. Horn said it was a typo in the report that he was just now being made aware of and that the outer membrane "must have been damaged". Of course, Willmott scored an easy point by suggesting that the report was correct and Horn was tailoring his testimony to fit the prosecution's sequence of events.

I personally believe that the shot came last, but I could see more than one or two jurors being unsure about that. I was not impressed or convinced by Horn. Apparently, neither was the jury. Aside from the report typo/error question, there was only one other juror inquiry for him:

Juror question:
"Would you agree that 100% of the people you have seen with frontal lobe trauma are deceased at the time of your examination?"

Dr. Horn:
"I hope so."

Burn.

Any specific points of concern or areas that you think Martinez really has to hammer home in his Closing today?