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Thread: Jodi Arias Sentenced to LWOP in 2008 AZ Murder of Travis Alexander

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Jodi Arias Sentenced to LWOP in 2008 AZ Murder of Travis Alexander

    What you need to know for the Jodi Arias hearing tomorrow

    The judge in the Jodi Arias murder case will determine Tuesday when the trial will begin.

    Jury selection for the Arias murder trial had been set to begin February 21, but now the trial will be delayed after an attorney for Arias withdrew from the case. On December 23, Arias’ death penalty qualified public defender, Victoria Washington, withdrew from the case. A death penalty qualified defense attorney helps with jury selection, and will play a major role during the sentencing phase if Arias is convicted of first-degree murder.

    Judge Sherry Stephens will decide Tuesday just how much time a new attorney will need to get up to speed. There's been a lot speculation about the delay, with some guessing it will only be a couple months and others predicting Arias' trial may not start until 2013. But the judge is the one who gets to decide and Stephens has said the delay will be brief.

    The hearing Tuesday is expected to cover these three issues:

    Appoint a new public defender
    Address motion to dismiss, dealing with the death penalty
    Set a new trial date

    There is also a hearing scheduled for Wednesday, January 4, but that hearing may not take place if court wraps all of its issues on Tuesday.

    Click here to read why the Arias trial may be the biggest trial of the year.

    Arias is on trial for the 2008 killing of her former boyfriend Travis Alexander. His body was found in the shower of his Mesa, Arizona, bathroom with his throat cut from ear to ear, a gunshot wound to his face and 27 stab wounds all over his body, police say.

    http://insession.blogs.cnn.com/2012/...ring-tomorrow/

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    Jodi Arias Update: Judge Sets Murder Trial For Oct. 17

    Jodi Arias is accused of brutally murdering her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander in 2008. Arizona police said Alexander had 27 stab wounds, a gun-shot wound in the face and his throat had been slit from ear when his roommates found his body in the shower at his home in Mesa, Ariz.

    Arias’ trial, which was initially set to begin in February, was delayed until October because Arias' death penalty-qualified public defender withdrew from the case in December. A death penalty-qualified defense attorney is essential to Arias’ case during jury selection, especially if she is convicted of first-degree murder in Arizona, a death penalty state.

    Arias, a 32-year-old photographer from California, has given police various explanations for her boyfriend’s death. Arias initially said she wasn’t with Alexander when he was killed, but later said Alexander was killed by two intruders.Arias is now claiming that she killed Alexander in self-defense after he became violent with her.

    “There was something very off about her. She was extremely obsessed with him,” Sky Hughes, a close friend of Alexander told The Huffington Post. “She liked him an abundance more than he liked her.”

    “She would break into his email - multiple times - and when he started dating another girl, she snuck into the house and watched them sleeping - they had fallen asleep on an oversized bean bag watching a movie,” Hughes added. "To affirm Jodi was creepy and obsessed with Travis would be a huge understatement.”

    http://global.christianpost.com/news...in-face-66304/

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    Jodi Arias, Accused Of Stabbing Ex-Boyfriend 27 Times, Will Face Death Penalty

    Jodi Ann Arias, the California woman accused of brutally killing her ex-boyfriend, will face the death penalty when her case goes to trial later this year, an Arizona judge has decided.

    Judge Sherry Stephens denied a defense motion Thursday in which defense lawyers requested the death penalty be removed as a punishment option for Arias. The 31-year-old photographer is accused of shooting her lover, Travis Alexander, in the face, stabbing him multiple times, and slitting his throat.

    The defense had argued that Arias should not face death because she had not planned to kill Alexander. His death was an act of self-defense, her attorneys argued.

    While Stephens denied the motion regarding the death penalty, she did grant a separate motion, prohibiting witnesses from hearing the testimony of other witnesses when the case goes to trial.

    Alexander, a 30-year-old motivational speaker and insurance salesman from Mesa., Ariz., was found dead on June 9, 2008. Friends found Alexander's naked body inside his standup shower, and advanced decomposition suggested he had been dead for several days.

    Authorities ultimately determined Alexander had been shot in the right brow with a .25-caliber gun and stabbed 27 times before his throat was cut from ear to ear.

    Arias initially denied any involvement in the slaying. When police used DNA and other physical evidence to place her at the crime scene she admitted she was present when Alexander was murdered, but said his death occurred during a home invasion. Arias now claims she was a victim of domestic violence who killed him in self-defense.

    Originally slated to begin on Feb. 21, Arias trial was delayed because Arias' lawyer, Victoria Washington, asked to withdraw from the case. Jennifer Willmott, a death penalty-qualified defense attorney, has since been assigned to represent Arias.

    Stephens has set Oct. 17 as the date jury selection will begin.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1269216.html

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    Administrator Michael's Avatar
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    She doesen´t look like a murder. I bet she gets a lot of mail.

  5. #5
    Hutch
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    Not a bad looking lady, wonder how this one will play out. I for one am very sceptical that she was the victim of abuse, but then again I dont know the whole story.

    Hutch

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    Her story on that first link has more holes in it than a golf course.

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    Jodi Arias' attorneys move to bar evidence

    Jodi Arias will go on trial later this year for the death of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander, but her attorneys are already worried about evidence that may indicate a lack of remorse in the alleged killing. Attorneys say the evidence may hurt her chances in court.

    In June 2008, Alexander's roommates found his mutilated body in a shower at his Mesa, Arizona, home. Alexander, a Mormon motivational speaker, was found with his throat slit from ear to ear. According to police, he’d been shot in the face and was stabbed 27 times.

    Prosecutors say Arias killed Alexander after he decided to distance himself from their sexual relationship.

    Arias has given authorities several stories about Alexander's death. First, she said she wasn’t with him when he was killed. But police found a camera at the scene showing Arias and Alexander in suggestive poses, along with photos of Alexander’s dead body.

    Later, Arias said two intruders killed Alexander. Now, she’s saying she killed him in self-defense because he got violent with her.

    Arias is facing the death penalty, and jury selection for her trial begins November 19.

    Arias’ attorneys argued during a pre-trial hearing Thursday that prosecutors shouldn’t be allowed to bring up evidence that could be construed as a lack of remorse on her part. It could mean a harsher sentence if she’s found guilty.

    Judge Sherry Stephens said she wouldn’t rule on that now, saying the issue is premature because Arias has not been found guilty.

    Also Thursday, defense attorneys asked prosecutors to turn over Arias’ computer hard drive so they can conduct their own independent testing on it. They also complained that prosecutors weren’t being forthcoming in turning over evidence, because they have not given the defense access to the contents of the hard drive.

    Prosecutor Juan Martinez explained that the delay was because the hard drive was damaged and an outside firm had to examine it for potential evidence.

    Martinez says his team is still waiting for the examination and would turn over to the defense the hard drive and the firm’s report when everything is complete. It is still unclear what the hard drive could reveal.

    There will be at least two more hearings -- September 24 and October 16 -- before the trial begins.

    http://www.hlntv.com/article/2012/09...s-lack-remorse
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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    Jodi Arias: Cold-blooded killer or innocent victim?

    "No jury is going to convict me ... because I am innocent and you can mark my words on that. No jury is going to convict me."

    That's what accused murderer Jodi Arias told "Inside Edition" in a jailhouse interview just three months after her ex-boyfriend's bloody corpse was found in his bathroom.

    By many accounts, Jodi Arias is a pretty, well-spoken, smart young woman. She's also about to stand trial for shooting Travis Alexander in the face, stabbing him 27 times and slitting his throat from ear to ear.

    At her trial, scheduled to begin next month, Arias’ attorneys will argue she killed Alexander in self-defense, though they have not offered any details about how they’ll try to convince the jury of that. In early statements to police, Arias said she wasn’t with Alexander when he died. Later, after police matched a bloody handprint at the scene to her, Arias claimed she and Alexander had been attacked in a home invasion and the masked intruders killed him.

    A jury will ultimately decide whether Alexander was the aggressor in the encounter that led to his death, or whether Arias is guilty of a cold-blooded murder deserving of the death penalty.

    "I know this might sound creepy, but I hope to get to watch her die someday after she's on death row," Alexander's sister, Tanisha Sorenson, wrote in an email to HLNTV.com.

    Victim's sister: Arias deserves death

    The victim

    Travis Alexander was a young guy with big dreams. He was active in the Mormon Church and well liked by his wide circle of friends.

    In April, 2008, less than two months before he was killed, he wrote on his blog, "This Year will be the Best year of my life. This is the year that will eclipse all others. I will earn more, learn more, travel more, serve more, love more, give more and be more than all the other years of my life combined."

    His friend Dave Hall says, "Travis was the type of guy to give you the shirt off his back, you know. He always opened his house to you if you ever needed, threw tons of parties, he was a clean-cut, good, wholesome guy and just a great, great friend. Today he'd most likely be married, and he would have kids and what a great father he would make. And it just kills me to think that he's not here with us all because Jodi just couldn't let him go."

    Sorenson says, "Travis was an amazing person and a great example for me. His death was so hard for me. We are the closest in age. After his death, I decided to become a better person and become active in our church."

    Professionally, Travis Alexander was on the move up through the ranks of a pre-paid legal services company. He was a successful salesman and a motivational speaker.

    He was at a Pre-Paid Legal Inc. convention when he caught the attention of Arias, a woman who would become his girlfriend and, later, his alleged killer.

    Their story begins six years ago, in the fall of 2006. Alexander noticed Arias at the convention in Las Vegas and introduced himself. She was an aspiring photographer and they were both driven to succeed.

    Alexander lived in Mesa, Arizona, at the time, and Arias lived five hours away in Palm Desert, California. But the distance didn't stop them from forging a romantic relationship. Arias says she and Alexander started dating in February 2007.

    "He had grown to mean so much to me," Arias told CBS in a "48 Hours" interview. "You know we grew closer and closer and it was a natural progression. It was a serious relationship," Arias said in the jail cell interview. Alexander’s friends say Arias began to make his world her own, even converting to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

    Despite their newly shared faith, which encourages abstinence before marriage, evidence shows they had a sexual relationship. There were steamy, provocative texts back and forth between Alexander and Arias. In the "48 Hours" interview, Arias said she and Alexander videotaped their sexual relations. During the trial, prosecutors are expected to show the jury racy photos of Alexander and Arias and provocative text messages between them.

    Something was off

    Arias told "48 Hours" she didn't think Alexander's friends were aware of the intensity of their relationship. "Nobody really knows what was going on behind closed bedroom doors except him and I."

    Many of Alexander's friends have said they thought she came on too strong, too fast or that they thought there was something "off" about her.

    Dave Hall is one of those friends. He met Alexander through work in 2002, and they became fast friends. Four years later, he met Arias at a company dinner, when she accompanied Alexander as his date. Dave says there was something strange, because Arias seemed to have no friends and never talked about her past.

    "I thought ‘Ah, there's an attractive girl.’ But as the evening went on, I just thought … she might be eye candy on the outside, but she was just very mysterious and I didn't want to judge her at the beginning, but I just thought, her personality is not very… not very talkative. Very quiet, she just had a vibe about her that just was really mysterious and it wasn't until after we started hanging out numerous times and doing events together, that me along with everyone that knew Travis, just said, 'Dude, you can do a lot better. She might be good looking, but this is not someone you want to be in a relationship with.'"

    Hall says he witnessed Arias become possessive of Alexander as their tumultuous on-again, off-again two-year relationship developed. "If he talked about another girl or if he looked at another girl… she just had this evil smirk on her face that you could just tell she was the type of person that could smile while she slit your throat, you know. Pardon the pun there, in light of what's going on."

    A jealous lover

    At some point in 2007, Arias got suspicious that Alexander was seeing other people. She told "48 Hours" she saw text messages Alexander sent to another woman. She broke up with him, but then moved from her home in California to Mesa, where Alexander was still living. Sorenson says Alexander’s tires were slashed while he was at another woman's house. He replaced the tires, and they were slashed again at a different location, which she says means somebody was following him around.

    WATCH: What is Jodi Arias really like?

    oon after that, a woman Alexander was dating got an email from "John Doe" warning her that her behavior was sinful. It read, in part, "If you let him stay in your bed one more time or even sleep under the same roof as him, you will be giving the appearance of evil," the email read. "You are a daughter of God, and you have been a shameful example. Be thou clean, sin no more."

    Arias moved back to California in early 2008, but said she and Alexander maintained a relationship. In the interview with "48 Hours," Arias said Alexander was going to visit her in May, but he postponed the trip. So she went on her own road trip in early June, stopping in Los Angeles to photograph her friend's baby. She had planned to head to Utah after that to visit Ryan Burns, who also worked at Pre-Paid Legal and is a Mormon.

    Burns says, "We talked a lot on the phone, but we certainly weren't together or anything like that."

    Another of Alexander’s friends, Taylor Searle, tells In Session, that around the first week of June 2008, Alexander caught Arias hacking into his Facebook account and told her he wanted her out of his life. Searle says Alexander called him the next day and read the contents of an online chat between Alexander and Arias.

    Searle says he asked Alexander, "Aren't you afraid she's going to hurt you?"

    But as Arias told "48 Hours," her version of events is different. She said Alexander asked her to come to Arizona to visit him. So she abandoned her plan to see Burns in Utah and headed to Mesa to see Alexander instead.

    The killing

    In the same interview, Arias said she got to Alexander’s house about 4 a.m. on June 4, 2008. She says they talked, went to sleep and woke up around 1 p.m. the next day. She says they had sex and took some explicit photos.

    Police recovered the photos taken that day from the memory card of a digital camera found in Alexander’s clothes dryer. Those photos are a timeline of Alexander’s last hours alive.

    At 1:40 p.m., a photo shows Arias posing for the camera nude on Alexander’s bed.

    At 5:22 p.m., a photo was taken, and deleted, showing Alexander naked in the shower.

    At 5:30 p.m., there's another photo of Alexander.

    Minutes later, he was dead.

    Police say a photo time-stamped 5:32 p.m. shows Alexander's dead body on the bathroom floor.

    That bathroom and those details are part of what haunt Dave Hall. He had stayed with Alexander shortly before he was murdered. "I was there in that house. I was staying for a whole week, there in the bedroom next door to where he was murdered. So when I watched the news broadcast, and I hear them talk about the description of the bloody palm print on the wall and in the shower and stuff -- I've been there. I've stood there, I've touched those walls, you know, I've been in that bathroom. It's like I've stood there, and it's really eerie to try to get these images out of my mind of my poor friend standing there and being shot, and then stabbed, and I visualize him fighting for his life and trying to get that knife away from Jodi."

    Contradictions

    On June 9, 2008, Alexander’s roommates found his body and called 911. They immediately suspected Jodi Arias of killing him and told the operator about her. "He has an ex-girlfriend that has been bothering him and calling and [s]lashing tires and things like that … Her name is Jodi," said one of Alexander’s roommates.

    When police first contacted Arias, she told them she wasn't there when Alexander died. She said the last time she saw Alexander was in April 2008. She said they had dated for more than five months, but had broken up in June 2007 because they both had jealousy issues. After the breakup, they continued to have sex but kept it a secret. She told police she last spoke to Alexander on the phone June 3, 2008, between 8 and 9 p.m. while she was driving from her home in Yreka, California, to a conference in Salt Lake City.

    Arias’ behavior before Alexander died concerned Dave. He says his first thought after finding out Alexander was murdered was that Arias did it.

    "Everyone was telling the detectives 'Jodi's involved.' Down in Arizona at the memorial for him, you know, Jodi showed up like this grieving widow, so sad that Travis is gone. And she's posting on Facebook, MySpace pictures and stuff of her and Travis, and how much she loved him, how much she'll miss him and stuff. It just all felt creepy because in the back of your mind you're going, 'I don't know how, but you're involved and I know it.'"

    Later, Arias changed her story about the day Alexander died. She said she and Alexander were victims of a home invasion. In a jailhouse interview with "Inside Edition" in September 2008, she says a man and a woman, both wearing masks, burst into the house and attacked both of them. "I witnessed Travis being attacked by two other individuals." But she says she could not pick them out in a police line-up. "They came into his home and attacked us both."

    She claims she fled, but was too terrified to call the police. When "Inside Edition" asked why she didn't immediately call the police, Arias said, "I'm not proud that I just left my friend there to be slaughtered at the hands of two other people, I'm not proud of that at all."

    Now, as Arias’ trial quickly approaches, she's given a third story about that day. On June 22, 2010, her defense attorneys filed a "notice of defenses" notifying the court that they intend to argue that Arias was a victim of domestic violence and was justified in using deadly force to defend herself against Alexander. HLN reached out to Arias' defense team for comment on the accusations and the defense strategy, but has not gotten a response.

    Prosecutors aren't buying the domestic violence defense, and neither are a lot of other people.

    Sorenson says, "I mean she really thought she wasn't going to get caught and messed up too many times. She thinks she can be that cunning and charming that she'll be able to have a jury believe her after all this, that she can play the self-defense card after all her previous stories didn't work out for her."

    In a jailhouse news conference, Arias said she understands that she is facing some convincing evidence. "I need to be honest and the evidence is very compelling. But none of it proves that I committed a murder."

    Warning signs

    Hall says in hindsight, he saw the warning signs, but he didn't believe Arias was capable of murder. He saw Arias the day after Alexander’s death, and thought her behavior was strange. "Ryan [Burns] who lives real close to me, right here in Utah, she started hooking up with him, and so she drove straight from Travis' house up here to have a little make-out session with my buddy up here. Now, he's going to have to testify in court, so there's not a lot he can say to that, but she was up here for her booty call after butchering another human being, and the weird thing is, we were inviting her to go out four-wheeling with us the next day."

    Burns confirms Arias did visit him, but he clarifies, "When he says hooking up, he is saying ‘Utah Mormon hooking up,’ hanging out, maybe going on a date. Maybe not the national understanding of hooking up and getting it on. We never had any sexual anything. That had nothing to do with it. She was coming to get to know me and to hang out."

    Hall says part of what seemed so odd about Arias was the way she was dressed. "It's June and she had a long-sleeve shirt on and it's 100 degrees. She had a long-sleeve shirt on and she had bandages on her hand but her hair was completely different. She went from a blonde to a brunette. So, there were three major changes in her appearance. Now, the blonde to brunette, we're like. 'Wow. OK. That's dramatic.' But the long-sleeve shirt … I'm just sitting here thinking, 'Man, I am doing everything I can to cool down, I could never wear long sleeves.'"

    Burns says he still finds it hard to imagine that Arias could have killed Alexander and then come to Utah to hang out with him and his friends the next day. "I don't see how she could have killed somebody and said it was self-defense and come and acted normal with me the whole day. There is obviously something wrong if she is saying a murder actually happened and then she spent an entire day hanging out with us and all of our friends after somebody had just been killed. I mean, whichever story she had gone with, the self-defense, the burglary, the 'I wasn't there.' I mean she's had so many stories now, no matter what it was, the way she acted … the only story that would have fit with that, if it was true, was that she was not there. Because the story that she's given now, saying she was defending herself or something horrible happened, I just don't see how she could have acted the way she did."

    The trial

    Arias has been in jail since her arrest on July 15, 2008, a little more than a month after Alexander was killed. Her trial has been delayed multiple times, and jury selection is now scheduled to begin November 19.

    Sorenson says she's eager for the trial to start and she believes justice will help her sleep at night. "She has already dug her own grave, and I can't wait 'til her arrogant self is convicted for taking the life of Travis. That is when I will smile and have some kind of closure."

    WATCH: Victim's sister: Jodi Arias smiles at me in court

    http://www.hlntv.com/slideshow/2012/...ller-or-victim
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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    Jodi Arias trial gets one week delay -- for now

    Alleged killer Jodi Arias’ trial is being pushed back at least a week.

    At a hearing Tuesday, Judge Sherry Stephens moved the start date from November 19 to November 26. The judge has not ruled on the defense team’s request for a six-week delay. Arias’ lawyers say their expert needs more time to examine a laptop hard drive.

    Court documents say the hard drive contains text messages between and pictures of Arias and the victim, Travis Alexander.

    In June 2008, Alexander's roommates found his mutilated body in his shower at his Mesa, Arizona, home. Alexander, a Mormon motivational speaker, was found with his throat slit from ear to ear. According to police, he'd also been shot in the face and stabbed 27 times. Prosecutors say Arias killed Alexander after he decided to break off their sexual relationship.

    Authorities say Arias has given several stories about Alexander's death. Initially, Arias told police she wasn't with him when he was killed. Then she said two intruders killed Alexander.

    Police say they found a camera at the scene showing Arias and Alexander in suggestive poses, along with photos of Alexander's dead body.

    Now, Arias is saying she killed Alexander in self-defense because he got violent with her.

    She faces the death penalty if she’s convicted.

    The defense says this should not be a death penalty case because Arias didn’t plan to kill Alexander.

    Another pretrial conference is set for November 19.

    http://www.hlntv.com/article/2012/11...postpone-death
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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