Untangling The Lies of Jodi Arias

Speaker 1 I know that I won't be the first person to be wrongly convicted and possibly wrongly sentenced for either life in prison or the death penalty.

Speaker 1 And personally, if I had my choice, I would take the death penalty because I don't want to spend the rest of my life in prison.

Speaker 2 We introduced you to Jodi Arias back in 2009 when she sat down to be interviewed by 48 Hours shortly after being arrested and charged with the murder of her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander.

Speaker 2 Since then, she's become a national sensation, the focus of newspaper and magazine profiles, and the subject of 24-hour cable news coverage.

Speaker 2 I met Jodi Arias at the Estrella jail four and a half years ago when she agreed to tell CBS News her story of how Travis Alexander had been murdered.

Speaker 2 An interview which, for the first time in the history of 48 Hours, was used as evidence in a death penalty trial. Just give me the gist of what you are doing here in this place today.

Speaker 1 Today

Speaker 1 I am interviewing with you.

Speaker 1 I've been charged with first-degree murder of my friend Travis Alexander and I'm just here to have a conversation with you about it.

Speaker 2 During this three-hour interview, Jodi told us a tale of secret intimacy.

Speaker 1 There was an attraction and, you know, it found an outlet on occasion.

Speaker 2 That's a very creative way of saying it. It found an outlet.

Speaker 2 The drama of masked intruders.

Speaker 1 There were two individuals walking toward us when I just heard a loud bang and Travis was screaming.

Speaker 2 And ultimately a desperate escape.

Speaker 1 He

Speaker 1 was holding the gun at my forehead and he pulled the trigger

Speaker 1 and nothing happened with the gun. And so I just grabbed my purse and I ran down the stairs and out of there and I left him there.

Speaker 2 It was an incredible story.

Speaker 1 So at that point I remember pulling over again at the Hoover Dam and I thought I'm going to call Travis.

Speaker 1 And I tried calling him and I just went to voicemail and I called him again and I went to voicemail.

Speaker 2 As it turned out that incredible story was an incredible lie.

Speaker 3 Would you agree that you're the person who actually slit Mr. Alexander's throat from ear to ear?

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 4 Jodi Jodi Arias killed Travis Alexander. There is no question about it.
The million-dollar question is what would have forced her to do it?

Speaker 2 At her trial, Jodi Arias told the world a news story.

Speaker 4 It was Travis's continual abuse. It had reached a point of no return.

Speaker 1 I grabbed the gun. He was chasing me.
I turned around and I didn't even know that I shot him.

Speaker 2 Weaving a tale of fear and abuse.

Speaker 1 He called me a bitch and he kicked me in the ribs.

Speaker 6 Why did she call the police?

Speaker 1 I would have never called the police on Travis. I was loyal to him.

Speaker 2 We go back to the beginning, returning to our first meetings with Jodi for insight into the mind of a killer.

Speaker 2 Is it at all possible, at all possible, that that day that you were together, you had a fight, you had an argument, and you've just had enough?

Speaker 1 No, we didn't argue at all that day.

Speaker 7 Something happened in her to trigger this tremendous amount of rage.

Speaker 2 Was he ever abusive to you in any way?

Speaker 1 He lost his temper a few times. I never felt my life was in danger.

Speaker 5 Jodi gave us secrets in those interviews. She gave us an insight right into what she is thinking.

Speaker 2 He had a girlfriend who he was having a relationship with, but he was still having you on the side. Yeah.
Did you know that that relationship was?

Speaker 1 I would have never allowed him and I to continue to behave the way we did had I known.

Speaker 2 Like Casey Anthony and OJ Simpson before her, Jodi Arias captured the attention of the country. Arias pilted these lies.
On the Jodi Arias trial. Jodi Arias.
Jodi Arias.

Speaker 2 Looking back at these interviews, it would appear that Jodi thought she could fool everyone.

Speaker 1 I don't believe that I'm going to be convicted. I don't think that I'm going to spend one day in prison.

Speaker 2 State of Arizona versus Jodi Ann Arias. But in the end, Jodi Arias could not have been more wrong.
We, the jury, do find the defendant guilty.

Speaker 1 I know that people will look at me and say, oh yeah, he really meant a lot to you, didn't he? By the way that you just left him there.

Speaker 1 Not only that, they think that this is a fabrication and that I was the one that murdered him.

Speaker 2 I'm Maureen Maher tonight on 48 Hours,

Speaker 2 unraveling the lies of Jodi Arias.

Speaker 1 I have nothing but time on my hands to think, and that's when I really began to try and remember and relive that day.

Speaker 1 And then it just gets so horrible that I shut it out and I don't want to think about it.

Speaker 1 911 markets, a friend of ours is dead in his bedroom. His roommate just went in there and said there's lots of blood.

Speaker 2 It all started in 2008. When Travis Alexander was found dead in his bathroom, the first question homicide investigator Esteban Flores had was who? When did you first hear the name Jodi Arias?

Speaker 8 We heard that name from day one. There were certain individuals who gave us that name and said, you need to look into Jodi Arias.

Speaker 1 He has an ex-girlfriend that's been bothering him and as you know the ex-girlfriend's name, her name is Jodi.

Speaker 2 The state of Arizona versus Jodi and Arias. Now, four and a half years after Jodi Arias was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, Are we ready for the jury?

Speaker 2 The question that needed to be answered was why.

Speaker 3 Travis Victor Alexander, an individual that was one of the greatest blessings in her life. Well, she knocked the blessings out of him by putting a bullet in his head.

Speaker 2 Prosecutor Juan Martinez wasted no time exposing the jury to the brutal reality of this homicide.

Speaker 11 There was a hallway leading off to the bathroom where the shower stall was.

Speaker 12 That was all covered in blood.

Speaker 11 I noticed large large amounts of blood pooling and smears.

Speaker 2 When I first walked through this crime scene in 2008, I was struck by the echoes of the extraordinary struggle that had taken place here.

Speaker 2 And it was the evidence of that struggle collected at the scene that spoke volumes to the jury.

Speaker 3 107 is what?

Speaker 13 That's a photograph of the staining on the sink and some of the spatter inside of the sink running down. That is red staining on the tile floor in the bathroom.

Speaker 13 Red staining that was on the carpet in the master bedroom. Latent print 169A was individualized as the left palm of Jodi Ann Arias.

Speaker 3 Is that the bullet?

Speaker 1 Yes, it is. This is consistent with the 25 auto bullet.

Speaker 3 Did you have occasion to conduct a medical examination on the body of Travis Alexander?

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 2 One by one, Mesa County medical examiner Kevin Horn listed each of Travis Alexander's devastating wounds.

Speaker 6 The most significant wounds are going to be the neck wound, the stab wound that penetrates the heart, and then also the gunshot wound.

Speaker 5 She really slaughtered him. This was overkill.

Speaker 2 Criminal attorney Linda Kenney Bodden, who worked on the defense teams of Casey Anthony and Phil Spector, has seen more than her share of murders, but few like this.

Speaker 5 This showed that she was an incredibly angry young woman.

Speaker 2 What piece of evidence sticks out the most in your mind?

Speaker 5 Well, the piece of evidence that to me is amazing is the slit neck wound.

Speaker 1 Why?

Speaker 5 Because it was the coup de grace, in my opinion. It was the ultimate control over him.
He wasn't going to say anything bad to her ever again.

Speaker 5 To me, that was just vicious.

Speaker 2 Since her arrest in Wai Rica, California in 2008, Jodi has always insisted that she did not viciously murder Travis Alexander. But her details of how he died have changed repeatedly.

Speaker 3 Man, there's a number of stories that you gave in this particular case involving the killing. There was one that you gave to Detective Forrest right?

Speaker 1 Yes. He was like on his knees like this doing something like this or something like I don't know and I was like I was like are you okay? What's going on? What's going on?

Speaker 1 He's like go get help go get help and I said okay

Speaker 1 and

Speaker 1 I turned around. There

Speaker 1 two people there. One was a guy and one was a girl.

Speaker 3 But then you still gave another view of what happened to

Speaker 3 48 Hours, right?

Speaker 1 I think I was inconsistent in my lies, yes.

Speaker 3 So let's take a look at what you may have said for 48 hours.

Speaker 2 In the 25 years that it's been on the air, this is the first time a 48 hours interview has been used as evidence in a death penalty trial.

Speaker 1 I was hit on the back of the head.

Speaker 1 I don't think I was out very long. But when I came to, Travis was on all fours on the tile, and he was, well, I say all fours, but one of his hands was actually holding his head.

Speaker 3 And that's another version of the events that occurred on June 4th of 2008, correct?

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 3 And they're not true.

Speaker 1 Neither of them. Well, it's all the same thing.
It's just different versions. Can keep my life straight.

Speaker 2 But Boden says that her experience with other defendants suggests that the story Jodi told 48 hours may contain elements of the truth.

Speaker 5 Jodi gave us secrets in those interviews. She gave us an insight right into what she is thinking.

Speaker 1 She was in the bathroom standing over Travis and

Speaker 1 I

Speaker 5 charged her. She talks about having a fight with the woman and she describes the woman who attacked Travis as being, you know, about her height and Caucasian.

Speaker 14 Well, that's her.

Speaker 1 I ran down that hall and I pushed her as hard as I could and she fell over him.

Speaker 5 She then talks about power later on in that interview and she talks about having a gun.

Speaker 1 They just kept arguing back and forth whether or not you know to kill me.

Speaker 5 And if somebody has a gun to your head you have the ultimate power.

Speaker 1 It's like everything just stops when you

Speaker 1 when someone else is sitting there with a gun pointed to your head deciding your fate.

Speaker 5 So I think that a lot of what she was saying about what happened was what happened with her and Travis the day he died.

Speaker 2 Jodi's various stories aside, the prosecution says there are critical pieces of evidence that speak for themselves.

Speaker 3 These are accidental photographs.

Speaker 3 These are photographs that the killer did not want taken.

Speaker 5 Jodi, when she did the interview, she at one point said she likes to document everything.

Speaker 1 I've always had my camera, always, so it goes everywhere I go.

Speaker 5 So it's kind of amazing that she actually documented herself committing this murder.

Speaker 15 This individual's here.

Speaker 2 You see her foot.

Speaker 3 You see Mr. Alexander's head.
You see his arm. You see him bleeding profusely.
You do so.

Speaker 2 After nine days and 20 witnesses, Martinez believed his case against Jodi Arias was ironclad.

Speaker 1 The state may call its next witness.

Speaker 3 The state rests.

Speaker 2 Now, despite all the lies and deceitful behavior that the court has heard,

Speaker 2 the defense will have to convince the jury that on the day Travis died, it was actually Jodi Arius who was the victim.

Speaker 1 Travis flipped out and he stepped out of the shower and he picked me up and he body slammed me again on the tile.

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Speaker 16 Oh, holy night,

Speaker 1 the stars are brightly shining.

Speaker 1 It is the night of our

Speaker 2 Even in jail awaiting trial, Jodi Arias had little trouble keeping herself in the spotlight and caught the attention of the media when she won a jailhouse Christmas singing competition.

Speaker 1 Well, I appreciate your vote. Thank you very much.

Speaker 17 The defense calls Jodi Arias.

Speaker 9 Sirius, please stand to be sworn.

Speaker 2 And when the defense finally presented its case, Jodi took the spotlight again,

Speaker 2 taking the stand to tell her unbelievable story of self-defense. Among those listening were Jodi's mother,

Speaker 2 her aunt,

Speaker 2 and Travis's family.

Speaker 17 Did you kill Travis Alexander on June 4th, 2008?

Speaker 1 Yes, I did.

Speaker 7 Why?

Speaker 1 The simple answer is that he attacked me and I defended myself.

Speaker 5 The biggest hurdle is Jodi herself.

Speaker 2 The fact that she... According to trial lawyer Linda Kenny Botten, putting a defendant like Jodi Arias on the stand can be extremely problematic.

Speaker 5 Because then the case only becomes about the client and what she said. And that jury is always going to go back to what Jodi said.

Speaker 9 Miss Arias, you are still under oath. Do you understand? Yes.

Speaker 2 And what Jodi had to say was shocking.

Speaker 1 I'm taking pictures of him. We were trying out different poses.

Speaker 1 and when I went to delete the photos as I moved the camera it slipped out of my hand.

Speaker 17 So what happens after you drop the camera?

Speaker 1 Travis flipped out and he

Speaker 1 stepped out of the shower and he lifted me up and he body slammed me again on the tile.

Speaker 1 I remembered where he kept a gun, so I grabbed it. He was chasing me.
I turned around and we were in the middle of the bathroom. I pointed it at him with both of my hands.

Speaker 1 I thought that would stop him, but he just kept running. I didn't even think I was holding the trigger.
I just was pointing it at him. And I didn't even know that I shot him.
It just went off.

Speaker 1 And after I broke away from him, he

Speaker 1 said, fing kill you, bitch.

Speaker 2 Jodi's memory of how Travis allegedly attacked her was striking. And yet, she was at a loss for words when asked to explain her actions.

Speaker 17 Once you broke away from him,

Speaker 17 what do you remember?

Speaker 1 Almost nothing.

Speaker 17 Do you remember stabbing Travis Alexander?

Speaker 1 I have no memory of stabbing him.

Speaker 17 Do you remember dragging him across the floor?

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 1 And I just remember screaming.

Speaker 1 I I don't remember anything after that.

Speaker 19 But there are many people that never remember the actual events.

Speaker 2 To help the jury understand why Jodi had trouble remembering, the defense called Dr. Richard Samuels, a clinical psychologist who tested Jodi for PTSD.

Speaker 3 Her scores on the post-traumatic stress disorder scale confirm the presence of PTSD, right?

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 2 Samuels concluded that Jodi suffered amnesia from the trauma of the attack.

Speaker 19 And it's clear from the research that a large percentage of individuals who are in such settings do not remember or have cloudy and foggy memories of what has transpired.

Speaker 3 How many hours did you spend with her?

Speaker 19 Between 25 and 30 hours.

Speaker 2 But the prosecution insisted that Samuel's diagnosis was flawed. Because when he examined Jodi three years ago, she still maintained the intruder story.

Speaker 3 You confirmed the presence of PTSD, even though you've just now told us that this is based on a lie.

Speaker 19 Perhaps I should have readministered that test.

Speaker 12 Altered mental states which are of such magnitude that a person has little or no awareness of their behavior are very,

Speaker 12 very uncommon.

Speaker 2 Dr. Stuart Kleinman is a forensic psychiatrist.
and consultant for 48 hours.

Speaker 12 So it's very reasonable to conclude this person acted out their rage and told lies about it afterwards.

Speaker 2 Jodi Arias claims she not only has no memory of stabbing Travis more than two dozen times and slitting his throat, but she also has no memory of altering the scene.

Speaker 2 It wasn't until after driving hundreds of miles into the desert that her mental fog apparently lifted, and she suddenly realized she had done something horribly wrong.

Speaker 7 Did you believe he was alive?

Speaker 1 I didn't know, but I didn't think he was.

Speaker 1 I was scared and I couldn't imagine calling 911 and

Speaker 1 telling them what I had just done.

Speaker 12 If someone after a crime engages in behavior which suggests an effort to cover it up, then that would not be consistent with amnesia.

Speaker 12 If you didn't remember what had happened, what's the need to cover up something?

Speaker 3 You did

Speaker 3 grant interviews to people from 48 Hours, didn't you? Yes. There were two interviews, right?

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 2 Martinez hoped that by exposing Jodi as a liar, he would discredit her with the jury. And once again, presented clips from Jodi's 48 Hours interviews.

Speaker 1 Travis's family deserves to know what happened. And because I may be the only person that will ever be able to say what happened that day, I wrote them a letter.

Speaker 3 In that letter, you actually tell the family that the people that did it were this male and this female, right?

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 3 So you lied to them, didn't you?

Speaker 1 Yes. When you asked me if I was angry or outraged, I'm more angry and outraged that his life was taken and that he had so much potential.

Speaker 1 I know that I'm innocent and even though this is a very serious thing to be charged with,

Speaker 1 there's no reason for me to be sad

Speaker 1 because I know that

Speaker 1 I'm not, I'd never hurt Travis. I did see Travis the day that he passed away and

Speaker 1 a lot of things happened that day.

Speaker 1 I almost lost my life as well.

Speaker 3 Nowhere in that recitation or in any of the interviews that you gave with 48 Hours did you ever indicate that you had memory loss, correct?

Speaker 1 That's correct. I have faith that in the end everything will be made known, everything will come out.
And in the meantime, smile, smile, say cheese.

Speaker 12 It takes a certain kind of person with great chutzpah to go on national television and tell a big lie to the entire world.

Speaker 1 Am I allowed to tell you what I'm trying to say?

Speaker 2 And Jodi displayed that same tenacity during her 18 days on the witness stand.

Speaker 3 You say that you have memory problems, but it depends on the circumstance, right?

Speaker 1 That's right.

Speaker 3 What factors influence your having a memory problem?

Speaker 1 Usually when men like you are screaming at me or grilling me, or someone like Travis doing the same.

Speaker 2 So that's... Throughout the heated cross-examination, Martinez vigorously attacked Jody's story.

Speaker 3 Ma'am, were you crying when you were shooting him?

Speaker 1 I don't remember.

Speaker 3 Were you crying when you were stabbing him?

Speaker 1 I don't remember.

Speaker 3 How about when you cut his throat? Were you crying, ma'am?

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 2 But to save their client's life, the defense tried to destroy the only thing left of Travis Alexander, his reputation.

Speaker 17 The instances of violence were becoming more frequent and more severe.

Speaker 5 Fear, love,

Speaker 6 sex, lies, and dirty little secrets will help you understand, I think,

Speaker 17 what happened in those three minutes.

Speaker 4 Jodi's life was in danger.

Speaker 20 She would either live or she would die.

Speaker 2 For the entire time that Jodi Arias' fate hung in the balance in court, her defense was on a mission to save her life.

Speaker 4 Jodi had to make a choice.

Speaker 2 By proving Travis left Jodi no choice but to defend herself.

Speaker 4 The million-dollar question is what would have forced her to do it?

Speaker 2 Jodi's answer, an accusation of her own.

Speaker 4 It was Travis's continual abuse.

Speaker 4 And on June 4th of 2008, it had reached a point of no return.

Speaker 10 Jodi now claimed there was a dark side to Travis and that she lied to cover up the truth about domestic abuse and their relationship.

Speaker 4 Her fear and her panic about what had happened led her to tell different stories. He threatened to kill her.
And given her experience with him, she had no reason to not believe him.

Speaker 10 It was a challenging defense. One that, in addition to her story of intruders, Jodi may have been considering when she spoke with 48 Hours just after her arrest.

Speaker 2 Was he ever abusive to you in any way?

Speaker 1 He lost his temper a few times, and it wasn't anything that really

Speaker 1 required me to...

Speaker 1 That I felt... I never felt my life was in danger.

Speaker 5 I'll say that.

Speaker 2 Did you show the physical signs of it?

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 1 But I was able to hide it pretty well, I think.

Speaker 2 Arms?

Speaker 1 Arms, legs, torso.

Speaker 2 But Jodi testified to several incidents of alleged abuse.

Speaker 1 And he body slammed me on the floor at the foot of his bed. He called me a bitch, and he kicked me in the ribs.
He went to kick me again, and I put my hand out, and it

Speaker 1 clipped my hand and hit my finger.

Speaker 2 Defense attorney Kirk Nurmi even had Jodi display her injuries to the jury.

Speaker 7 Could you hold up your hand for us so we could see?

Speaker 6 Why didn't you call the police?

Speaker 1 I would have never called the police on Travis.

Speaker 2 There is no record of Jodi reporting this abuse. And his friends, Chris and Skye Hughes, say that is not the Travis they knew.

Speaker 15 We've never, ever seen any evidence of abuse. They couldn't find one human other than Jodi, who we know is a liar.
They couldn't find one person that had a story of being abused by Travis.

Speaker 20 She's making it up as she's going along.

Speaker 2 And they say Jodi's most appalling lie came next.

Speaker 1 I walked in and Travis started grabbing at something on the bed. It was a photograph.

Speaker 13 What was the photograph of?

Speaker 1 It was a picture of a little boy. He was dressed in underwear.

Speaker 1 He

Speaker 1 seemed very

Speaker 1 ashamed with himself.

Speaker 20 She's saying this whole time she knew he was a pedophile. They're just lies.

Speaker 2 You saw him do that.

Speaker 3 That's a lie, isn't it, ma'am?

Speaker 1 I wish it was a lie.

Speaker 2 Prosecutor Martinez wasn't buying it either.

Speaker 3 It is a hateful allegation with nothing to support it. It's so easy for her to make these allegations.
It's so easy for her to get on the witness stand, as you've seen, and lie.

Speaker 7 And this

Speaker 3 is really

Speaker 1 the pinnacle.

Speaker 10 Trial attorney Linda Kenny Bodden says if the defense could not prove Jodi's allegations, they would come back to haunt her.

Speaker 5 To say that she was physically abused and she was fighting for her life that day and that's why she had to kill him, that's just going to get the jury angry.

Speaker 4 And do you believe in your expert opinion that Jodi was a battered woman or is a battered woman?

Speaker 14 Yes, I do.

Speaker 2 To convince jurors that Jodi was a battered woman, her attorney, Jennifer Wilmot, called domestic violence expert Alice Laviolette. who testified for several days.

Speaker 4 How would you characterize their relationship with their relationship at this point in time given your expertise in the area?

Speaker 14 I would call it a domestically abusive relationship.

Speaker 2 Laviolette testified that Jodi and Travis's relationship was abusive both verbally.

Speaker 4 Does he call her names like bitch?

Speaker 17 Yes.

Speaker 4 And calling her a whore?

Speaker 14 Yes.

Speaker 2 And physically.

Speaker 14 He grabbed her by the shoulders, threw her to the ground, and then told her she wasn't leaving.

Speaker 14 And when she's when she hits the floor, she makes a sound and he says, basically, don't act like that hurts, bitch.

Speaker 2 As a defense attorney, how would you use this relationship between the two of them?

Speaker 5 You can't go after a victim. Going after a victim in a courtroom, you might as well just turn in your license, really.
So you have to be able to be very soft with regard to Travis here.

Speaker 3 Do you feel a need?

Speaker 2 The prosecutor was anything but soft during heated cross-examination.

Speaker 3 You actually are

Speaker 3 biased in favor of the defendant, aren't you?

Speaker 14 I don't believe I'm biased.

Speaker 14 You're mischaracterizing what I do, Mr. Martinez.

Speaker 3 One of the questions here is: why is it that you felt the need to coddle her?

Speaker 14 Mr. Martinez, are you angry at me?

Speaker 3 Ma'am, is that relevant to you? Is that important to you? Does that make any difference to your evaluation, whether or not the prosecutor is angry? Yes or no?

Speaker 14 If you were in my group, I would ask you to take a timeout, Mr. Martinez.

Speaker 2 More layers of Arius's complicated psyche were peeled away when the state called its expert witness, Dr. Janine DeMarte.

Speaker 1 This reporting of domestic violence has changed over time frequently. My opinion is that there did not appear to be significant abuse.

Speaker 2 DeMarte also dismissed defense claims that Jodi suffered memory loss from post-traumatic stress.

Speaker 1 She indicated to me that she had a very large gap. in her memory.
That's not how it typically presents with traumatic memories.

Speaker 2 Instead, Demarte testified that tests she administered suggest Jodi may have a borderline personality disorder.

Speaker 1 You could see it in her journal entries that went from happy to sad very quickly. There is some indication that she has some anger problems, that she had some strong feelings of anger internally.

Speaker 3 She couldn't let him go. Even from Wairica, she couldn't let him go.

Speaker 10 The prosecutor said Jodi's desire to be with Travis had no bounds and she would stop at nothing to get what she wanted.

Speaker 3 Her motivation for this was that she just wanted him.

Speaker 2 You don't think she could have just snapped?

Speaker 5 No, this was a buildup that led to her ultimately making a decision in a passionate way.

Speaker 2 By continuing to have sex with Jodi on and off for at least nine months after they broke up, Bodden says Travis may have unknowingly sent Jodi mixed signals.

Speaker 5 He really didn't know and probably didn't care because when you're young and you're having sex the way Jodi made it very easy for him. And he didn't realize that he had this rattlesnake by the neck.

Speaker 5 Whatever he did fed into her craziness, fed into her insanity, fed into her desire that she wanted him and she wanted to control him and she wanted to have a life with him.

Speaker 5 It was the perfect storm that something had to happen.

Speaker 20 She had a vision that they were going to get married. And from that point, she would not let that go and she would not let Travis go.
Jodi could not deal with the rejection.

Speaker 20 Lots of people told Jodi to move on. And she said, I can't.
He'd be the most amazing husband. I can't picture anyone else being the father of my children.

Speaker 21 She was obsessed.

Speaker 2 Dr. Stuart Kleinman says, obsession can have dangerous consequences.

Speaker 12 If a person has an intense need for something and a clear, consistent boundary is put up by another individual, that will probably help both of those individuals.

Speaker 12 And ultimately, if that need is never going to really be satisfied create an intense level of rage.

Speaker 5 Was sex a tool for Jodi? Of course it was. But was Travis playing with fire? Absolutely.

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Speaker 2 For the families of Jodi Arias and Travis Alexander, Enduring the trial was a trial in itself.

Speaker 3 What are we looking at here?

Speaker 11 That's the shower stall with the body

Speaker 1 crammed down in the bottom of it.

Speaker 5 Oh, it's very, very hard. I mean they're never going to get over this.

Speaker 2 Trial attorney Linda Kenney Botton knows the price both families paid.

Speaker 5 Just as much as Travis lost his life, there's going to be parts of that family that have died in the process.

Speaker 23 It's a horrible, horrible thing happened to the best person.

Speaker 2 It was an unthinkable crime, as Travis's siblings Samantha and Stephen told us in 2008.

Speaker 23 And you would never in a million years think that that would happen to Travis because things like this don't happen to people like Travis.

Speaker 3 And you're the one that did this, right?

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 2 The family of Jodi Arius has had to endure their own torment. First, watching as she was cast as a cold-blooded killer.

Speaker 3 And you would acknowledge that a lot of the stab wounds were to the back of the head and to the back of the torso, correct?

Speaker 4 Okay.

Speaker 1 I don't know if I don't count them. I don't know.
I'll just take your word for it.

Speaker 2 And then hearing Jodi tell the world that she has been abused her entire life.

Speaker 17 You told us that your dad hit you with the belt.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 6 After age seven. Yes.

Speaker 17 Did he leave welts?

Speaker 1 He didn't leave Welts as often as my mom. She also used a belt.

Speaker 1 My dad was very intimidating, so I don't think he needed to hit us quite as hard to get the coin across. My mom didn't carry that fear factor with her, so I think she used more force.

Speaker 3 She's lying. She's making it all up.
And she staged her defense by

Speaker 3 lies.

Speaker 2 Do you think jurors are impacted by family who are in the courtroom, their reaction to, say, crime scene photos or even testimony by the defendant?

Speaker 12 I think they are.

Speaker 7 But then they do a very good job of compartmentalizing it.

Speaker 2 Jury expert Richard Gabriel, who has worked with the defense teams for Casey Anthony and O.J. Simpson, says jurors are able to separate themselves from courtroom drama.

Speaker 7 Does it impact them when they hear sobs in the galley?

Speaker 7 Yes, they absolutely hear that, but they do a pretty good job of trying to divorce themselves from that.

Speaker 5 The jury's not going to feel sorry for Jodi. They can only feel sorry for her family and hope that the sorrow they feel for her family is more merciful than what she felt for Travis.

Speaker 2 And during her 18 days on the stand, Bodden says Jodi thought she could win the mercy of the jury.

Speaker 5 Some defendants are manipulative, and they think, they think they can manipulate the police.

Speaker 5 And they also then think they can manipulate the courtroom, and that's the problem. You can't manipulate everybody.

Speaker 20 Her being on the stand for so long was just disgusting.

Speaker 2 Travis's friends, Chris and Skye Hughes, believe Jodi relished her her months in the spotlight.

Speaker 20 She enjoyed it. You know, she enjoyed every moment of it.
She enjoyed the attention. She enjoyed toying with people.
She enjoyed, you know,

Speaker 20 looking over and making up these just

Speaker 21 disgusting stories for the jury.

Speaker 2 Jodi may have felt there was no question she would be found innocent, but the jurors had some questions of their own. Over 200 questions read by the judge.

Speaker 9 How could you kiss another man when you knew what you just did to Travis?

Speaker 2 Arizona is only one of three states that allows jurors to ask questions.

Speaker 9 Why were you afraid of the consequences if you killed Travis in self-defense? You said that one of your worst fears was for everyone to find out what was going on in your relationship.

Speaker 9 So why did you talk to 48 Hours and other TV stations?

Speaker 5 I thought that the jurors in this case asked better questions than the prosecutor of defense many times.

Speaker 2 Bottom says those jury questions were telling.

Speaker 5 They really got to the heart of the matter.

Speaker 9 After all the lies you have told, why should we believe you now?

Speaker 1 The lies that I've told in this case

Speaker 1 can be tied directly back to either protecting Travis's reputation or my involvement in his death.

Speaker 2 In the end, both sides agreed. It came down to one question: Do you believe Jodi Arius?

Speaker 3 She premeditated it.

Speaker 3 You now have a duty. You are to reach a decision as to whether or not the defendant committed first-degree murder.

Speaker 17 So what I'm saying to you, ladies and gentlemen,

Speaker 17 is ultimately,

Speaker 17 if Miss Arius is guilty of any crime at all, it is the crime of manslaughter and nothing more.

Speaker 2 But for the family and friends of Travis Alexander, there was no debate, and there never had been. There was only one verdict, one punishment appropriate for Jodi Arius.

Speaker 15 I want the maximum that the law will allow.

Speaker 23 Ultimately, I really hope that she gets the death penalty.

Speaker 2 Justice

Speaker 2 And what it would finally look like

Speaker 2 would depend on just which Jodi Arias the jury in this tense Phoenix courtroom ultimately bought into.

Speaker 5 She does seem to adapt, which is why I think she's like a praying mantis here, is that she is a chameleon.

Speaker 20 Jodi's a manipulator, and that's what she does.

Speaker 2 Through 18 days of her testimony, the world had witnessed the many faces of Jodi Arius.

Speaker 15 She's always reading the environment, right? Trying to determine how she's supposed to act. She's always trying to be something that she's not, right?

Speaker 21 When I see Jodi Arius, I just feel utter disgust.

Speaker 20 Like, she's not human, you know, she doesn't feel

Speaker 21 like normal people feel.

Speaker 2 She's over here, so for Travis Alexander's loved ones, Jodi Arius is nothing but a fake.

Speaker 23 Don't be fooled by Jodi's sweet demeanor.

Speaker 23 She's a liar and she's evil.

Speaker 23 And she deserves to be judged and convicted.

Speaker 1 Who do you think killed him? I have no idea.

Speaker 2 The stories told by the 32-year-old California waitress were consistent with just one thing. A defendant who lied from the start.

Speaker 23 Nothing about the truth, Stop.

Speaker 1 My mom began to carry a wooden spoon in her purse.

Speaker 2 To family.

Speaker 19 Were you at Travis's house?

Speaker 2 To the police. Absolutely not.

Speaker 2 And to 48 Hours. How do you feel about being accused of this crime?

Speaker 1 I know that I won't be held accountable for killing him because I had nothing to do with that.

Speaker 1 I had

Speaker 1 everything to lose and nothing to gain if I were to kill Travis.

Speaker 1 Okay, let me get those off you.

Speaker 2 It seems like a lifetime ago.

Speaker 1 I didn't kill Travis. It's a lifetime ago.

Speaker 2 But it was only four years.

Speaker 1 If a conviction happens, I know that I won't be the first person to be wrongly convicted and possibly wrongly sentenced for either life in prison or the death penalty.

Speaker 2 Then that story evaporated in the Arizona desert. What was left was an admission.

Speaker 3 And that's when you shot him in the face, right?

Speaker 1 Um, yeah, that's when the gun went off.

Speaker 2 And an excuse.

Speaker 1 And he's just screaming angry. It had already almost killed me.

Speaker 19 We are so very thankful for the opportunity to gather here as friends with Travis.

Speaker 2 For those who loved him.

Speaker 14 Travis Petravis.

Speaker 2 The thought that Travis Alexander somehow had it coming to him was the final crime against a murdered man.

Speaker 20 She slaughtered him on June 4th, and then she has slaughtered him every day for the last five years with the lies that she's told.

Speaker 2 After three days of deliberations,

Speaker 2 there was a verdict.

Speaker 2 The state of Arizona versus Jodi Ann Arias verdict count one.

Speaker 2 We the jury duly impaneled and sworn in the above entitled action upon our oaths do find the defendant as to count one first-degree murder guilty.

Speaker 2 Guilty of first-degree murder, the highest charge the jury had.

Speaker 2 The death penalty was now on the table.

Speaker 2 Jodi Arias seemed shocked, holding back tears of sadness,

Speaker 2 while Travis's family could not hold back their tears of joy.

Speaker 15 I'd rather have Travis Alexander back.

Speaker 15 I'd rather have my body back, but we can't have him back. So I'm as happy as I can be given the circumstances.

Speaker 2 A week after the verdict,

Speaker 2 The sentencing phase begins with the prosecutor trying to convince the jury Jodi Arias deserves death.

Speaker 3 And the last thing that Mr. Alexander felt was this knife coming towards him.

Speaker 2 The first decision comes quickly. The jury rules the murder was especially cruel, clearing the way for the penalty phase.
Is this your true verdict, So Say you want and all?

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 2 The jury heard from those who love Travis Alexander, his brother Stephen.

Speaker 1 Why him?

Speaker 24 Unfortunately, I won't ever get the answers to most of my questions. Questions like, how much did he suffer?

Speaker 2 His sister, Samantha.

Speaker 1 Travis was not shy.

Speaker 21 He was full of life.

Speaker 2 And the jury heard from the defense that Arius would testify one more time.

Speaker 17 And talk to you

Speaker 15 about how she viewed her life.

Speaker 2 That should be next week, when we may also find out whether Jody Arius lives in this Arizona prison for a minimum of 25 years or dies here.

Speaker 2 Four years ago, she seemed to sense her fate.

Speaker 1 If I had my choice, I would take the death penalty because I don't want to spend the rest of my life in prison.

Speaker 2 And after her guilty verdict, Arias seemed almost wistful in talking to a local reporter.

Speaker 1 I believe death is the ultimate freedom, so I'd rather just have my freedom as soon as I can get it.

Speaker 2 Freedom wasn't an option for Travis Alexander.

Speaker 2 He was home in Riverside, California.

Speaker 2 His image silent and cold, carved in stone.

Speaker 2 And soon, we'll see if Jodi Arias gets her wish, joining three other women on Arizona's death row, and perhaps making one final headline,

Speaker 2 becoming the first woman executed in that state since 1930.

Speaker 19 Jodi Arius was sentenced to life in prison without parole.