Self-defense​ or a sociopath? Jodi Arias

**Includes graphic images, viewer discretion is advised**

Travis Alexander, born on July 28th 1977, was an American salesman who was murdered in his house in Mesa, Arizona by his ex-girlfriend, Jodi Ann Arias. Alexander sustained multiple knife wounds and a gunshot to the head. Arias testified that she killed him in self-defence, but did not convince a jury and was instead sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on April 13th 2015.

Travis Alexander and Jodi Arias:

Travis was born in Riverside, California to Gary and Pamela Alexander. At the age of 11, Travis moved in with his paternal grandparents, who introduced him to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After his father died in 1997, his seven siblings were also taken in by their paternal grandmother. Alexander was a salesman and motivation speaker for Pre-Paid Legal Services (PPL), a company that sells legal service products in the United States and Canada.

Jodi Arias was born in Salinas, California, to parents William and Sandra Arias. She met Alexander in September 2006 at a PPl conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Arias converted to Alexander’s Mormon faith, and on November 26th 2006, she was baptised into the LDS church in a ceremony in southern California. Alexander and Arias began dating in February 2007, and Arias moved to Mesa to live closer to her boyfriend. In March 2007, she moved to Yreka, California and lived there with her grandparents.

Alexander and Arias dated intermittently for a year and a half, often in a long-distance relationship, taking turns travelling between their respective California and Arizona homes. Alexander’s friends tended to have a negative opinion of Arias, stating that the relationship was unusually tumultuous.

Murder:

Alexander was murdered on June 4th2008. His body had 27-29 stab wounds, a slit throat and a gunshot wound to the head. Kevin Horn, a medical examiner, testified that Alexander’s jugular vein, common carotid artery and trachea had been slashed and that Alexander had defensive wounds on his hand. Horn further testified that it was possible that the gunshot wound may have occurred after Alexander had died, and that the back-stab wounds were shallow.

Investigation:

In early 2008, Alexander told friends that Arias would join him for a work-related trip to Cancún, Mexico, which was due to happen on June 15th 2008. In April, Alexander asked to change his travel companion to another female friend.

On May 28th 2008, Arias’s grandparents reported a burglary at their residence. Among the missing objects taken was a 25-caliber automatic Colt pistol, which was never recovered. This later became significant as a shell casing from this gun was found near Alexander’s body at the murder scene.

On June 2nd, between 1 and 3am, Arias called Alexander 4 times, but the longest call lasted 17 seconds, implying that Arias did not get through to him. After 3am, Alexander called Arias twice, the first time for 18 minutes, and the second for 41 minutes. At 4:03am, Arias called Alexander back and the call last 2 minutes and 48 seconds. At 5:39am, Arias set out to drive south to rent a car for a long trip to Utah. At 8:04am, Arias rented a car at “Budget Rent a Car” in Redding, California. Arias visited friends in southern California on her way to Utah for a PPL work conference and to meet with Ryan Burns, a PPL co-worker. By late evening on June 3rd, Arias apparently set out for Salt Lake City.

Alexander missed an important conference call on the evening of June 4th. The following day, Arias met up with co-worker Ryan Burns in West Jordan, Utah, and attended business meetings for the conference. Burns later said that he noticed Aria’s formerly blonde hair was now dark brown, and that she had numerous cuts on her hands. On June 6th, Arias left Salt Lake City and drove west towards California. She called Alexander several times and left several voicemail messages for him. She also accessed Alexander’s cell phone voicemail system. When Arias returned the car to the rental company on June 7th, it had been driven around 2,800miles. The rental clerk testified that the car was missing its floor mats and had red stains on its front and rear seats, but no stains could be verified as the car was cleaned before the police could examine it, and it could not be determined if that car had floor mats when Arias picked it up.

On June 9th, after hearing nothing from Alexander for over 5 days, a group of friends went to his home. He hadn’t spoken to his roommates for several days, but they believed he was out of town and therefore didn’t have suspicion. After finding a key to Alexander’s master bedroom, his friends entered and found large pools of blood in the hallway to the master bedroom, where his body was found in the shower. The friends called 911 immediately, and when she dispatcher asked if Alexander had been suicidal, or if anyone could be angry enough to hurt him, Arias was named by his friends as a possible suspect, stating that Alexander had said she was stalking him, accessing his Facebook account and had slashed his car tyres.

Whilst searching Alexander’s home, police found his recently purchased digital camera damaged in the washing machine. Police were able to recover deleted images showing Arias and Alexander in sexually suggestive poses, taken at approximately 1:40pm on June 4th. The final photograph of Alexander alive, showing him in the shower, was taken at 5:29pm that day. Photos taken moments later show an individual, believed to be Alexander, “profusely bleeding” on the bathroom floor. Other images showed Alexander’s bloody body on the floor, including a foot, which appeared to have been taken by accident when the camera was dropped. A bloody palm print was discovered along the wall in the bathroom hallway. It was tested and determined that it contained DNA from both Arias and Alexander.

The camera recovered from the washing machine in Alexander's flat

Arias’ arrest:

On July 9th 2008, Arias was indicted by a grand jury in Maricopa County, Arizona for the first-degree murder of Alexander. She was arrested at her home on July 15thand subsequently extradited to Arizona on September 5th. Arias pled not guilty on September 11th. During this time, she gave several different stories about her involvement in Alexander’s death. She originally told police that she had not been in Mesa on the day of the murder, and had last seen Alexander in March 2007. Arias later told police that two intruders had broken into Alexander’s home, murdering him and attacking her. Two years after her arrest, Arias told police that she killed Alexander in self-defence, claiming that she had been a victim of domestic violence.

Arias demonstrated bizarre behaviour throughout her police interrogation. The initial interrogation lasted 4 hours, and Arias was sobbing throughout the entire interview. However, her attitude dramatically changed when the prosecutor left the room. She was recorded talking to herself, laughing, singing, playing with a rubbish bin and doing a headstand against the wall. Mendes, the officer to arrest Arias at her grandparents’ house, explained how himself and other officers were “watching her behaviour from the next room” and added “I’ve seen some strange things, but that was up on the top”.

The trial:

The trial was commenced in Maricopa Country’s superior Court before Judge Sherry K. Stephens on December 10th, 2011. Arias was represented by appointed counsel, L. Kirk Nurmia and Jennifer Willmott, who argued that Alexander’s death was a justifiable homicide committed in self-defence. The prosecution was led by Juan Martinez. In opening arguments in January 2nd2013, Martinez sought the death penalty.

Ryan Burns testimony

Burns testified that when Arias visited him in Utah, the two had spent several hours hugging and kissing on a large bean bag chair. She told him that she had cut her hands on broken glass whilst working at a restaurant called Margaritaville. A detective testified that there was no restaurant to exist under that name in the Yreka area, and at the time, Arias was actually working at a restaurant called Casa Ramos.

Staged Burglary

The prosecution argued that a 25 caliber round was found near Alexander’s body, and that a gun of the same caliber had been stolen from Arias’ residence in Yreka the week before. They argued that she had staged the burglary and used the gun to kill Alexander. In addition, in the final days before his death, Alexander called her a ‘sociopath’ and ‘the worst thing that ever happened to me’, and stated that he was afraid of her.

Own defence

Arias took the stand in her own defence on 4th February 2013, testifying for a total of 18 days. On the initial day of her testimony, Arias told of being violently abused by her parents, which began when she was just 7 years old. She claimed her mother would hit her with a wooden spoon if she misbehaved, with enough force to leave welts on her skin. She also said her father abused her with a belt. Both of her parents have categorically denied these allegations to the police, and claimed she has made these lies up.

On the second day on the stand, Arias said that her sex life included oral and anal sex, but commented that whilst she considered these forms of sex to be ‘real sex’, Alexander did not as they were technically not against Mormon rules concerning regular sexual intercourse. Arias said that they eventually had intercourse, but less often. In court, a phone sex tape was played in which Alexander explains how he wants to “zip tie [Arias] to a tree and have anal sex with [Arias]” whilst she was dressed as Little Red Riding Hood. Arias had recorded this conversation without Alexander’s knowledge or consent, and hoped to use it to embarrass Alexander to his Mormon peers.

Arias testified that her relationship with Alexander became increasingly physically and emotionally abusive. Arias said that Alexander shook her while saying, “I’m fucking sick of you”, to which he then began screaming at her, and body slammed her onto the floor at the foot of his bed. Arias explained how he taunted her, saying “don’t act like it hurts” and called her a bitch before kicking her in the ribs. According to Arias, the dysfunction of their relationship had reached its climax when she killed him in self-defence after he became enraged when she dropped his camera in the shower, forcing her to fight for her life. This account was the third different description of Alexander’s death given by Arias, which severely damaged her credibility. The prosecution also used several of Alexander’s ex-girlfriends as witnesses, all of whom state he never exhibited any problems with anger of violence.

Arias also claimed that Alexander was a paedophile, and in January 2008, explained how she had walked in on Alexander masturbating to pictures of young boys and confessed to being attracted to children. He then convinced her to sleep with him in order to cure his ‘deviant urges’. She testified: "When I walked in, Travis was on the bed masturbating," she said. "He started grabbing at something on the bed, and I realized they were papers, and one kind of went sailing off the bed in the chaotic way paper falls, and it fell at my feet, and it was a photograph. It was a picture of a little boy... in underwear or briefs."

She also explained how that he once sent her a package in the mail containing a t-shirt and a pair of underwear emblazoned with the words “travis’” and a pair of Spiderman themed children’s underwear. She claimed to have thrown away the Spiderman underwear.

The underwear Alexander sent Arias

Arias also claimed that some of her sexual exploits with Alexander left her feeling like a prostitute, including a time when she played out a fantasy for him which involved performing oral sex for him on her front porch without speaking. She testified that he drove up to her house, got out of his car and walked up to the porch for oral sex, and then left a few pieces of candy behind and walked away without a word after it was over. Prosecutor Juan Martinez argued with her about how responsible she was for the couple's sex life. "You introduced KY Jelly into the relationship to make it more sexually enjoyable, right? When we're talking about the level of experimentation, it looks like both of you were experimenting together sexually. So, when we hear things like, 'I felt like a prostitute,' that's not exactly true, is it?" Martinez said.

Richard Samuels testifies

Richard Samuels is a psychologist, who testified for nearly 6 days for the defence. He said Arias was likely suffering from acute stress at the time of the killing, sending her body into a ‘fight or flight’ mode to defend herself, which caused her brain to stop retaining any memory – Arias initially stated that she had a lapse in memory regarding Alexander’s death, but prosecutor Martinez highlighted the inconsistencies in her story and she later admitted to stabbing and shooting Alexander. Samuels also diagnosed Arias with PTSD.

Martinez questioned Samuels’ credibility, accusing him of forming a relationship with Arias and being biased in his testimony. Samuels had previously stated that he had a compassion for Arias.

Janeen DeMarte testifies

Clinical psychologist Janeen DeMarte testified for the prosecution, stating that she found no evidence Alexander had abused Arias, and no evidence of PTSD or amnesia. Instead, DeMarte said Arias suffered from borderline personality disorder, as she showed signs of immaturity and an ‘unstable sense of identity’.

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On May 7th 2013, after 15 hours of deliberation, Arias was found guilty of first-degree murder. Out of 12 jurors, five found her guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, and 7 jurors found her guilty of both first-degree premeditated murder and felony murder. As the guilty verdict was read, Alexander’s family smiled and hugged each other.

Further court proceedings were undertaken, deciding whether Arias should receive the death penalty or not. Arias claimed that initially she wanted to die, but she had reflected on her decision and decided that her life was worth more than that, and claimed she ‘didn’t want to cause any more hurt to people in the court-room’. She claimed she would donate her hair to locks of love whilst in prison, and sell her artwork, with the proceeds going to a domestic violence charity. Each time the decision was made, there was a hung jury, but majority of the jurors were in favour of the death penalty. In 2015, Arias was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Interesting videos of Arias and relating to this case: