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Jane Velez-Mitchell

Ex-Lover Testifies on Behalf of Jodi Arias

Aired January 29, 2013 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST: Tonight, a wild day in court as the defense in the Jodi Arias case begins and tempers immediately flare. One of Jodi`s long-time ex- -- ex-lovers tries to paint Jodi Arias as prim and proper. A hard worker and a loving girlfriend. Will the jury believe that? Or will they believe the dark and murderous profile of Jodi the killer that the prosecution describes?

And will Jodi take the stand to speak for herself?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VELEZ-MITCHELL (voice-over): An explosive day in court as Jodi Arias`s ex-lover takes the stand in her defense and speaks lovingly of their time together, singing her praises.

But then prosecutors grill him on cross-examination, and we learn Jodi borrowed two gas cans from him just before driving to California and killing Travis Alexander. Was she trying to cover her tracks?

And why did Jodi get breast implants? Is that relevant to this case? Is this defense backfiring? We`re taking your calls.

DARRYL BREWER, JODI`S EX-LOVER: I knew Jodi because we were in love.

JUAN MARTINEZ, PROSECUTOR: Did Jodi ever act jealous at all?

BREWER: Not that I saw.

JODI ARIAS, ON TRIAL FOR MURDER: What`s my motive?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jealousy? Anger? Fear, fear of being alone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She had broken into his e-mail accounts, his bank accounts. She would sneak into his house through the doggie door and sleep on his couch at night without him knowing.

MARTINEZ: Did you ever notice her being violent or having a violent temper?

BREWER: No.

MARTINEZ: What did she say?

BREWER: "I just decided to take a little bit longer trip."

MARTINEZ: She was asking you for gas cans in May of 2008 at the very end so that she could make a trip to Mesa, Arizona?

BREWER: It seemed to me like she was not as rational and as not as logical as she was prior.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight a wild, explosive and sexually-charged day in the Jodi Arias courtroom. Day one of the defense case brought real fireworks. But can Jodi`s ex-boyfriend`s testimony save her from a murder conviction?

Good evening. I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell coming to you live.

The stunning 32-year-old photographer admits she stabbed Travis Alexander 29 times, slit his throat from ear to ear, and shot him in the face. She left gruesome wounds like the ones you see here in these autopsy photos, but she claims it was all done in self-defense.

An epic battle in court today as Jodi`s former lover, Darryl Brewer, took the stand, his face kept secret from the cameras. Darryl testified Jodi was a wonderful, hard-working woman with whom he fell in love. And she cried as he spoke.

But the prosecution tried to use Darryl to paint a darker image of a sexually aggressive woman like the one we saw in the triple X-rated photo shoot that you`re looking at. We have to warn you. This language is explicit, but it was said in open court today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTINEZ: Do you remember the first time you and she had sex, though, right?

BREWER: I do remember, yes.

MARTINEZ: And she was very aggressive, wasn`t she?

BREWER: We were both aggressive.

MARTINEZ: Not only was she aggressive, she was enthusiastic about it. Wasn`t she? The sex, I mean.

BREWER: We were both enthusiastic.

MARTINEZ: At some point you and she both enjoyed on two occasions (EXPLETIVE DELETED) sex. Right?

BREWER: Possibly once.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But the defense then fired back and had Jodi`s ex- boyfriend testify that she wasn`t into wild sex games or rough sex during their four-year relationship. Again, the language is graphic, but this is what the jurors heard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did your sex life with Jodi Arias involve wearing little boys` underwear?

BREWER: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did it involve putting her in schoolgirl outfits and pigtails?

BREWER: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did it involve bending her over desks?

BREWER: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did it involve (EXPLETIVE DELETED) on her face?

BREWER: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did it involve calling her a whore?

BREWER: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A slut?

BREWER: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A three-(EXPLETIVE DELETED) wonder?

BREWER: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: The defense claims Travis did those things. Will this war over sex be the deciding factor for the jury? And will Jodi Arias take the stand in her own defense?

Call me. I want to hear from you: 1-877-JVM-SAYS; 1-877-586-7297.

Straight out to our senior producer, Selin Darkalstanian. You were in court during this extraordinary first day of the defense. Describe the mood and the fireworks on this day one of the defense case.

SELIN DARKALSTANIAN, SENIOR HLN PRODUCER: Jane, it was a packed courtroom. There was a long line outside of the courtroom for the public to get in. Because there were so many people from the public trying to get seats inside this courtroom to watch the day one of the defense.

There was an energy in the courtroom. There was a buzz: would Jodi take the stand today? Who was the first defense witness? So it was definitely a very energetic day in court.

But I have to tell you, the witness that shocked everybody was Jodi`s ex-boyfriend, who was a very serious boyfriend of hers. They owned a house together. They lived together for a couple of years. This was the boyfriend right before she met Travis Alexander.

And what started out, he started out as a defense witness. And the defense is questioning him. He had nothing but great thing to say about Jodi. She was not jealous; she was not clingy. She was a perfect girlfriend the way he explained it.

But then the prosecution came. And they brought up gas cans, which none of us had ever heard before. And the prosecution asked, well, didn`t she borrow gas cans from you before she left on her trip to, on this road trip that he was taking, alluding to premeditation, that Jodi knew she was going to Arizona. She didn`t want to make any stop at the gas station so people wouldn`t know and be able to trace her trip to kill Travis Alexander. So she borrowed gas cans from her ex-boyfriend to not -- not leave any traces of where she was going.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes.

DARKALSTANIAN: And that was a bombshell. None of us had ever heard about gas cans before.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Exactly. The prosecution used a defense witness and turned him to their own ends.

And so let`s talk a little bit about what Selin just mentioned. They grilled this defense witness, Jodi`s boyfriend before Travis. And this idea that Jodi called him and said, "Hey, I`ve got to borrow two gas cans from you," that she took from him the very day before she killed Travis Alexander. Listen to this exchange, and then we`ll debate it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTINEZ: She was asking you for gas cans in May of 2008 at the very end so that she could make a trip to Mesa, Arizona? Do you remember that?

BREWER: Yes.

MARTINEZ: And she made more than one call asking you for these gas cans to make a trip to Mesa, Arizona, didn`t she?

BREWER: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: You could tell when he says yes, this ex-boyfriend is very upset about having to admit that he lent, actually gave -- she never returned them -- two gas cans to Jodi the day before she drove from California to Mesa, Arizona, and killed Travis Alexander.

OK. Let`s debate it. A huge win for the prosecution? We`ve got Jon Lieberman. We`ve got Jordan Rose, Nishay Sanan. Start with Jon Lieberman.

JON LIEBERMAN, HLN CONTRIBUTOR: I think it was a big coup for the prosecution, and they also showed receipts. And what the receipts showed was that she stops at a gas station. She fills up, gets ten gallons of gas. Then, a few minutes later at the same gas station, ten more gallons of gas. Seemingly trying to hide the fact that she`s filling up these gas cans. Then, she tells the ex-boyfriend that it`s in case she gets, quote, "lost." Come on.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And the fact is that she, the way the prosecution plays it out, didn`t want anybody to know she was actually driving into Arizona. So if she doesn`t have receipts from Arizona, she can just go to Arizona, kill Travis Alexander, then go to Utah and hook up with this other guy, and it would be as if she never was there. Using the gas in the gas cans to get from point A to point B.

All right. Let`s bring in the other attorney. Nishay Sanan, criminal defense attorney, is that a huge win for the prosecution when they`ve got a defense witness?

NISHAY SANAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: No. I don`t think so. I think it`s no different than when the defense used the prosecution witnesses to start laying out their case.

All they really got out of Darryl, and I mean the prosecution, because I think the defense did a great job portraying Jodi as this nice girlfriend who then was turned by Travis into this monster. But what all those gas tanks show, these two gas tanks that she borrowed them, is two receipts that she filled them up. But I`m sorry: you`re not going to get from California to Arizona on two small tanks of gas. It`s just not going to happen.

So you know, they can throw up all the fire they want, the prosecution, but I don`t think they will be able to connect those two gas tanks to her trying to hide a trip to Arizona.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Jordan Rose?

JORDAN ROSE, ATTORNEY: An absolute disastrous day for the defense. I mean, here they were to prove that, you know, Jodi needs to have some sympathy. She`s a nice girl.

And they turn out to call a witness that is probably the best witness that the state has had in that he proves premeditation. Pure and simple premeditation with these gas cans. The prosecution tonight is probably thanking the defense for putting on this witness and wondering why in the world they didn`t find him first.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, this case is all about sex. The defense trying to portray Travis Alexander as a sexual deviant who corrupted Jodi Arias.

We`ve shown you -- this is part of the court record, part of the exhibits -- naked pictures of Jodi in pigtails. She is naked in that shot. And that is the tamest shot. There are some extraordinarily graphic shots of her private areas. Got to say it, because that`s a fact.

The defense wants jurors to think this kind of kinky behavior was Travis`s influence and that he sexually abused her. The prosecution is saying, "Wait a minute. This is a girl who always wanted to look sexy" and then brings up the fact that she got breast implants. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTINEZ: Do you remember telling the investigator that the reason she -- you believe that she got the breast implants is because she wanted to fit in, in the crowd that you were traveling in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. I don`t recall that.

MARTINEZ: Because your wife had just recently obtained breast implants.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, listen. Nishay Sanan, I had a problem with this. Women get breast implants all the time. Last year alone nearly 300,000 American women got breast implants. You cannot make a connection between being sexually promiscuous and having breast implants. And I have to think any woman on that jury who even knows -- anybody who knows anybody with breast implants might become very offended by the prosecution making that leap. Let`s debate it. Start with Nishay Sanan.

SANAN: I agree with you. I think a woman on this jury is going to hear this prosecutor allegations that she wanted to be promiscuous because she got breast implants, I think it`s going to be a turnoff. If you take into consideration what this prosecutor now is trying to do, which is poke holes at the defense that`s being set up, I think he`s creating his own trap, and I think he`s going to fall into his own trap. I think he`s creating more...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jon Lieberman.

LIEBERMAN: But there`s another way to look at it, Jane.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let`s see our debaters. Three box.

LIEBERMAN: There`s another way to look at it. And that is, did she want to get these implants because she`ll do anything to conquer her, the man that she wants? So she gets breast implants. She -- you know, she takes pictures of them in the shower. I mean, I think...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But wait a second. He took pictures of her that were so graphic, we can`t even begin to tell you about them, but they`re of her very most private areas. Do the math.

LIEBERMAN: She was sexually aggressive toward him. I think what the prosecutors were hoping to show here is just a pattern, that here is this woman who will do anything to get him...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jordan.

ROSE: You know, I think you can -- you can say what you want about the prosecutor. He`s incredibly aggressive, and I think going after -- and it has been, I think, to the point that it`s become ineffective. The jury is looking at him and saying, "You know, we don`t really like this guy."

And you look at Jodi and you kind of feel a little bit of, you know, you don`t want to be -- if you`re the juror, you don`t want to be the one that sends this pretty girl to death. And so bringing up the breast implants as a negative to her, knowing that everyone on the jury likely knows someone who has breast implants, is just not -- I don`t think that was helpful.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. I know several women who have breast implants, and none of them are sexual deviants, to my knowledge, and they`re mothers, and they`re hard-working women and professionals. And people get -- women get breast implants for all sorts of reasons. I did think that was an error by the prosecutor.

We`re just getting started. An explosive day. Day one of the defense. We`re going to talk to a close friend of Travis Alexander, the victim`s, next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTINEZ: She also took nudes of you at some point, right?

BREWER: There was one incident in the shower where she took a picture, yes.

MARTINEZ: So she took a picture of you while you were in the shower, right?

BREWER: Correct.

MARTINEZ: You didn`t ask her to take that picture. She took that picture of you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BREWER: We began to spend a little more time together. Our relationship was not supervisor/employee anymore. And we became infatuated and fell in love.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Darryl, who -- his identity was protected to protect his family. He met Jodi at this very famous Ventana Inn, which is on a hillside along Big Sur overlooking the Pacific Ocean. I`ve been there. It`s absolutely stunning. Celebrities are known to stay here. It`s one of the top resorts, really, on the West Coast.

Jodi applied for a job as a waitress at that resort. Darryl, who was her supervisor at the time, hired her. But they didn`t start dating until he ceased being her supervisor.

And honestly, when he was telling his side of the story before the cross-examination, he was scoring points for the defense, describing her as loving, loving with his young son. She -- she was left with his young son.

It was all good until the cross-examination, when we learned that she borrowed two gas cans from ex-boyfriend the day before she killed Travis Alexander.

Let`s go to the phone lines. Angel, Illinois. Your question or thought, Angel.

CALLER: Hi, Jane, love your show. I just want to say first off I believe it`s premeditated all the way. I don`t think in any way was she led into any kind of sexual deviant behavior. I think she was going to do whatever she could to keep him, whether it be dress up as a schoolgirl, be his sex toy, whatever it took to keep him from marrying a more civilized Mormon, pure woman than what she was.

It seems like she was a social climber regardless, and she was going to do whatever she could to get him and killed him. She committed way too many offenses on his body to suggest that it was defense or any other excuse that she`s come up with that I`ve heard in this trial.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to bring in Marjorie Gilberg, executive director of Break the Cycle. You are a domestic violence expert. I believe, thinking about this case, that this case is going to break new ground and really try to expand the notion of domestic violence.

Now I know that this has genuine victims or survivors of domestic violence very angry. They`re trying to say, well, you`re a victim of domestic violence, even if you weren`t given a black eye. But if you were sexually degraded in sex games, which is what the defense is saying that Travis did with Jodi, do you buy that as legitimate domestic abuse? Or is it two adults, one male, one female, having kinky sex?

MARJORIE GILBERG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BREAK THE CYCLE: You know, Jane, I think people, you know, they have a range of behaviors that they can use to control dating partners. And clearly, it could be consensual. It could be that one person felt pressured or controlled and manipulated into taking photos that they didn`t want taken in the first place and that they definitely didn`t want shared beyond the privacy of those two people.

I mean, we see it all the time happening with younger and younger victims as we see them using their phones as a tool to control and abuse. So it`s not that uncommon.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Beth Karas, you have been in court today, and the defense tried to show that, when Jodi met Travis, she changed. They claim, through this ex-boyfriend, who I think is still in love with her on some level, he was just wonderful toward her and very upset that he had to give the prosecution something about the gas cans. But tell us how he describes her entire world changing when she gets involved in Prepaid Legal and the Mormons.

BETH KARAS: Right. She gets involved in the spring of 2006. That`s where Travis Alexander works. So March, April, she`s getting involved.

But by the fall, these missionaries from the Mormon Church are coming to their house. Young men are coming and speaking to her. And all of a sudden she`s saying to him, "No more cussing in the house. No more sex. I`m saving myself for my husband."

And they really hadn`t talked about marrying, getting married. But, you know, they co-owned the home. They both were on the mortgage. And so by the end of the year, he moved away. He went and followed where the mother of his child had -- had taken his child.

And he said Jodi was becoming irresponsible with her money, as well. So the defense will say Travis Alexander, Prepaid Legal, all having a bad influence on her. Not a good one.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. And on the other side of the break, we`re going to continue this debate. Will this case break new ground and really broaden the notion of what is domestic violence? Do you have to be pummeled a la Rihanna with a bruised face, or can you just be degraded sexually? And if you are, why don`t you just say, "I`m not going to play"?

More on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARIAS: He wouldn`t allow me to not answer his text message. If I didn`t respond, he would keep calling and keep calling until I did. And so to me that wasn`t obsessive behavior on his part. I took it as a compliment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was doing well as an employee?

BREWER: She was excelling, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How was Jodi`s relationship with your son?

BREWER: It was outstanding.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were they close?

BREWER: They were close.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did Jodi ever act jealous at all?

BREWER: Not that I saw.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you ever notice her being violent or having a violent temper?

BREWER: Never.

GUS SEARCY, WITNESS: She was always dressed very feminine but very conservative.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: We are very delighted to have a very special guest with us tonight, exclusively. Judy -- Julie Haslam (ph), a close friend of Travis Alexander who also knew Jodi. You are there in Phoenix, Arizona.

And Julie, I want to thank you so much for joining us tonight. Clearly, you saw today the defense is going to try to paint your friend, Travis Alexander, as a sexual deviant. How do you feel about that? And do you feel there`s any basis in fact for that?

JULIE HASLAM (PH), FRIEND OF TRAVIS ALEXANDER: Well, there`s obviously no basis for that. I feel like the defense, that`s all they`ve got. They have no defense. And so they have to play these games and make Travis look bad.

I have mixed emotions. I have frustration. I have anger. It`s just a range of emotions.

What about the fact that both witnesses, the ex-boyfriend and Gus Searcy from Prepaid Legal described Jodi Arias with whom you, I understand, also worked or knew, as when they knew her as not sexually provocative, as not a person with a temper, as sort of professionally dressed, conservative, nice. Obviously, they are witnesses for the defense.

But what`s your take on that? Is that how she came off to you?

HASLAM (ph): Well, no, not at all. Jodi was just one of those people that she was soft-spoken. I didn`t ever see her angry at all. But she just had this demeanor about her that was off. If you looked into her eyes, she was soulless.

But she seemed to have this control or this power over the single men. If you asked any of the women that were around her, any of the married men around her, they would tell you the same thing. It was just the single men that had this attraction to her.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Was she ever jealous in your presence? Did she behave in a jealous fashion vis-a-vis Travis?

HASLAM (ph): She did. We were actually at a Prepaid Legal convention in March of 2008. I had a friend with me who had been drinking, and we were with Travis that night. And she was hanging on Travis` arm, and we were all laughing and just kind of walking through the hotel.

And Jodi got very upset about that. And actually called (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and complained about that and said, you know, "She`s hanging all over my boyfriend, and I don`t know what to do about it.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And did you regard that as normal jealousy or something that was crossing some kind of invisible line that was a little creepy?

HASLAM (ph): She was very possessive of Travis. Very possessive.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: In other words, hanging onto him, clinging and obviously jealous when he gave attention to other women. Anything else that you saw in terms of that behavior?

HASLAM (ph): No, that`s it. She just was very clingy to him. If any woman was talking to him, she would give him this dirty look like "Back off. He`s mine." And she was just a person that I didn`t ever want to be around.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, please, stand by. Thank you so much for joining us.

Again, Travis is not here to defend himself, so we`ve had friends of Travis on to speak for him, in essence. We have much more on the other side.

And at the top of the hour at 8, Nancy Grace live from outside the Jodi Arias courthouse. That`s at 8 p.m. on HLN, but don`t go anywhere.

On the other side of the break, more debating on what today`s day one of the defense did for either side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTINEZ: What about the third time?

SEARCY: Well, let`s continue on with that time.

MARTINEZ: Sir, I`m asking you when you met her the third time. You don`t get on ask the questions. I do. So when was the third time you met her? Sir, am I asking you about the evening? I`m not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUS SEARCY, DEFENSE WITNESS: She talked to him for about a half-hour outside. When she came back in, she was shaking and crying.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Information that will hurt her or free her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m asking you when you met her the third time. You don`t get to ask the questions. I do.

SEARCY: She was always dressed very feminine but very conservative. Always long sleeves, high necks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m asking you who`s making the money?

(inaudible)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Arias tries desperately to plead guilty to murder two for a very light sentence.

ESTEBAN FLORES, POLICE DETECTIVE: Jodi, this is over. This is absolutely over. You need to tell me the truth.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In that one minute had Jodi not chosen to defend herself, she would not be here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The fact that she is claiming the self-defense, prove it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JANE VELEZ- MITCHELL, HLN HOST: Fireworks in day one of the defense case. The defense is doing exactly what they promised to do in opening statements -- namely trying to expose victim Travis Alexander as somebody keeping a secret sex life that they painted was in direct contrast with his public persona as a clean-cut sexually abstinent Mormon.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Behind the smiles and these photographs, there was a whole other reality for Jodi, a reality that Travis created; because in reality Jodi was Travis` dirty little secret.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now this is all very graphic but the defense already said Travis manipulated Jodi into certain sex acts and that Travis took these and even far more graphic naked photos of Jodi. Now in newly obtained court documents we`ve learned the defense strategy is to paint Travis as quote, a playboy, expert manipulator and sexual deviant using his own texts and voicemails". This is getting very dirty already. And Travis family has to bear witness and sit there and watch their loved one who cannot speak for himself being torn apart in public.

Let`s bring in the lawyers and Jon Leiberman, investigator.

Should the prosecution have taken the second-degree murder plea deal that we`re now just learning Jodi`s side offered the prosecution over two years ago? We`ll start with Jon Leiberman.

JON LEIBERMAN, HLN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes. Well, let`s be clear. This wasn`t a plea deal. This was Jodi Arias` attorneys going to prosecutors and saying we`ll plead to second-degree. Will you take that? And of course they said no. They said no because they believe they have the goods.

This is one of the strongest cases I`ve ever seen. Physical evidence- wise and they have Jodi Arias telling three different stories.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Nishay, do you think they should have taken this offer to plead guilty to second-degree murder and walk away without having to spend all the money on this case?

NISHAY SANAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I think they should have if the offer was on the table; if the defense presented this to the prosecution. Why is the prosecution dragging the family through this, knowing that the defense is going to portray Travis as the person who instigated this, all these events that took place?

The prosecution should have taken into consideration what the families are going to be going through but they didn`t. They chose to prosecute this based on ego.

And I disagree with your guest. I don`t think this is a strong case for the prosecution. How many times should you have had convictions in O.J., Casey Anthony and it didn`t happen because of overzealous prosecutors.

LEIBERMAN: This is different. This is so different.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jordan Rose -- Jordan Rose, attorney in Phoenix.

JORDAN ROSE, ATTORNEY: No way. I mean, this is a great case. They`ve put on, the prosecution, has made a great case. The defense in their first appearance, right? After a week-long break, they should have come out with just a bang of a defense. And it was, I mean, it was a pitiful whimper. They`ve shown that Travis is maybe a flirt and he`s 20- something-year-old boy. And this woman preys upon these guys because she flaunts her sexuality even in that interview with the detective where she is stretching yoga poses. She looks like a feline. That`s her thing.

So no, absolutely not, this is a great case for the prosecution. And we`re going to see her put to death.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let`s not -- a pitiful whimper of a case -- go ahead.

SANAN: when you have the defense showing exact opposite of the type of person that Jodi is.

LEIBERMAN: This isn`t a case about sex though. This is a murder.

ROSE: It doesn`t matter if she was -- if he was a flirt. If he dropped, if she dropped his camera in the bathroom while he was naked in a shower, and somehow that caused her, he got so enraged that she had to use deadly force, that was what was reasonable in that situation. She had to use deadly force to defend herself -- that`s ridiculous.

(CROSSTALK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let me get back to what I think is the strategy here. And I`m not condoning it. Don`t blame the messenger. But I`m looking at the big picture. All these mega cases always break new ground, right? I mean O.J. Simpson, oh, you know, garbage in, garbage out. You`ve got overwhelming forensic evidence? Just tell the jurors that everything that was collected was collected in a sloppy manner. Therefore you have to discard it.

In this case I think they`re going to make the leap between a woman who was being pummeled which we have no evidence that that happened in this case. But a woman who is being in some way what they claim is forced to be involved in sexually degrading games.

And that`s why I want to bring Marjorie Gilberg, executive director of Break the Cycle Back. You fight domestic violence. There are some domestic violence survivors who are saying this is making a mockery of real domestic violence. What do you say?

MARJORIE GILBERG, EXEC. DIRECTOR, BREAK THE CYCLE BACK: Well, I think that there is a whole range of behaviors that are abusive and to discount one over another or to say that one is more dangerous, you know, obviously, physical harm can lead to much more serious physical injury. But emotional harm can be lasting and damaging and very severe as well. And sexual abuse is not something to scoff at.

There is a huge difference between two people having, you know, some sort of fun, sexual adventure and being sexually controlled and forced to do things they don`t want to do.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. But this is my point. If they are two consenting adults engaged in these sex games and we`ve the litany. I can`t even repeat some of them. But she`s wearing pig tails at one -- that`s like an innocent one where she`s in a maybe role-playing situation and he made a T-shirt for her that says "Travis Alexander`s" like she is his property.

Where does personal responsibility come in where somebody can say, "I don`t want to play this game, hasta la vista, baby -- I`m out of here"? I mean where is the response of "I decline to participate" as opposed "I`m feeling degraded. Therefore I`m going to kill him."

And I`ll toss that to you, Jon.

LEIBERMAN: If she was so degraded and if this was self-defense, why did not she say that off the bat? Why did it take her three or four incarnations of the story to say that? Why did she write in her journal that she would name her kid Alexander? Why did she go to the memorial service, post online how much she loved Travis, how he was a wonderful man knowing full well that she had killed him and never once, not once mentioned anything about being degraded.

And look, I sit on the National Board of the Domestic Violence registry. I know what victims go through. She is not a victim of domestic violence.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. But I think everybody gets my point. It is almost like a shell game. You take real domestic violence and you move it and you put this emotional kinky sexual abuse -- I`m not applauding that -- but I`m saying as an adult female, she and all adult females, have the ability to say I will not participate, presumably.

More on the other side. A fascinating debate, isn`t it?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you were called to testify on Miss Arias`s behalf, would you be happy about that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I would not.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why not?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because she murdered my friend in cold blood.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: On day one of the defense case, fireworks in court and we are inside the inner circle of Travis Alexander, the victim, and the defendant, Jodi Arias. On the other side of the break, we are going to talk to a close friend and try to understand, what make this woman tick?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARIAS: He lamented a lot that he got a lot of grief from his friends about the amount of time that we spent together.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They did not like you.

ARIAS: I don`t know that it was so much that. I think they were more concerned with his future prospects for marriage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: We`re very delighted right now to have an exclusive guest with us on the phone, Veronica, a friend of Jodi Arias or at least somebody who worked with Jodi Arias as a waitress. Veronica, first of all, thank you so much for joining us. Tell us a little about when you work with Jodi. I don`t want to have you reveal any more than you want but what year and what sort of work you were doing. I understand waitressing. Set the story for us.

VERONICA, FRIEND OF JODI ARIAS (via telephone): Yes, Jane, if I may call you that. Thank you so much.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Sure.

VERONICA: I work with Jodi, I believe, I don`t have exact times and dates but it was 2008. That`s when we hire, during the busy season we hire usually in November, December. And they train them and then they get on the floor. So it was `08 during the busy season, during the winter time into spring. She was only there for four to five months.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Desert Hot Springs? Palm desert?

VERONICA: This restaurant was located in Rancho Mirage, California. She had told me that she was part owner of a house in Palm Desert Country Club, in Palm Desert.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: So tell us about her. What about her struck you? If you had to analyze her, tell us, what would you tell your friend? Ok, this woman Jodi Arias is here working. Here`s what I take away. Veronica -- are you there?

VERONICA: Yes, ma`am. Yes.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Give us your analysis, your interpretation of Jodi`s personality. What made her tick? What did you notice about her?

VERONICA: Correct. When you first meet Jodi, she come off as very soft-spoken, very quiet. No bombshell. She is no great looker; I mean she is a pretty gal but she`s nothing memorable. But she is very soft-spoken when you get to know her in your first meeting.

And then as time goes on -- the tidbits of her not wanting to come on to the floor because she can`t get Travis on the phone in the parking lot while she`s in her car; or else she`s talking to Travis and she will not hang up that phone and go to work. I mean she was a mess -- a hot mess. It was all about Travis. That was the one she wanted. She had to have him.

And it was these things that piss people off at the job. You know, we would have to pick up her tables for her because she wouldn`t come in. You know, and then as time went on we saw that she was creepy. You know as people have said before, Jane, there was no soul in her eyes. They were black. Black as coal these eyes. And she gave the heebie-jeebies to people.

And I just kind of concluded, you know, I knew she was struggling, being a waitress. She just didn`t know what she was doing too much. She wasn`t a dummy, she wasn`t stupid, she just couldn`t keep up the pace.

And I would help her and people would say why are you helping her? She is weird. And I would say, no, this is a business, you know, team work. And then as time went on and after the cat incident -- I stopped taking his calls --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: What cat incident? What cat incident?

VERONICA: Ok. We had a lead singer at the restaurant. His first name was Guy. I don`t know his last name though. And Guy was getting married to a gal who was allergic to cats. Guy had a cat he had had for six long years. He loved his cat. And he came to me because I was doing animal rescue at that time during the day --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Good for you.

VERONICA: And he said, "Veronica dark can you please help me find a place for this cat, at least while I go on my honeymoon." I asked around and Jodi came up to me and she said "Veronica, I`ll take the cat." Great, Jodi. Ok. Set it up, he dropped the cat off to her.

Well, two weeks later, a couple of weeks later, Jodi comes up to me and said "Veronica, you know, something funny happened when I go to retrieve the cat after two weeks." I said "What do you mean two weeks? What are you talking about?" She said, "Well, I left it in the room with plenty of water and food, of course, but for two weeks. When I went to go take the cat to the Humane Society because Guy doesn`t want it, the cat was shaking, Veronica. Violently shaking and I guess I should have felt bad."

Oh. Oh, Jane. I just came unglued. I wanted to -- I wanted to just strangle this girl. I was furious at what she had done to an innocent animal. And she didn`t have remorse Jane. She showed no remorse.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Veronica, stand by. What you`ve told me is to me the deepest insight into her soul. People who have no empathy for animals -- I run the other way.

More on the other side.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: We just heard this extraordinary story from Veronica who worked with Jodi when Jodi was a waitress about how she was obsessed with Travis and that she showed no empathy and basically stuck a cat in a room for two weeks without any companionship which, to me, is torturing an animal. By the way, we found out the cat`s ok. The cat survived.

Jean Casarez, correspondent "In Session" there in phoenix, when I hear a story like that, that`s more compelling than some of the prosecution evidence that I`ve heard. You`ve got to wonder why not put a woman like that on the stand to tell what she knows about Jodi`s obsession with Travis and her lack of empathy.

JEAN CASAREZ, CORRESPONDENT "IN SESSION": Here`s something the jury did hear during one of the interrogations with Detective Flores. He asked her, have you done anything violent in your past? And she said, "I did kick a dog in the head." She admitted to that. So there`s another instance right there.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, and we know, Jon Leiberman, people who abuse animals are often sociopaths or psychopaths. Some of the serial killers that we`ve covered almost all of them start abusing animals.

LEIBERMAN: It does. It escalates. I mean the research shows it clearly escalates. It starts with animals and it oftentimes graduates to violence against people.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: You know, Jordan Rose, oftentimes the obvious witnesses that when you hear a human story like that, what`s a good reason why the prosecution wouldn`t call this Veronica to testify?

ROSE: You know actually, Jane, I was thinking the same thing when I was listening to her. They need that woman. They need more of those people who talk about how Jodi had these crazy intentions and crazy things that no one else would leave a cat for two weeks without food. I mean, Jodi is almost like a praying mantis at this point where instead of biting off the head of, you know, the perpetrator, she stabs him.

And I think you guys found a great, great prosecution witness. They probably wish they had her on the stand.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, well, maybe if they watch the show, they`ll call her. Veronica, we`re going to talk to you on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARIAS: I didn`t commit a murder. I didn`t hurt Travis. I would never hurt Travis. I would never harm him physically.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was this self-defense?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What would have forced Jodi? It was Travis` continual abuse. And on June 4 of 2008, it had reached a point of no return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. We`re back with Veronica. What did Jodi tell you about Travis, Veronica?

VERONICA: That Travis was her one and only love. She had this whole life planned out with him with children and the white picket fence and forever and all eternity. This was the only man she would ever be with. Scary as Arias.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: So she wanted to marry him?

VERONICA: Marry him? More than marry him. She wanted to be him. She wanted to possess him. She wanted to know every breath he took.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wow. Obsession -- that`s what it sounds like.

Nancy`s in Arizona.

Thank Veronica.

END