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Nancy Grace

Victim`s Former Girlfriend Testifies for Jodi Arias Defense

Aired January 30, 2013 - 20:00   ET

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


NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight, Mesa, Arizona. They meet on a work trip in Vegas, and they fall hard. But when the flame burns out, they break up. But it`s then she moves 300 miles to chase him, even converting to Mormonism to get her man.

But then 30-year-old Travis Alexander found slumped over dead in the shower of his home, shot, stabbed 29 times. And just hours after she admittedly stabs him to death, she`s literally hopping on top of a brand- new boyfriend. Twenty-seven-year-old Arias has wild sex with Travis all day, even photographing the sex, but just minutes after sex, slashes his throat from ear to ear.

Bombshell tonight. We are live here at the Phoenix courthouse, day two of the Jodi Arias defense. On the stand, murder victim Travis Alexander`s much younger girlfriend.

Torpedo to the defense. Arias`s plan to paint Travis as an angry, abusive sex deviant backfires in court when his longtime girlfriend says under oath he never once pressured her, forced her, beat her, belittled her. As a matter of fact, after a year of romance, they never even had sex. So much for the sex deviant defense.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you solemnly swear the testimony you`re about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ex-girlfriend...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) he was cheating on me...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know who he was cheating with?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, Jodi Arias.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you get back together with him?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you ever have suspicions that he might have been cheating again?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you ever see Jodi try to be affectionate with Travis?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. She would be all over him, and he did not reciprocate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think that it is appropriate to take a knife and slash somebody`s throat?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Irrelevant!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were in no way headed toward marriage.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: More than marry him, she wanted to be him. She wanted to possess him. She wanted to know every breath he took.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Were you shocked to learn that he was not a virgin?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you talk to him that sometimes you felt that he wanted you just for your body?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I did say that in an e-mail.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "You are a shameful whore."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did that make you feel used and dirty?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I did say that in an e-mail.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Committing acts of whoredom."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he treat you with dignity and respect throughout this whole thing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.

Bombshell tonight. We are live here, camped out in front of the Phoenix courthouse, day two of the Jodi Arias defense. On the stand, murder victim Travis Alexander`s much younger girlfriend.

Torpedo to the defense. Arias`s plan to paint Travis as some sort of an angry sex deviant backfires, like a boomerang comes back and hits you in the courtroom. They put on the stand his long0time girlfriend, who says never once did he pressure her, force her, push her, belittle her, beat her. As a matter of fact, after a year of romance, they never even had sex.

Straight out to Jean Casarez, legal correspondent, "In Session" who has been in the courtroom from day one. Jean Casarez, well, that didn`t work out.

JEAN CASAREZ, "IN SESSION": Well, you`re exactly right, everything you`re saying. But let`s look at what the defense did get out of this witness because this was their witness, Lisa Andrews (ph). She was in a relationship with Travis Alexander, and she testified on the stand that he cheated on her, that he lied to her, that he betrayed her, deceived her, told her he was a virgin when he wasn`t a virgin, went on trips with Jodi Arias, and he said nothing is going on romantically, nothing.

Well, it was. And she broke up with him several times because she felt he was vulgar, that all he talked about was sex, and she felt there was just something wrong with that. And she told him, Look, just wait until you`re married. So all of a sudden, the focus is not on Jodi Arias anymore, it`s on Travis Alexander.

GRACE: Wait! Whoa, whoa! Wait, wait, wait! Jean -- Jean, let`s just be blunt, all right? There are 11 men on the jury. Do you think that there`s one man on the jury that doesn`t think about sex maybe, I don`t know, 22 out of 24 hours a day? The fact that Travis Alexander talked about sex, that he wanted to have sex, blah, blah, blah -- that`s not unusual. If he didn`t think about sex, that would be unusual.

And as a matter of fact, they never even had sex. He honored her desire to be a virgin until the time of marriage. That`s very, very important in the Mormon religion. She was extremely religious.

CASAREZ: Right.

GRACE: So I mean, a guy talks about sex? What`s deviant about that?

CASAREZ: But it`s her state of mind. It was how she felt with everything that was done, and they`re going to transfer that over to how Jodi felt, what was done to Jodi.

GRACE: So I`m still -- I understand what Lisa said on the stand, but to me, it`s not translating. You know, I would also point out that at the time, she was a 19-year-old girl, and so her view of the world was much different at the time she was dating Travis Alexander.

But what`s so interesting -- and I`m going to go to you on this, Matt Zarrell -- as it all shook out, this is a former state`s witness that the state did not call. So the defense snapped her up and put her on the stand. It was devastating on cross-exam, Matt! What happened?

MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): Yes, Nancy. In fact, there were a number of things -- towards the end of direct examination, the witness referenced some strange things that were happening around the time that they broke up, and one of the strange things was an incident around early 2007, when Lisa Andrews and Travis Alexander were inside Travis`s home, and Jodi Arias walks in the front door unannounced.

As soon as she sees Andrews and Travis Alexander, she immediately turns around and sprints out the front door and to her car.

GRACE: Isn`t it true, Matt Zarrell, that this witness, Lisa Andrews - - that`s her maiden name -- said that it was almost uncanny, as if Arias knew when they would have a date because as soon as they would leave on the date, Travis Alexander would begin getting a barrage of phone calls, of text messages from Arias?

ZARRELL: And of all the place this is came out, Nancy, this came out as a jury question. The jury asked the question of the witness, Did someone tell you that Travis was texting and calling Jodi and another female? And the witness said, No, actually, Jodi and another female had texted and called several times while she was with Travis Alexander and that Jodi called numerous times, so many, it was as if Jodi Arias knew that Lisa Andrews was with Travis when she made those phone calls.

GRACE: And as a matter of fact, Jean Casarez, she`s on a date with Travis Alexander. They`re standing in his kitchen in his home. And all of a sudden, in walks Jodi Arias. I mean, I don`t see how this helps the defense at all.

CASAREZ: I`ll tell you how it helps the defense. We heard before that she went through the doggie door to get in there. That`s what the first witness, Marie Hall (ph), testified to. But that was hearsay. She`d never witnessed it herself. Well, now we`re hearing she walked through the front door. That`s not a crime.

GRACE: OK, just let me just process what you said. I don`t see that it matters if she crawls through the doggie door, which is crazy, or walks through the door.

The bottom line is -- am I missing something, Matt Zarrell? This woman is on a date with Travis Alexander, and in comes Jodi Arias to break up the date. She comes -- she`s the third wheel on the date. She walks into his home. She`s a stalker. She knew he had a date, and she came into the home.

ZARRELL: It was clear from the testimony, Nancy, that Arias did not think that Travis Alexander and Lisa Andrews were going to be in the house because as soon as Arias saw both of them, she turned around and ran out the front door. And Travis actually chased after her.

GRACE: Interesting.

Out to the lines. Holly in North Carolina. Hi, Holly. What`s your question?

OK, let me know, Drew, when you get Holly back up.

Out to Nicole in Florida. Hi, Nicole. What`s your question, dear?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. I was just wondering...

GRACE: Hi, love. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you hear me?

GRACE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. I was just wondering if you think that Travis Alexander`s ex-girlfriend`s testimony hurt the prosecution today.

GRACE: Oh. I got to tell you, Nicole, I don`t think it hurt the prosecution at all. I mean, I asked Jean Casarez how did it help the defense, and she said, Well, there were reports Arias came uninvited through the doggie door, but she actually came through the door. I don`t think that really amounts to a hill of beans as to the state of mind Arias had towards Travis Alexander.

Out to Christina Estes, reporter with KTAR. Christina, thank you for being with us. The bottom line is the jury asked a series of questions of this girlfriend.

Everybody, we are talking about a young girl who dated Travis Alexander. During their relationship, he never beat her. He never pushed her. He never pressured her for sex. He talked about sex a lot, never forced her into anything, or tried to. As a matter of fact, they never had sex.

The whole point of her being on the stand is for the defense to paint Travis Alexander, the murder victim, as a sex deviant. It backfired.

Christina Estes, isn`t it true when the jury asked this witness questions, she mentioned Jodi Arias having been a stalker -- stalker -- of Travis Alexander`s?

CHRISTINA ESTES, KTAR RADIO (via telephone): One of those juror questions for Lisa Andrews specifically was, Did you ever refer to Jodi as a stalker? She answered, Yes.

GRACE: Everyone, we are live outside the courthouse, taking your calls. It has been a blockbuster day in the courtroom. Today on the stand a former girlfriend of murder victim Travis Alexander.

Matt Zarrell, what were the other jury questions? In this jurisdiction, the jury actually gets to ask the witness questions. What did they ask?

ZARRELL: OK, I`ll go through these one by one, if I can. So they said, Did you -- I mentioned the first one about texting and calling Arias and another female.

The second question was, Did you know this before you started dating Travis the second time, that he was being contacted by these females? The witness said, Yes, I was aware of it.

Was the e-mail you sent to Travis that was the basis for the direct questioning before or after you heard he cheated with Jodi Arias? And she said, Yes, it was less than 24 hours after.

Then we get to the stalker question, Did you refer to Jodi Arias as a stalker of Travis Alexander? Yes.

Did Travis ever call you names? No. Did you personally feel threatened by Travis? No. Was Travis ever abusive to you? No. Did he ask you to have sex with him? No. Did you feel pressure to do anything? No. Did Travis ever make any sexual advances towards you while you were dating? No.

Then the witness was asked, How do you define cheating, and also was asked, If you were shocked to learn Travis was a virgin, why did you break up him after you found out he was cheating on you? And she said it was because she understood that that was not the truth.

And then the final question was, Did you feel Travis`s job interfered with your relationship in regards to travel and phone calls? And Lisa Andrews said, Yes, it did.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: We are here in Arizona, in the Estrella jail.

I`m very interested in Jodi Arias and how she makes people believe her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She told me that she did it because she was afraid for her own life.

GRACE: Yesterday she was ready to say, I did it. Show leniency. I murdered him. And today she wants me to buy a crock called self-defense?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s real quiet. She doesn`t really talk much. She`s a really pretty girl.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very quiet and pretty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s always dressed very feminine, but very conservative.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I made a little reach to find out, candidly speaking, if she`s wearing thong panties or not. When I realized that she was, I made a little joke and I said, That`s not magic underwear. I was a Mormon joke. It was in bad taste. But I said this isn`t magic underwear, and she said, But there`s magic in them.

GRACE: Will she take the stand and work that same magic on the jury of 12?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: Welcome back everybody. We are live, camped outside the Phoenix courthouse, bringing you the very latest in the murder one trial of Jodi Arias.

And let me tell you something. I just came out of the courtroom, and she was gorgeous. She was. She had on -- Jean, what was that, kind of a - - looked like a kind of a creamy colored cashmere-looking sweater, thing? As she continued looking down, she very rarely looks at the jury. She`ll push up her glasses and continue doodling. PS, those doodles go for about -- up to $2,000 on eBay.

What did you think about her appearance in court, Jean?

CASAREZ: It`s the same thing that you`re saying. And Nancy, I was the one that told you that her chair is lower than her female defense attorney and her male defense attorney, and it makes her look like a little waif. And it makes her look so frail in court. I told you that several weeks ago, and now you`re seeing it for yourself.

GRACE: We are taking your calls. I want to go back into some of the testimony that came out today. And everybody, what`s so significant about this testimony is the entire defense theory is that Travis Alexander was a sex deviant that had Jodi Arias under his thumb, that he had abused her, belittled her, beaten her for so long that she finally snapped and thought she was acting in self-defense when she stabbed him 29 times and put a bullet entry wound above the right eyebrow, lodging below the left eye socket. That includes nine stab wounds to the back. Her claim is self- defense.

That all went straight down the tubes today when the defense -- wrongly, in my opinion, trial strategy-wise -- put up an ex-girlfriend. The ex-girlfriend came out on cross, said they never even had sex in almost a year. He was never cruel to her, never mean to her, never pressured her, painted the exact opposite picture of Travis Alexander than what the defense wanted.

Everybody, we are taking your calls. Out to Tracy in Florida. Hi, Tracy. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. Hi, Nancy.

GRACE: Hi, dear. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, I love you! Me and my best friend, Jane, think you`re the best. Love you! I was wondering about the (INAUDIBLE)

GRACE: Thank you. Thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... in the picture? Hello?

GRACE: Yes, what about the sweatpants in the pictures?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did they ever recover them?

GRACE: Yes, dear.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know she talked about them in interrogation. Did they ever recover the sweatpants from the picture?

GRACE: Good question. To you, Jean Casarez. What do we know about that?

CASAREZ: They did not recover those sweatpants, although she admitted to the detective that she had some like that. Yes, I do have some like that. Never recovered them.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: She`s in maximum?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She is a maximum security inmate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This woman is a sociopath.

JODI ARIAS, CHARGED WITH MURDER: I`ll pass on that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you look into Jodi`s eyes, it`s like you`re staring into empty spaces.

ARIAS: I don`t know. I have no idea.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) the other girl was kind of, like (INAUDIBLE) idolizes her (INAUDIBLE) kind of way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you didn`t really know Jodi, she would never tell you about herself.

ARIAS: ... the details about my life that he didn`t know about, intended to keep private.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Welcome back, everyone. We are taking your calls.

Everyone, just coming out of the courtroom after an explosive day in court.

Out to you, Matt Zarrell. Give me a recap of what went down in the courtroom in the last hours.

ZARRELL: OK, Nancy. The star witness today, Lisa Andrews, Travis Alexander`s former girlfriend, testified about a number of things on the defense`s behalf, saying that she felt used and dirty, in an e-mail she sent to Travis, also claiming sex was always on Travis`s mind.

However, on cross-examination, she admitted that Arias unannounced showed up at Travis`s house and then ran out when she saw Travis and Lisa Andrews. And jury questions, including Arias being referenced as a stalker.

GRACE: I find it very interesting, though, Matt, on cross-exam, that she revealed he never pressured her for sex and they never even had sex. I want to get back to the order of witnesses on the stand. What happened after she took the stand, Matt?

ZARRELL: OK. So the next witness after she took the stand was Desiree Freeman (ph). She was a friend of Travis Alexander`s, testified a little bit about one incident where they were in a car ride with Jodi Arias, and Travis got -- was trying to play a little joke on Arias, and then got upset with Arias. And the witness noted that Travis`s temper turned very quickly.

The next witness that`s on the stand is Daniel Freeman. He is the one who called Jodi Arias a couple days after Travis`s body was found to tell her that Travis was murdered.

GRACE: Out to the lines. Nicole in Florida. Hi, Nicole. What`s your question, dear?

Selena in New York. Hi, Selena. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. I love your show. I have a quick statement and a question...

GRACE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... and I know you`re not going to like this, and I`m sorry.

GRACE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But we don`t really know who Travis is. You know, his friends know a part of him, but people are different behind closed doors.

And my question is, is that, is there even, like, a slight chance that she really was abused? Because nobody can really say what an abused woman looks like or acts. I was abused for four years, and I know that my ex- boyfriend, he never abused anybody else but me. So it`s like sort of the same situation. And nobody ever believed me when I tried to tell them. They kept saying, No, that`s not him. That`s not him. But I`m, like, You don`t know him behind closed doors.

I`m not condoning anything that she did. I think it`s completely wrong. But there`s a part of me that thinks there might be a slight possibility that she was somewhat abused.

GRACE: OK. Hold on. Hold onto the caller. Selena, New York, let me tell you that I represented crime victims in court for over a decade and volunteered at night at the battered women`s center on the hotline for 10 years. I`m on your side.

What is convincing -- and you`re right, many batterers, the people that know them would never believe it. But what convinces me that she was never battered before is that by the defense`s own theory, they are saying he had never beaten her before, that he had been emotionally abusive but had never beaten her before, but that the day of the murder that he, she believed, was going to a attack her.

Do I have that right, Christina Estes?

ESTES: That is the defense`s claim. And during opening statements, it was all about Travis allegedly manipulating and controlling Jodi and that she is a domestic violence victim, not necessarily in a physical sense but more in an emotional sense.

But I got to tell you, one of the last witnesses late this afternoon, Desiree Freeman, may have given a little boost to the defense in how she described a couple of instances. Matt referred to, to one where Travis sort of displayed a temper, and Desiree said she was shocked and thought his reaction was over the top.

And this was during a road trip that Desiree and her brother took with Travis and Jodi after Travis and Jodi had broken up, while Travis was dating Lisa Andrews. And she said during this time, it looked as if they were dating and that they were happy to be together.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And during the time that he was kissing, and again, not too get too much into this, he achieved an erection, right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You did not massage his erection, right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Correct.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He did not massage his own erection, correct?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Correct.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a biological response to your lips, wasn`t it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Correct.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that, at that time, because of your inexperience you thought that he should have controlled his penis from becoming tumescent -- getting big just because he was kissing you? You thought that`s what the problem was, right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it was because of your inexperience, correct?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Correct.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: As you see, some of the testimony became graphic in court today, and all of that was the defense`s attempt -- that was the defense witness -- to paint Travis Alexander as a sex deviant and an abuser. It backfired. It boomeranged right back and hit Arias in the head.

Unleash the lawyers, Mickey Sherman, criminal defense attorney, author of "How Can You Defend Those People?" Also Bradford Cohen, defense attorney out of Miami.

Let`s see the lawyers.

All right, Mickey, I find it interesting, and I`ve seen this over the many years that I`ve practiced. I`m sure you guys have, too. When the state has a witness that they decide not to call, the defense says, oh, there must be a great reason that they don`t want the witness. We want them. We want them. And that`s exactly what they did in this case. They put this former girlfriend up on the stand who was very chaste. She was a virgin at the time she married. She was a devout Mormon and she had been dating Travis Alexander for a year.

They`re trying to paint him as a sex freak. Well, as it turns out they never even had sex after a year, Mickey.

MICKEY SHERMAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY, AUTHOR OF "HOW CAN YOU DEFEND THOSE PEOPLE?": If you believe her.

MORGAN: It didn`t work.

SHERMAN: If you believe her. And you know it`s also irrelevant. I`ve got to tell you, I expected Ashton Kutcher to come out --

GRACE: Good lord in heaven.

SHERMAN: I expected Ashton Kutcher --

GRACE: You are now trying to say she was lying?

SHERMAN: No, I`m just saying, what`s the difference? What`s the point? This is all character evidence. What they both need, both sides, is some physical evidence.

GRACE: It is.

SHERMAN: This is circumstantial evidence. But they`ve both chosen to try this case based on good character or bad character. And how a man acts with one woman does not dictate how he acts with another. Look at Ted Bundy, he had a relationship with some woman while he was killing others.

GRACE: OK. Put them up again. You know, I appreciate that, Mickey. And, as a matter of fact, you`re right. The fact that someone doesn`t abuse one girlfriend, doesn`t mean he won`t abuse the third girlfriend.

But the point is, Bradford Cohen, they`re trying to paint him out as an abuser, as a sex deviant, and they put this witness up and she said exactly the opposite.

BRADFORD COHEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes, I think that -- you know, listen, it was -- it wasn`t a total bombshell against the defense because if you look at the jury questions, they really threw some red herrings out there and the jury actually bought it. The jury is actually asking, well, what`s your definition of cheating? Well, when was he cheating? Those questions are so irrelevant. Why that would play a part in this type of case?

The defense actually scored some points there because they`re detracting from what actually the physical evidence is. And in this case the physical evidence is so overwhelming that it`s really -- you know, they should have gone down the path of a crime of -- you know, crime of passion. It just -- I think they scored a couple points with that.

GRACE: OK. Put the lawyers back up.

Everybody with me, Mickey Sherman. You know him well. No stranger to a courtroom. Also Bradford Cohen, defense attorney in the Florida jurisdiction.

OK, guys, I`ve just come out of the courtroom and I want to tell you what I observed. All right? When the jurors -- there`s 18 jurors. When they came back in from a break, only one juror, a male, one, would look at Arias. Now that speaks volumes to me having tried cases since, you know, about 1984.

The one male would look at her. The women on the jury would visibly, physically -- I`m going to show what you they did. I don`t know if you`ve got a monitor, they`d go like this. They physically turn away from her. The men would look in the general direction but they were not looking at Arias. They were looking at a defense attorney that was standing up. Only one juror would meet Arias -- look at her in the face.

What does that mean to you, Mick?

SHERMAN: You know, that`s -- those are urban legends. I`ve seen that many, many times, as you clearly implied.

COHEN: I agree.

SHERMAN: That if they look at us, it`s OK. If they don`t look at us, it`s bad. That`s a lot of baloney.

GRACE: OK.

SHERMAN: But I`ll tell you, I don`t have that great regard for the jury because those questions, the series of questions they came out with would make a great assistant producer`s questions for contestants on "The Jerry Springer Show," but they have no business in a murder trial.

(LAUGHTER)

COHEN: Correct. Nancy, the issue about --

GRACE: OK, guys, we are quickly degenerating. Go ahead, quickly.

COHEN: Nancy, the issue about the jury looking or not looking.

GRACE: What?

COHEN: If you remember in the Michael Jackson case, they didn`t look at him when they -- when they came back with a not guilty.

GRACE: Yes, I don`t remember that. You`re right.

Out to clinical psychologist Seth Meyers joining me out of L.A.

Seth, what do you make of the defense claim that this was an abuser yet he never -- never physically beat her? You know, she was the one traveling 300 to 1,000 miles a clip to come pursue him. She was the one that slashed his car tires not once but twice, and of his girlfriend`s. She`s the one that hacked into his e-mail and his bank account.

How is it that he`s the abuser? How is -- how does that -- what kind of upside-down world does that happen in?

SETH MEYERS, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Exactly. It really doesn`t make any sense at all. You know, if he were an abuser, odds are and research shows this, that he probably would have engaged in aggressive behavior towards other women before. And we really don`t have any evidence of that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: As we now turn our attention toward the defense of Jodi Arias, the big question is, of course, will she take the stand? That`s not unusual. That`s the question in every criminal trial. If the defense reviews history, they will not put her on the stand. I think that`s going to be very difficult, though, because Arias craves the limelight.

This week will tell the tale as to whether Arias is, A, guilty and, B, sentenced to the Arizona death row. The state has put up a great case. However, we have no idea what the defense is really going to do. The wild card, will Arias take the stand?

It`s very difficult to get a woman sentenced to the death penalty. It`s very rare that that happens. Everything will unfold this week as to whether she`s found guilty much less sent to death row. It`s all on the defense shoulder now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She would be all over him and hugging on him and have her arms around him. He would not reciprocate that.

JODI ARIAS, ACCUSED OF KILLING TRAVIS ALEXANDER: I have no idea.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I immediately said, Travis, you need to stay away from her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When we first started dating I was 19.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did he get really serious on you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. He started talking about marriage.

ARIAS: Think about your future husband, and how you disrespect not only yourself but him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This woman is a sociopath.

ARIAS: My actions, my thoughts, my words.

If you let him stay in your bed one more time or even sleep under the same roof as him, you`ll be giving the appearance of evil.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Welcome back, everybody. We are live here outside the Phoenix courthouse. What a blockbuster day in the courtroom today. First of all, take a listen to part of what happened in court.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was Travis ever abusive to you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did he ask you to have sex with him?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you feel pressured to do anything?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did Travis ever make sexual advances to you while you were dating?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, just all it was was making out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do you define cheating?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What I understood it to be and what I would still understand it to be is if you are --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: I`m hearing in my ear right now we are being joined by Beth Karas from "In Session." She`s been in court all day with Jean Casarez as well.

Beth, what happened?

BETH KARAS, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT, IN SESSION (via phone): Well, you know, Nancy, what a day. The jury was in and out. The judge was holding court in chambers with the former girlfriend, Lisa Andrews. And it was a fascinating day because we saw a side of Travis Alexander towards other women that`s not at all the way Jodi Arias is saying he treated her. As you just played those juror questions to the former girlfriend, he was not pressuring her at all, he was a gentleman with her. She would admit she -- what little sexual contact they had which was basically kissing.

And -- the judge would not let the prosecution go into the reason why she broke up with Travis Alexander. She said strange things were happening and that`s when the judge took court into her chambers because she was hearing argument, I believe, on whether or not the prosecution could bring out these strange things where Jodi Arias stalking and slashing tires.

The judge didn`t let the jury hear about the slashing of tires, but she did let the jury hear that Jodi Arias was coming in uninvited and just kind of showing up. And she did actually call her a stalker at one point. So there`s something about the relationship between Travis Alexander and Jodi Arias which was different from the way he treated other women.

GRACE: Yes, I think that factor would be Jodi Arias herself, Beth. Now I find that a very, very interesting ruling by the judge, and she must have made that ruling because she`s being extra cautious, this being a death penalty case, because the defense opened the door. The defense, as we say, opened the door under the law to evidence that normally would not be admissible.

Now in this case Jodi Arias` past bad acts unless they proved, for instance, pattern, course of conduct, intent, scheme of mind, modus operandi, method of operation, MO, sometimes bad acts can come in under those narrow circumstances unless and until the defense opens the door. They brought on this witness to talk about how bad Travis Alexander was. They brought on the evidence of the relationship, so why couldn`t the state cross-examine her about the reason they broke up? The reason they broke up is because Jodi Arias was out slashing their tires.

KARAS: The state got in a little bit more, Nancy. What happened was, Lisa Andrews, her married name, said that there was one time when she saw Travis Alexander`s temper, and it kind of scared her. And she said, I don`t like that temper. Don`t be that way in front of me anymore. But it wasn`t really fully explained. And the state was able, on cross- examination, to get out why he got upset. He couldn`t say -- she couldn`t say slashed tires but it was because of destruction of property. So I believe that was when his tires were slashed he lost his temper. So it wasn`t at his girlfriend that he lost his temper, while one could argue he suspected Jodi, he was losing his temper at her.

GRACE: Out to special guest Dave Hall joining us out of Salt Lake City. A very dear friend of Travis Alexander`s.

Dave, I don`t think that`s fair. I don`t think that`s fair that the defense is painting Travis Alexander to be some abusive, angry, sex freak, when the only time this woman saw him get angry was when Jodi Arias slashed their tires. That doesn`t seem fair to Travis Alexander, to me, and I`ve had it up to here with the defense dragging the victim through the mud, through the mud. She`s already murdered him. Now she wants to destroy his reputation as well.

DAVE HALL, CLOSE FRIEND OF TRAVIS ALEXANDER: You know, Nancy, you are absolutely right. I came on the show a few weeks ago, and I`m still good friends with some of the girls that Travis has dated. And after talking to them, I knew that this testimony that came out today is going to be calling from the other ones that they want -- if they want to bring on other girlfriends.

The fact that Travis for many years bragged about being a virgin, made a pretty big deal about it, and all the girlfriends substantiate that he was saving himself for marriage. He was saving himself for the right woman. And, you know, Jodi came into his life and apparently, you know, that might not be the case. That he wasn`t a virgin based on the photos of the evidence that we are seeing in this trial.

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: Well, I can tell you he was not a virgin. I can tell you that right now.

HALL: Jodi -- Jodi definitely knew how to manipulate men, how to use men and to get into their life. And she was obsessed with Travis. I mean, not only slashing his tires but slashing her tires, coming back and slashing his tires again. And then killing him with the same weapon that she was slashing tires with. She was not a novice with a knife.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: I want to go straight back to Travis`s friend Dave Hall.

What were you saying there at the end, Dave?

HALL: I was just saying how Jodi slashed all the tires of him and his girlfriend and then came and used that same weapon to slash his throat and kill him. She was not a novice with a knife. This was an obsessed woman with Travis.

GRACE: I think she was absolutely obsessed. The witness they put on the stand today backfired. Could you explain to me what you knew, if anything, about Arias and how you learned that Travis was dead?

HALL: Well, what I knew about Travis from conversations with him was that he had made some mistakes morally that went against our church beliefs and that he had started working with his bishop to get those taken care of. But he had told me that this is the first time that that had happened and after kind of wearing that big red badge of courage that I`m a virgin for so many years you don`t want to just come out and say to all your friends that are kind of using that as a nickname for you that hey, whoops, I screwed up, I had sex, you can`t use the nickname anymore on me.

And so he was -- he was embarrassed and shamed about that part of it. But all the other women that he was dating and stuff said, hey, look, he was a complete gentleman. The worst thing that this girlfriend can say is he grabbed my butt and so I asked him to stop that? I mean, come on, that`s a gentleman in most people`s books.

GRACE: You know, Dave, I`ve just been very distraught about the way Travis has been portrayed.

Beth Karas, there was a moment in court today where the victim`s family got very upset after a photo was shown of him with his neck sliced open.

KARAS: This came without warning, Nancy. And it was an autopsy photo of Travis Alexander`s upper half and really his head and his neck and the gaping wound ear to ear was front and center in that photo. Up on the screen for everyone to see. It came unannounced. And Travis Alexander`s siblings, a brother and two sisters, were in court. Now, they -- they knew when this kind of testimony was coming up because an M.E. was on the stand or something.

They didn`t know this was about to happen. And so they -- audibly started crying. And both sisters left. Jurors reacted to it. I mean, looked over. You couldn`t help it. Jodi Arias started crying. And what Juan Martinez was doing was making a comparison between how Travis Alexander had treated her. Oh, he was maybe not very understanding of her desire to be a teacher, and there was some heavy petting and she wanted it to stop and don`t grab my butt.

And he said but wait, did it deserve this? And then he throws the picture up there. Kind of I think maybe he wanted to bring the jurors back to what the case was about because it seemed like the defense was making a little bit of headway today just showing a different side of Travis Alexander, and Juan Martinez wanted to set the record straight from his perspective.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: We remember American hero, Marine Lance Corporal Zachary Smith, just 19. Cornel, New York. Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon. Parents Chris and Kim. Brother Nate. Sister Grace. Widow Ann.

Zachary Smith. American hero.

Beth was just describing a moment in court where the victim`s family saw a gaping wound from ear to ear and broke out in tears in the courtroom. The motion for mistrial was denied.

I want to go to Dr. William Morrone, medical examiner.

Dr. Morrone, as a crime victim I chose never to see my fiance`s body, but you have been in autopsies when families have identified a body. That`s a devastating effect on a family member.

DR. WILLIAM R. MORRONE, MEDICAL EXAMINER; FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST, TOXICOLOGIST (via phone): It is a devastating effect because people always want to remember the deceased. And when you remember the deceased from the last contact and they`re macerated like a piece of meat, they`re assassinated, they`re punished, that`s the vision you that get.

You don`t get the guy standing next to the ski hill holding lift tickets. You don`t get the guy on the surfboard. And he had multiple punctures and lacerations. His wound was decapitating through his windpipe. He was either cut like an assassin from behind, with his head pulled back when he was unconscious, or she sat on his chest and cut him open like a really hard piece of bread out of the oven.

You don`t want to remember that. That is just too graphic.

GRACE: Dr. Morrone, you are so right.

Everyone, as we go to break, a very special good night from Arizona friends, Chris and Miranda, with Wildlife World Zoo in Phoenix.

"DR. DREW" up next. I`ll see you tomorrow night 8:00 sharp Eastern here at the courthouse. And until then, good night, friend.

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