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Jane Velez-Mitchell

Stunning from Stand in Jodi Arias Case

Aired February 05, 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, stunners from the witness stand. As Jodi Arias spins a tale of how her relationship with Travis Alexander rapidly escalated into graphic sexual encounters that she explained with embarrassment to the jurors.

What went so terribly wrong that caused her to act with such violence? We`re going inside the mind of Jodi Arias right now, and we`re going to debate it with four of America`s top lawyers. Is she going for the hypocrisy defense?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VELEZ-MITCHELL (voice-over): Tonight, Jodi Arias fights for her life on the stand. The accused murderer spills dark secrets about her tumultuous dating history in front of the jury and the world. But as she recounts every detail of her life, what are the jurors thinking? Do they believe her?

Our panel of experts will analyze and debate whether this rehearsed performance is humanizing Jodi or making her seem like a robotic, cold- blooded killer. Plus, our team is inside the courtroom with the latest. And we`re taking your calls.

JODI ARIAS, MURDER DEFENDANT: Out of the corner of my eye, I saw somebody walking toward me. I did get the impression that he was trying to impress me, because he was talking about income. He looked like he had purpose.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nine-one-one emergency.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A friend of ours is dead. I`m standing in his bedroom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You were, to some degree, getting intoxicated by the success you were seeing.

ARIAS: He stepped right in front of me and stuck his hand out and introduced himself.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was that Travis?

ARIAS: Yes.

I was always a server, not the guest.

JENNIFER WILLMOTT, ARIAS`S DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Jodi Arias killed Travis Alexander.

ARIAS: That kind of opened my eyes to the reality that you really can be successful in this company, and it`s not just a fly-by-night company or any kind of get-rich-quick scheme.

He leaned in very close, as if he wanted to kiss me. And he was licking his lips and he was staring at my lips. And Travis wants to know if I would go to the executive director banquet with him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Had her arms around him while he was talking to everybody else and he did not reciprocate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When did you first kiss Mr. Alexander?

ARIAS: He came into the bedroom I was staying in.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, super stunners in the Jodi Arias murder trial as Jodi puts the jurors in her shoes and takes them step by step through what she says is her relationship with Travis Alexander, including how she describes their first sexual encounter. It`s a shocker.

Will the jury believe she was the victim of abuse, forced to defend herself, or a cold-blooded killer?

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. But she claims it was all done in self-defense.

From the moment Travis and Jodi met at a glittering Las Vegas casino, Jodi says Travis aggressively pursued her, even giving her a dress to go to a gala, a black-tie gala, even though Jodi claims she was reluctant and uncomfortable.

She says by the time they had a rendezvous at a friend`s house, things got very sexual and steamy. We have to warn you, this is very graphic language, but this is what she said in open court just a little while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARIAS: This is embarrassing.

He began to perform oral sex on me.

I was uncomfortable. It was dark, and the lights were off. So that might have made it a little bit more -- I mean, a little more tolerable. But it was -- I don`t know. I mean, he knew what he was doing for sure. But it was just -- it felt like too much too soon. And I mean, I couldn`t exactly rewind at that point. You know?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why didn`t you voice your discomfort?

ARIAS: I didn`t want him to have that impression. I wanted to -- I wanted to at least appear like I was enjoying it as much as he seemed to be. I guess it would have seemed to me to be unattractive for -- for me to say anything different or anything negative about the experience.

He asked for reciprocation. He had his temple garments under...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you perform oral sex upon him at that time?

ARIAS: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he (EXPLETIVE DELETED)?

ARIAS: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where?

ARIAS: In my mouth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. Very graphic stuff indeed.

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

Straight out to our own senior producer, Selin Darkalstanian. Selin, you were in court for this blush-inducing testimony where she talks about oral sex between -- performed on her, performed by her on him. Tell us what you heard and the reaction in the courtroom.

SELIN DARKALSTANIAN, HLN PRODUCER: Jane, I mean, we saw a Jodi that was embarrassed. She was shy. She didn`t want to get into the -- into the sexual stuff. And they asked her about her first kiss. And you saw Jodi, and she was looking down. And she would pause and she would -- she would, you know, blush. And it was uncomfortable for her.

We saw a very, very innocent Jodi on the stand. And she told us the first time they kissed that Travis was aggressive, that Travis made them have oral sex the first time that -- she just thought they were going to kiss, but it went much further than what she thought was going to happen. And she didn`t want to displease him, because she really wanted to go along with what he wanted to do, even though that`s not what she wanted to do.

And it was incredible. I have to tell you, the end of the courtroom today, the end of the day -- the trial today, her testimony was definitely -- I felt like she was acting on the stand. And she was definitely giving us this very, very innocent Jodi, and she was playing it up.

And the jury wasn`t -- they were listening to her, and they weren`t taking notes. They were just listening to her, but you couldn`t tell whether they -- were they buying this or were they not? We couldn`t tell from their expressions.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And remember, the jury is not a monolithic group. It`s -- what is it? Eleven plus six. Twelve plus six alternates. Eighteen people, I believe. I mean, there`s a lot of people listening to this. All you need is a couple of them to have a reaction, and this prosecution could have a problem.

Now, listen to how Jodi says she felt after performing oral sex on Travis in her car.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How did you feel after that encounter?

ARIAS: I don`t -- I don`t recall feeling really bad. Maybe just a little deflated. He wouldn`t -- he refused to kiss me afterward, because he said it was gross. Maybe that`s because I had just performed oral sex. But that`s what he said. And so he kissed me on the cheek.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, the family of Travis Alexander -- you see them in court, they are furious, because I think they correctly sensed that this is a blame-the-victim defense. This is a defense where Jodi Arias and her attorneys are essentially trying to point out Travis`s hypocrisy, if you believe everything that Jodi is saying, which is a big leap right there. She has been known to lie.

But let`s bring in our legal team: Jordan Rose, Wendy Murphy, Brian Silver, Evangeline Gomez. We`ve got four excellent attorneys.

If I had to boil it down, I would say that this is the hypocrisy defense. They are painting a picture of Travis Alexander, the victim, as someone who was handing her the Book of Mormon at a Starbucks and then asking her and getting oral sex in a car, even though Mormonism calls for celibacy.

He`s talking to her about Mormonism, sending Mormon missionaries to her house, while he is again demanding more oral sex from her.

I don`t know if any of this happened. This is coming out of her mouth. But is it effective? And let`s start with Evangeline Gomez, defense attorney.

EVANGELINE GOMEZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Today`s testimony is showing that she is a lifetime victim of domestic violence. She experienced it at the hands of her parents, in her teenage relationships, in her adult relationships.

And the fact that she feels uncomfortable saying no to Travis, that he`s calling her every day, is further evidence that she is a true victim of domestic violence.

For anyone to suggest that we`re flipping the script by saying that he`s the victim, you`re not understanding, and you`re not paying attention to what Jodi is saying on the stand.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Jordan Rose, attorney, Phoenix, Arizona.

JORDAN ROSE, ATTORNEY: Oh, can we trust anything that Jodi would ever say on the stand when she`s lied about every single thing? And I cannot wait for the prosecutor to get up there and put her on the spot.

But here, you know, you go, is the jury looking at her and saying, you know, are these just 20-something-year-old kids and this is a normal relationship and no 20-something-year-old kid -- no reasonable person would react to this situation by thinking it was abusive and -- and snapping like that.

I mean, it`s almost like today was a pull-the-heartstrings -- yesterday was a pull-the-heartstrings sort of defense. There`s no legal self-defense. It`s almost the Casey Anthony blame the daddy, blame the mommy, blame the boyfriends.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Brian Silver.

BRIAN SILVER, ATTORNEY: The first thing we need to understand is that this is a case with a lot of moving parts.

No. 1, her testimony`s not only going to establish that she`s acting in her own self-defense, but it`s for later on in the penalty phase, because she needs to establish not only what she did but why she did it. And if she acted under duress, that would be a mitigator against imposing the death penalty.

And we may not like what she has to say. The family may find it offensive. But that doesn`t mean it`s not true, because sometimes a kiss is not just a kiss. And that`s what the defense is going to explain later.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Wendy Murphy.

WENDY MURPHY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Look, let me be clear. She`s lied so much there`s a very good chance nobody in that jury believes any of this. And they have seen her act like this when falsely claiming to not even have been at the crime scene. And they`re going to correlate her demeanor then to the demeanor now and feel like they`re -- she`s trying to put one over on them.

I mean, if they think she`s lying now, they`re going to pull the switch faster at the penalty phase.

Here`s the thing I think she`s trying to do. It`s clear she`s trying to act like a little girl. She`s 32 years old. I half expected her to pull out a lollipop and put pigtails on the way this -- this was pure theater today. And jurors who feel manipulated will come back with a vengeance.

I think when she starts talking about "I didn`t want to have sex and he made me have sex" to make him look like the bully when they know he can`t stand up and say, "Hey, I gave you oral sex. You loved it. We had a wonderful time. We had bubble bath and champagne." To make him look like the sexual aggressor with the jury knowing he can`t get back up there and say...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But my question...

MURPHY: ... "You are a sexually aggressive woman, too."

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But my question for all of you to think of, we`re going to cover it after the break. All it takes is one juror, perhaps a woman who has had a degrading sexual experience where she felt forced into oral sex with some guy and who has empathy for what she`s telling. Could that be all that the defense needs to hang their hat on?

We`ve got much more explosive testimony -- and I mean really stunning testimony -- from Jodi Arias coming up right after the break. And we`re taking your calls.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you kill Travis Alexander on June 4, 2008?

ARIAS: Yes, I did.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why?

ARIAS: The simple answer is that he attacked me and I defended Myself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you comply?

ARIAS: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why?

ARIAS: I felt -- I felt an attraction to him. And the feeling was mutual. And I wanted to -- I just wanted to -- I don`t know. I wanted to do what he wanted to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jodi painting this picture of being a young woman, sort of stars in her eyes, and being -- essentially she`s claiming she was taken advantage of by the victim, Travis Alexander, who was a religious person, a devout Mormon supposedly, supposed to not have sex at all; and claims that Travis gave her a book of Mormon and a couple of minutes later is demanding oral sex from her.

I want to go to Wendy Walsh, psychologist with DatingAdvice.com.

Hypocrisy, even if he is -- even if he did exhibit this hypocritical behavior -- we don`t know that -- is not an excuse to murder someone. I mean, if we killed every hypocrite, we would have far fewer people on this planet. We are all guilty of hypocrisy to a certain degree. I certainly am.

But yet, could the hypocrisy defense resonate with women who may have had an experience where they`re forced into -- they feel obligated to perform oral sex on a guy and still resent it to this day?

WENDY WALSH, PSYCHOLOGIST: It`s funny that you bring that up, Jane, because you know you and I have talked about before about what a high- supply sexual economy we`re in right now, where sex is really cheap and a lot of young women are being forced to do things.

There`s research on this. Women are reporting that they`re being forced to do -- perform sexual acts that are like what`s going on in the porn that the guys are becoming addicted to online, and they don`t feel comfortable about it. They have negative feelings. But they think if they stand up to a guy early in the relationship, he`ll abandon them and move on. Jodi is textbook in this way.

But you`re also right. It`s still not an excuse to murder. And that`s really what we`re talking about here.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: So Jean Casarez, give us the gender breakdown in the jury right now. I know they haven`t pulled out the -- Beth Karas. I know they haven`t pulled out the alternates at this point. But what`s the gender makeup?

JEAN CASAREZ, TRUTV`S "IN SESSION": There are 11 men and 7 women on the jury. There are two rows. Nine in each. And they have been fixed on her all day today.

I did see two men and two women earlier in the day taking notes. Not so much later in the day. But they`re paying very close attention.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Do you think there could be a gender impact here?

CASAREZ: You know, I don`t know. I mean, she is a little seductress, certainly with men. I don`t know how she`s going to stand up, though, on cross-examination. Everything she`s saying right now is going unchallenged. Do we know that what she`s saying is actually the truth? I don`t know.

I mean, all the jury knows about her at this point is all the lies she has told the police and all her handiwork in the brutal slaying of Travis Alexander.

So this is her opportunity to really persuade them. But she`s going to be challenged on cross, I think, in a big way.

And I want to add, Jane, she was very aggressive sexually with Ryan Burns just hours after killing Travis Alexander, and her boyfriend before Travis, Darryl Brewer, said that their first sexual encounter she was quite enthusiastic. So both of those men say things contrary to the way she is describing herself and her first sexual experiences with Travis Alexander.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Excellent point, Beth. And I think the prosecutor needs to certainly emphasize that on cross-examination.

Let`s go to the phone lines. Hannah, Massachusetts, your question or thought -- Hannah.

CALLER: Hi, Jane. My theory is that the defense is trying to paint a picture that, because Travis was struggling so much with his chastity and with, you know, being Mormon and wanting to be sexual at the same time that perhaps he was acting out, he was trying to kill her, and that`s why she had to defend herself.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, that`s interesting. Jon Lieberman, very quickly, what does this prosecutor need to do on cross-examination to take back the power in this case?

JON LIEBERMAN, HLN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, just meticulously dissect her lies. That`s exactly what Mr. Martinez is going to do. He`s going to point out that liars have selective memories.

And as you heard today Jodi Arias on the stand, some things she could recall in graphic detail, and yet some of the more controversial questions, "Oh, I don`t recall."

Mr. Martinez is going to continue to go after her, show her as a liar, show her as, frankly, an embarrassment to everybody who is a true victim of domestic violence, and he will just dissect her piece by piece.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But he has to be very careful. He has shown to be very aggressive in his cross-examination, sometimes even on his direct examination. And if he gets too rough with her, could it backfire and create more sympathy for this soft-spoken defendant, who sometimes the jurors say they can`t even hear?

More on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARIAS: They use the term "entertrainment." It`s entertaining training. Do you know what I`m saying? It`s entertaining training, I guess you could say.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARIAS: I saw somebody walking toward me, kind of fast-paced. And I noticed it was a guy, and I thought that he was going somewhere, because he looked like he had a purpose. So I stepped out of the way, except he need to walk past me. But he stopped right in front of me and stuck his hand out and introduced himself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And that is Jodi Arias describing the moment that Travis Alexander introduced himself to her in a Las Vegas -- a glittery Las Vegas convention for Prepaid Legal, and then later invited her, according to her, to some kind of Prepaid gala where he came up with a dress for her at the last moment. She`s painting him as being very much in pursuit of her.

Well, I have to tell you that you could tell from looking at the gallery that Travis Alexander`s family was very, very upset as Jodi Arias has sort of now gotten free rein to tell her whole life story and put whatever spin she wants on any events.

So how do the family members and the friends of the victim, Travis Alexander, feel? Well, we are very, very honored to have with us tonight a very good friend of victim Travis Alexander, Taylor Searle.

You`ve been in court all day. You are a friend of the victim. Your reaction to what you`ve heard in court today from Jodi Arias`s mouth.

TAYLOR SEARLE, FRIEND OF VICTIM: Well, after she was done recounting all of her witch training, it seemed that she was actually talking about my friend for the beginning of her testimony, when she talked about running into him in Las Vegas and how he was pursuing her and how he was almost a gentleman in pursuing her. That sounded like my friend.

And I remember coming away thinking she`s actually making him sound like a pretty good guy, the way that he almost inspired her to want to change her life around and want to aspire to greater things.

But when she got into the stories about him meeting her and handing her a Book of Mormon in one hand and then asking for sexual favors in the other, that didn`t sound like my friend. And it seems like there`s -- she`s taking a lot of liberty with the things that can`t be proven or disproven in telling the story she wants to tell.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And what do you think the prosecution needs to do to puncture her stories?

SEARLE: I mean, like a lot of people have said, if they can just show that she is a great liar and that she`s a great actor, or actress, sorry, and that she has rehearsed these things, and that when she`s asked questions that aren`t necessarily things that she`s made up yet, it`s going to be shown that she`s a liar, and that she doesn`t have her defense counsel leading her on, telling her what to say. And I think that it`s just going to -- the truth is going to be found out just because she won`t be able to keep it up.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, we would love to have you stay with us. We have so many more questions for you. And I`m sure many of our callers do, as well.

We are far from done. We`re just getting started. Much more from Jodi Arias`s mouth on the witness stand today.

And top of the hour, Nancy Grace has her take on this explosive day in court, 8 and 10 p.m.

But more right on the other side of the break. Your calls, and our legal team will debate what does the prosecution need to do?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you get jealous? Did you get angry at him?

ARIAS: What`s my motive?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jealousy? Anger? Fear? Fear of being alone?

ARIAS: I found Darryl very attractive. He was tall...

ARIAS: I found Daryl very attractive. He was tall, you know, handsome, beautiful eyes. I kind of saw him as like a George Clooney type.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Became infatuated and fell in love.

JENNIFER WILLMOTT, JODI ARIAS` DEFENSE ATTORNEY: What would have forced Jodi? It was Travis`s continual abuse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he ever hit you?

ARIAS: I got knocked in the head once by my dad. He just pushed me against the wall and I hit my head and I fell.

I was kind of becoming tired of the discipline.

I would have expected him to not be the one that cheated on me.

Our argument escalated, and he approached me and spun me around.

WILLMOTT: Travis grabbed her and spun her around.

ARIAS: I was very confident that no jury would convict me because I planned to be dead. Probably the most bitter words I`ll ever eat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight Jodi Arias on the stand again today, and is she seizing control of this case? Spending hours and hours on her tale of woe, taking us back to her childhood, claiming her parents beat her, a high school boyfriend allegedly tried to strangle her. And now she has focused on her relationship with Travis Alexander saying that he aggressively pursued her after meeting her at a convention in Las Vegas and then was very quick to not only try to get her to go into prepaid legal but also to join Mormonism. And as he`s handing her a Book of Mormon -- this is all according to her -- minutes later he`s asking oral sex and receives oral sex from her in a car.

Listen to the sound bite, and then we are going to debate it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you comply?

ARIAS: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why?

ARIAS: I felt -- I felt an attraction to him. And the feeling was mutual. And I wanted to -- I just wanted to -- I don`t know. I wanted to do what he wanted to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And yes, she says she did give Travis Alexander oral sex in a car. Again, this is her story.

Now, the prosecutor is not objecting a lot. I have to ask our legal panel about that. And once he gets his turn, what should this prosecutor do to - - listen, let me say this -- the prosecution has painted this portrait of Jodi Arias as a vengeful, rageful, jealous stalker. And in the last couple of days what she has done is taken a giant eraser. Ok? And it`s as if -- I think you need to come back for the full effect of this on me -- as if she is erasing this very careful portrait that the prosecution has created of her as this dangerous, vengeful, jealous woman who was stalking Travis Alexander, who`s violent, who viciously killed him. And in its place they are painting this portrait of this little -- oh, this sweet little angel flower who feels like I can`t say no to oral sex. What does the prosecutor have to do to put his original portrait back in the frame starting with Wendy Murphy?

WENDY MURPHY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Well, the prosecutor doesn`t have to do very much because I`m sure pointing out the lies and emphasizing her pictures where she`s clearly expressing herself as sexually aggressive will put all this nonsense out of the jury`s mind very quickly. And I`m not that worried about the prosecutor -- I`m a little bit worried that the experts are going to take the stand and give her some validation. Prosecutors can handle that stuff pretty easily.

I know one of the guys. Dr. Bob Gefner is supposed to testify for her. I`ll have to whack him upside the head next time I see him. But to the extent he says -- this is what I think they`re going to say -- she was repressed because of all abuse and it stayed in her and then she just exploded. That`s why there was the overkill. She`s finally exploded.

Nobody`s going to buy it --

(CROSSTALK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Brian. Brian --

MURPHY: How much are you getting? How much are you getting to --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Brian wants to jump in. Let the guys talk. Jon, start.

JON LEIBERMAN: I agree with her. I mean here`s the thing that we`re missing. If she was so afraid of Travis Alexander, why did she drive all that distance to go and see him? Why did she bring a gun and a knife to his house? And then why did she hack into his voicemail after she killed him? And why did she post all these pictures online "In loving memory of Travis Alexander"?

I mean that`s exactly what prosecutors are going to point out -- all of those things. Not to mention that --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Hold on.

LEIBERMAN: -- if you listen closely to the testimony, real quick, she broke up with every boyfriend prior to Travis. He was the only one who rejected her.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Brian Silber.

BRIAN SILBER, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: If they have any chance of winning, they need to do two things. Number one, not harp on the lies, not harp on the details of the murder. The jury already knows this stuff. If you`re just going to hit rewind and play a thousand times, you`re going to lose your jury.

What they`ve got to do is get into the details. If I was the prosecutor, I would start off by asking her, let me ask you this. When you killed him, did you shoot him first or did you slice his neck? You get into the details. You want to talk about self-defense? Who hit who first? Where were you standing? Where was he standing? What did you do with the knife? What did you do with the gun? Because if she is lying that`s where she`s going to fall apart.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And let me say -- let`s show some autopsy stuff while we talk about this because you bring it back to a very important point. It`s not just her. We`ve got to bring it back to the victim and what was done to him. And we`ve got some of the gruesome autopsy photos we`ll show you.

Evangeline Gomez, criminal defense attorney.

EVANGELINE GOMEZ, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Jane, the prosecutor has a lot of problems here. We`ve heard testimonies from ex-boyfriends. We`ve heard her testimony stating that prior to meeting Travis Alexander men cheated on her, they abused her, and she didn`t -- she wasn`t violent toward them and she certainly didn`t kill them.

Second, she is a victim of domestic violence. She`s doing everything she can to protect even those men who have abused her. So if you hear lies, it doesn`t mean that she deserves the death penalty. It`s a symptom of being a victim of domestic violence.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I agree with you. I think a lot of this is simply throwing herself on the mercy of the jurors and say don`t kill me. Whatever you do, don`t kill me.

Let`s go to the phone lines. Debbie in New York -- your question or thought -- Debbie in New York.

DEBBIE, NEW YORK (via telephone): Hi, Jane. How are you?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Good.

DEBBIE: Jane, you couldn`t have said it any better with that big eraser because I`m thinking the same thing. She`s -- she is just going to knock the wind out of the prosecutor`s sails. I am finding her quite likeable, quite believable.

I mean I hate what she did, and I`m very sorry, Taylor, for your friend, your loss of your friend. But this gal is mesmerizing. I`m sitting at the edge of my seat. She is articulate. She`s intelligent. She`s poised. Her mannerisms -- if this is theatrics, whoever her coach is, kudos to the coach, the best.

And I think the prosecutor`s going to have a very difficult time with her. She`s going to give him a run to his money because he`s a bully and nobody likes a bully, because I don`t like him at all. And the jurors are not going to like him if he`s going to treat her the way he`s been treating other people.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Debbie, interesting comments. Wendy Walsh, psychologist - - women on the jury may react differently than men.

WENDY WALSH, PSYCHOLOGIST: Yes, absolutely. This jury, it`s an interesting selection of jury with 11 men. I think that the attorneys thought -- or certainly her defense attorneys must have thought that she would be beguiling enough and flirtatious enough that the men would feel sorry for her.

Now she`s doing a kind of case where the women might feel sorry for her because maybe she was a victim of this domestic violence. So maybe she`s playing each gender in a different way. To the men she`s going to flirt and she`s going to be sultry and she`s going to be the seductress. To the women she`s going to go the victim of domestic violence or being -- having been forced to do sexual acts that she didn`t want to. So it`s interesting to see her testimony as it plays very separately to these two genders.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And I want to ask Jean Casarez on the other side of the break, are there any Mormons? Do we know, are there any Mormons amongst the jurors? More on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARIAS: At that point, I had taken it that far, I was kind of glad he was done, and I was just going to reciprocate at that point.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And so we`re clear, when you say reciprocate, does that mean perform oral sex on him?

ARIAS: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jodi Arias on the stand and we`ve been analyzing her testimony and comparing it to her police interrogation tapes. Have we found a pattern of the lies? We will present the evidence to you and you decide on the other side of the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In that year and eight months did he ever hit you?

ARIAS: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he ever call you a whore?

ARIAS: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A slut?

ARIAS: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) wonder?

ARIAS: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you remember seeing e-mails in which Mr. Alexander referred to Miss Arias as a, quote, Three (EXPLETIVE DELETED) wonder?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Objection. Hearsay.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As a slut?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As a whore?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Jean Casarez, you heard the defense attorney ask Jodi Arias, did another ex-boyfriend, not Travis, ever call you and use those offensive terms? What was the point of that?

JEAN CASAREZ, CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": It`s very interesting. Her life pre-Travis and her life after Travis -- that`s what the defense is going after. Because her relationships, although they were rocky, although she made all the decisions in them, it appears as though, there was a level of respect -- absent all the cheating -- there was a level of respect that seemed to not be there with Travis. I think as the testimony`s going to go on -- according to the defense.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Let`s go to the phone lines quickly. Regina, New York -- your question or thought. Regina.

REGINA, NEW YORK (via telephone): Yes, Jane. I have a question and a comment. She talked about not being there, that she was going to kill herself. When did she think about that? After she killed him or she was grinding on the other guy? Or when she was trying to flee? Or when she was singing in jail?

And my comment is with her on the stand I think she`s telling some truth but I think she has the roles reversed because nobody has substantiated that Travis ever had sex with anybody. So he may have been a virgin. And she was just, you know, a temptation, an addiction that he couldn`t stop because of the lust. And that`s what she used with him.

And I think when she went there she used all she could use and when he still didn`t take her to Cancun that was it -- so. And I believe she was the sexual aggressor.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, Shanna Hogan, journalist and author of "Picture Perfect", she may be describing let`s say, let`s say even what she is describing is true -- and that`s a big leap right there. But that doesn`t prove self-defense. There is no excuse. Hypocrisy is certainly no excuse for murder. Again, if we were to kill all the hypocrites in the world, there would be very few people alive on this planet.

SHANNA HOGAN, JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR OF "PICTURE PERFECT": Absolutely. And what I find interesting, we`ve heard these stories before. We`ve heard this before today. We`ve heard these in the press conferences. We`ve heard this on the "48 Hours" interview. We`ve heard the whole story of how they met on "inside Edition". She`s telling the same stories, but she`s altering it.

Never before was it with the sexual twist. Never before was he sexually aggressive to her or her uncomfortable. She was talking about him in glowing terms, talking about how he presented her with a copy of the Book of Mormon and how he challenged her to read it and changed her life. And so now all these things are being added and it`s after four years in jail where she`s had all this time to think and percolate and come up with a possible motive for what she did.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Taylor Searle, again, a friend of Travis Alexander, he is not here to speak for himself. His family very upset about what they are hearing. Do you think that the prosecutor should be objecting more? We are not even into the really graphic stuff that we know is to come about their sexual relationship, the photos, et cetera, et cetera. Do you feel that essentially she`s been allowed to take control of this entire case and this courtroom?

TAYLOR SEARLE, FRIEND OF TRAVIS ALEXANDER: Well, it seemed like the prosecution did object plenty of times in my opinion. It seemed like she was following a script and after she was trying to search for words and how to phrase stuff she would phrase it in a certain way and then glance back to the defense attorneys, looking for approval or disapproval. And it seemed like they had crafted this in a way to set their narrative and every time the prosecution objected they would say the same thing and try to get the narrative across, just in a different way.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Do you think the prosecutor is going to be able to bust up these fanciful tales?

SEARLE: Well, I have no idea. All I know is when I think about that and think about her trying to become sympathetic because of the bully aspect or like the caller had mentioned that she`s putting everyone under their spell, I`m just scared of the possibilities, and I just am afraid of justice not being served.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: It`s interesting that you should say that because today is really the first day where we see in essence that she has kind of taken control, taken the reins of what`s going on in court, at least for the time being.

Now, I have to tell you, listen carefully. On the other side of the break we`re going to start out by playing some sound. When you hear it, see if you notice any patterns in the lies. One is a documented lie. So does that mean that the other thing Jodi says is also a lie? Listen on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARIAS: I didn`t see myself being with a smoker. Not that there`s anything wrong with it. But it wasn`t the lifestyle that I wanted. My grandparents were chain smokers for a long time, and I saw how it affected their health very negatively.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Here, Pet o` the Day and look at fabulous Kyle. What a beautiful, beautiful little angel. Boo -- Boo, you don`t scare me at all. You`re very cute, though. Roger, I think you are a very, very serious and smart doggie. Yes, I can tell. And Kate, she`s just truly innocent.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARIAS: He leaned in very close as if he wanted to kiss me and he was licking his lips and he was staring at my lips and like he wanted to kiss me, but he didn`t.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And where did this occur?

ARIAS: On the elevator.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How close did he get to you?

ARIAS: He got right in my face.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: There you heard Jodi Arias today on direct taking the witness stand and describing Travis Alexander as very sexually aggressive toward her coming on very strong.

But I want to go back to Travis Alexander`s friend, Taylor Searle. Travis can`t speak for himself but you apparently were told something. Travis told you something about Jodi and sex. What was it?

SEARLE: Well, Travis, when he was telling me about Jodi and her sexual nature, he introduced me into the word "nymphomaniac" because that`s how he described her, super aggressive and super addicted to sex and super sex crazed. I always assumed she was the aggressor in all their relationship.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: That`s interesting because we`re hearing that painted the exact opposite way by Jodi even though we know in other situations like after she kills Travis she goes to Utah. We know she was the sexual aggressor there getting on top of Ryan Burns right after, hours, indeed, after she kills Travis Alexander.

All right. I want to go to the phone line quickly and then we`re going to have one last debate. Kim, New York, your question or thought. Kim?

KIM, NEW YORK (via telephone): Hi, Jane.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hey.

KIM: My comment is she so clearly lies as she is talking on the stand because she gives you the most inane details about who is seated where in a car or a dog being on a leash but the man that was supposedly so aggressive and demanding sex that she had to murder him, she can`t remember who took his clothes off.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Very quickly I want to go to our panel -- yes or no question. To our legal panel starting with Jordan Rose. Do you think there`s a possibility of a hung jury here?

JORDAN ROSE, ATTORNEY: I hate to say it, Jane, in fact it disgusts me, but yes. They only need to pull the heart strings of one juror and she`s doing everything she can to do that. Sadly yes.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wendy Murphy?

MURPHY: Look, some of this titillating red herring stuff all about the sex and the penis, that may be pulling other body parts for a couple of the guys, but when we get to the end of the trial, this is going nowhere. This is the dumbest, most desperate defense I`ve seen in a long time. No chance.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Evangeline Gomez.

GOMEZ: Yes. We also have to remember that she was held back in kindergarten and she didn`t graduate from high school. And I think the jury will consider that in their decision.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Brian Silber, yes or no?

SILBER: No way. She`s going down in flames. I think this will ultimately come down to a question of the death penalty.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: More on the other side.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARIAS: We began taking meditation seminars, kind of new age type seminars but they had their roots in Hinduism or Buddhism -- maybe some kind of like more modern version of transcendentalism. It was once rated four stars by (inaudible). It has been featured in Conde Nast traveler and all kinds of different publications. It had a lot of accolades.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And Jodi Arias has had her run of the courtroom today. Tomorrow it continues as she undoubtedly gets even more graphic describing in detail her relationship with Travis Alexander. Join us tomorrow for that.

NANCY GRACE is up next.

END