Return to Transcripts main page
Nancy Grace
Jodi Arias Gets to Day of Murder
Aired February 19, 2013 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JODI ARIAS, CHARGED WITH MURDER: Whenever he got mad, it was like -- it was like being in an earthquake. Like, it starts and you don`t now how long it`s going to last or how bad it`s going to get. He would get angrier and start -- maybe that he would continue to swear at me in text messages.
"You stressing me out on a daily basis is getting really freaking old. You cry over everything and you dump countless bullcrap on me. Bitter feelings are brewing in me towards you. I`m sick of having days ruined by you. If it keeps up, I fear I will have a genuine dislike for you. I`m asking you before it gets to that to stop doing it before I start seeking revenge."
"I don`t ever want to get another freaking text from you again or a call unless it`s an apology and a thank you for constantly having to take on your never-ceasing problems, not one freaking more. I`m trying to save my house, build a business amid so much conflict, and you don`t care about anything that doesn`t involve you. It`s very upsetting and I`m tired of it."
It was just -- I felt bullied. Like, it was just miserable.
"If he knew what I knew about you, he`d spit in your face. So would everyone else."
He wanted me to text it, but I didn`t want to talk about his issues in text messages.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you mean "his issues"?
ARIAS: His -- his sexual attraction to children.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You were hoping to avoid his anger about you dating or seeing other men, is that right?
ARIAS: Yes. By this point, it was just pure wrath (ph).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. After Jodi Arias drags murder victim Travis Alexander through the mud, claiming he was a pedophile, with no one in court to challenge it, we learn Arias in the weeks before his murder buys a gun, dyes her hair, tape-records herself luring Travis into phone sex.
In the last hours, Arias continues the attack on murder victim Travis Alexander, using hand-picked text messages to paint him as the aggressor, part of the build-up to justify Travis`s brutal murder. She shot him, stabbed him, slashes his throat. After days and days of innocuous babble on the stand from Arias, finally she addresses why we`re all here, the day of the murder.
Liz, go straight in the courtroom, please.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... to his wrath or anger, is that right?
ARIAS: That would be accurate, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. So after he thrusts against you, based on what you told us before, you don`t say, No, don`t do this, right?
ARIAS: No, I didn`t object.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. What did he then do?
ARIAS: We had sex again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he remove your pants? Did you remove your pants?
ARIAS: He just got them down just past my butt. I had -- I don`t know -- I didn`t have, like, jeans or anything on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Does he ejaculate?
ARIAS: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where?
ARIAS: On my back, my lower back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What`s that?
ARIAS: On my lower back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You mentioned him de-stressing through this process. Did that then relieve you, to some degree, thinking that this was over?
ARIAS: What was over?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His anger?
ARIAS: Yes. I was very relieved. I felt like we avoided catastrophe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Catastrophe being what?
ARIAS: Just it leading to another fight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: What you are seeing right now is leading up to the killing, the hours, the minutes before the killing. She is describing how she says Travis Alexander was in a very angry mood, and she is de-stressing him by having sex with him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARIAS: Yes. In that moment, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You weren`t able to avoid a fight the rest of that day, were you. Is that a yes or a no?
ARIAS: No. I mean, no, I was not able to avoid it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. After he ejaculates on your back...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Everybody, it has been quite a day in the courtroom today. Out to you, Matt Zarrell. We`ve been watching. She`s finally gotten up to the day of the murder. But I swear, Matt, I think her lawyers, and maybe even her, are watching our show because every night that we say, Hey, how are they going to explain X, Y or Z, they go right up on the stand and try to explain X, Y and Z.
For instance, she`s claiming that this man she`s been trying to marry is a pedophile, that she caught him masturbating to pictures of little boys in underwear that she called pornography. But now she`s saying she didn`t want to put that in a text message, so we`ve only her word for it now at trial that she continued a relationship with a man she claims is a pedophile.
She talks about the gas can. She talks about why she turned her cell phone off as she entered the jurisdiction. She`s trying to clear up everything that we brought up.
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Yes, Nancy, you`re right. And particularly with Travis Alexander, she tries to play the concerned friend, that she said that she was only communicating with Travis to help him with his pedophilia. Then she goes on to give these explanations that defy description about why she rented the car, why she wanted a red car. She actually testified, Nancy, that she did not want a red car because she heard don`t rent a red car because it gets pulled over by police.
GRACE: You know, another thing, when you were saying that she explained why she rented a red car, (SIC) why she got gas cans, as opposed to leaving a trail at gas stations as she went to murder Travis Alexander, what was her explanation about that?
ZARRELL: Well, the gas cans was very interesting, Nancy, because she claimed it was because of money, that gas cans in California -- that getting gas in California is so expensive that she needed to stock up on gas cans and fill up in Nevada and Utah during her trip. However, Nancy, in southern California, she filled up on gas.
GRACE: So she says she got all the gas cans, filled them up, drove around with a tank full of gas so she wouldn`t have to fill up in California because of gas prices, but then she did fill up? Was that after the murder she filled up?
ZARRELL: No, Nancy, that was before the murder. She filled up in Pasadena on June 3rd, right before driving to Mesa, Arizona, to see Travis Alexander.
GRACE: In court, long lead-up to the testimony regarding the murder. And once again, she fills the void with sex talk. But this is one thing that we picked up on, and I want you to be the judge of it. Liz -- she told us -- and she never went to the doctor, she never went to a nurse, she was never treated -- that she broke her finger during a confrontation, a physical confrontation with the victim. She never told a soul.
Look at this video. Liz, let`s see the video of her in court when she`s not really focusing on her finger. She`s using the finger normally. Let`s see the rest of the video that we have. Now, this is in stark contrast to holding the finger up in front of the jury when she describes the physical confrontation.
Now, look. Look. Now, that`s when she claims that the finger was broken. But if you notice, in other testimony during all these proceedings, the finger looks normal.
Liz, let`s also -- yes, I want to also show -- there you go. You read my mind, Liz. Thank you. This is a photo posted after she claims her finger was broken by the murder victim, Travis Alexander. Here`s another picture she posted after she claims her finger was broken by Travis Alexander. Another -- they just keep on coming! All of these are posted after she claims he broke her finger, January 2008. We`ve got tons of them.
The point is, I wonder if the prosecution is going to use this. Finally, after days of innocuous babble, she`s finally leading up to the day of the murder of Travis Alexander.
Out to Bonnie Druker, joining me. Everybody`s camped out in front of the courthouse. Bonnie, explain to me what happened in court today. She`s giving the story leading up to the murder. We`re finally to the day of the murder.
BONNIE DRUKER, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, hallelujah for that. We have been waiting seven days for her to discuss the murder. She talks about the gas cans. She talks about the car that she did not want to rent, a red car, Nancy. She is crying. All the family members are sitting on their chairs like this. And finally, like I said, she gets to the day of the murder, Nancy.
GRACE: Now, why does she explain that she didn`t want a red car, that she said she didn`t want -- they said she said she didn`t want a car that stood out. What is her explanation?
DRUKER: That`s exactly what she said. She said when you`re driving along the road, a cop will notice a red car and give you a ticket. So she asked the car guy to give her a white car or a different color car so she wouldn`t get caught. But remember, she did get caught by a cop in Utah because she had her license plate upside-down.
GRACE: We are taking your calls. Beth in New Jersey. Hi, Beth. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. I just want you to know you, don`t go unnoticed, but I just came off five hours ago -- we just convicted a serial pedophile, me and my fellow jury members.
And the girlfriend was the one that reported him, OK? Because they had a crimes expert on and said that, number one, a pedophile is going to have evidence. No matter what form, no matter what shape, there will be evidence. And for that to go in a courtroom is absolutely disgusting. It`s unbelievable!
GRACE: Yes, and here, as I recall -- isn`t this correct, Matt Zarrell -- police combed his computers, laptop, desktop, cell phone, his home, his office, his attic. There was not one shred of evidence or that he had ever even visited such a Web site, a child pornography Web site.
ZARRELL: Let me be clear, Nancy. The only evidence -- the only evidence -- that Travis Alexander`s a pedophile is from Jodi Arias herself.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were you scared he was going to hit you?
ARIAS: I wasn`t thinking of that. He`d only done that one time, so I was scared he was going to throw me or something, like he`d done before.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you say he grabbed your arm and spun you around, right?
ARIAS: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He spun you around where?
ARIAS: Right on the desk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Point to it.
ARIAS: We were standing right about here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The only evidence of any physical confrontation between herself and Travis Alexander is what she is just saying on the stand. She never told a friend. She never mentioned it to family. None of them are on the witness list to corroborate what she is saying. And now we have combed through video ourselves of her in court, and when she`s not thinking about that broken finger, honey, it ain`t broken!
We are taking your calls. But I want to unleash the lawyers tonight, Darryl Cohen, veteran defense attorney, former prosecutor, jurisdiction Atlanta. Also joining me, defense attorney Holly Hughes. Both of them have tried many, many cases. They`re not just talking heads. They know what they`re talking about.
Darryl, a lot of court watchers believe that all these days of basically innocuous babble from Jodi Arias on the stand is to try to get the jury to identify with her, even if they don`t really like her, or maybe they do like her, that they get to know her so when it comes death penalty sentencing time, they won`t give her the death penalty.
However, another train of thought is that it`s actually turning the jurors against her. What do you think?
DARRYL COHEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I think, number one, you`re presupposing...
GRACE: Hold on. Your mike is not working. Let me try you, Holly. Guys, try to fix his mike. Go ahead, Holly.
HOLLY HUGHES, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: That`s exactly what they`re doing. They`re trying to get the jury to understand this is a human being. She has emotion. She has a life to look forward to. They don`t want her to be killed. And they figure they`re humanizing her. They have obviously prepared her well. She turns, she looks at the jury. She knows to make eye contact with them. And their feeling is that, you know...
GRACE: My question to you was, is this backfiring? That was my question.
HUGHES: I don`t think so. They need to have all of this information because they`re going to follow it up with...
GRACE: OK. So all that is, No, it`s not backfiring. All right, Darryl Cohen, is it backfiring?
COHEN: No, Nancy, I don`t think it is. Number one, you`re presupposing that she`s going to be convicted. I don`t believe she`s going to be convicted because what they`re doing is...
GRACE: This is all a theoretical conversation, Darryl.
COHEN: OK. Well, theoretically...
GRACE: Just go with it.
COHEN: ... should she be -- theoretically, should she be convicted, she is being humanized. The jury now hears her story. They watch her. They watch what she`s doing. They watch her body language. And she`s really very good. They`re going through this piece by piece, gently, gently showing that she`s a gentle person, not the person that she`s accused of being, not this heinous person. I mean, that`s just the way it is.
GRACE: OK, let`s go back in the courtroom, and you tell me, does this humanize Jodi Arias?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARIAS: He was proud of his body, and I just wanted to do something else that would make him happy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was this with the goal in mind of ending on a positive note?
ARIAS: Yes. He didn`t get the pictures he wanted, so I offered to do that. I was going to do it anyway, or he was going to at one point. It was going to happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Arias is trying to explain to the jury why she had Travis Alexander take extremely close-up shots of her genitals.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARIAS: I wasn`t going to make it to Lake Powell before sunset, so that was out of the trip. So I figured I have time now, technically. I don`t have to make it to Lake Powell before sunset. So I have time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you mean he didn`t get the pictures that he wanted? You said he didn`t get the pictures he wanted. What do you mean?
ARIAS: From the CDs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh. So this -- these pictures you were going to take of him because he was proud of his body, where were these pictures to be taken?
ARIAS: We were going to take them in the bedroom, but we decided to do it in the shower.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And were these to be taken with his camera or your camera?
ARIAS: My camera had just been packed, so we...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: So Matt Zarrell, along the lines of Darryl Cohen, Holly Hughes, veteran defense lawyer, that this is somehow endearing her to the jury, what is it she`s trying to explain?
ZARRELL: Well, she`s actually explaining how the sexy nude photos that you`re seeing was her idea that day, that she was the one who suggested it when she realized she wasn`t going to make it to Utah in time and she wanted to do it because she had time.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why was your hair in braids that day?
ARIAS: He liked my hair in braids.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was your understanding of why he liked your hair in braids?
ARIAS: He just said it was hot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you think about when you see that picture?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Objection, relevance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Goes to her state of mind that day.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Overruled.
ARIAS: What a stupid idiot I was.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are live, camped outside the Arizona courthouse as the trial goes on. I had very high hopes at the start of the day they would actually get to the murder of Travis Alexander. The day started off talking about the events on the day of the murder.
All right, to you, Bonnie Druker. What did we learn about the day of the murder?
DRUKER: The day of the murder, Jodi went to get the car. And she was driving along up to Arizona. We know that she talked to Ryan Burns, remember, her lover that she went to...
GRACE: Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Bonnie, details matter in a murder case, so when you say she went to get the car -- all right, let`s step back from that a moment. She didn`t just drive to the nearest rental car location, did she?
DRUKER: No, she did not drive to the nearest rental car location. She actually said that she got on line and she went...
GRACE: Let`s talk about that.
DRUKER: Let`s talk about it? She went to Reading, California, to get the car, which is about 90 miles from Yreka. She didn`t get the rental car in her own town. She went about 90 miles away to get this car.
GRACE: Why? What was her explanation?
DRUKER: Why did she do this? She said -- her explanation is she went on line to Orbitz or Travelocity or one of those travel sites, and they said that the closest place to rent one of those cars is 90 miles away...
GRACE: Really? OK.
DRUKER: ... which, of course, it`s hard to believe anything that Jodi Arias says.
GRACE: Let me just write that down as another thing to cross-examine her about because she`s now saying that Orbitz, Xpedia, everybody, they all failed on her server to show her the closest rental car. So she had to drive an hour-and-a-half away to rent a car so she couldn`t be traced!
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you at this point in time fearing that he`s going to be physically aggressive with you?
ARIAS: I don`t know that I was consciously thinking of that, but I remember just being a little more tense, stood up and I went to walk over to him to rub his back or something just to make sure he was OK and let him know that I still had the pictures on my other drive, my Akom (ph) data drive, but I couldn`t access them because that drive was not working...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Welcome back, everybody. We are live, camped outside the Arias courthouse there in Phoenix, Arizona. What a day it`s been. After days and days of Arias going on and on about seemingly irrelevant matters, finally we reach the day that Travis Alexander, unarmed, naked in the shower, was stabbed 29 times and shot.
We are taking your calls, but I have got a hard time with something. Before I take you back to the courthouse, unleash the lawyers and let me see Caryn Stark, psychologist out of New York as well. Holly Hughes, Darryl Cohen, Caryn Stark, psychologist. I have a really hard time, Darryl, thinking or comprehending, according to her, this is a man who has beaten her, that she never reported. That has broken her finger. That has broken up with her. That curses at her. That is horrible to her. That takes her for granted. Then she finds out he`s a pedophile, yet she continues to hack into his e-mail, his bank account, drive 1,000 miles to see him, to visit him, have sex with him, have phone sex with him.
Why is that? Do you really think any woman on the jury is going to believe you find out your boyfriend is a pedophile and you keep dating him?
COHEN: I would hope, Nancy, that no woman on the jury has been with a guy who is a pedophile. But having said that --
GRACE: Well, we agree on that. But let`s get down to the trial.
COHEN: OK. Well, let`s say that she is trying to fix him. She knows how bad he is. She knows how he`s abused her. She knows all of the things that he does wrong, so she takes this drive, one last chance to try to help him and try to change the way he is, keep him back, and bring him back where he should be.
GRACE: One more chance to try to fix him. You know, Holly Hughes, earlier she talked about how she wanted to borrow a gun to commit suicide. Isn`t it ironic how so many murderers always say it`s themselves they want to kill, but, oops, something happens and they murder a lot of other people. Have you ever noticed that? All these murderers are very suicidal, but they seem to come out smelling like a rose, alive and well, sucking up taxpayers` money behind bars, yet they kill somebody else.
HUGHES: Right. That`s true, but bear in mind here that the main attack was with a knife, which tells you she --
GRACE: And a gun.
HUGHES: -- didn`t start out to murder -- the gun was at the end because the bullet is on top of the blood that was already spilled from the knife attack.
GRACE: Can I ask you what difference that makes?
HUGHES: So that tells me -- what it tells me --
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: She had to come into the bathroom with the gun.
HUGHES: She didn`t go in there to commit murder. She found herself in the fight of her life with a knife. Let`s face it. If you have got a gun, why are you going to get into hand-to-hand combat with a man who outweighs you by 100 pounds?
GRACE: Stop, stop, stop. What you are saying is not accurate. She went into the bathroom. Why would she go into the bathroom? He`s taking - - they`re having photo sessions in the shower, of him. She is fully dressed. We see that in the picture. And within 30 seconds, she is stabbing and shooting him.
Caryn Stark, she would have to either come in -- she would have to, point blank, there`s no or, she would have to come into the shower with the gun and a knife based on the time stamps on those photos.
But to you, Caryn Stark, why would you continue to drive 1,000 miles to be with a man that hit you, that calls you horrible names, that dated other women, and that is a pedophile?
CARYN STARK, PSYCHOLOGIST: You wouldn`t, Nancy. And when you are exposed to someone who has been battered, that is not what they do. No. 1, they appear to be battered. People notice it. And she`s moved so far away from him, there really isn`t any reason to return, except for her own rage, whatever is going on with her.
And if she is trying to help him, is she trying to help him with a gun? The gun is supposed to somehow be influencing him, to change his terrible life? No. This is a pathological liar. Nothing that she says makes any sense.
GRACE: Susan Constantine, body language expert, jury consultant, I`ve been watching her very carefully on the stand, but we`ve also caught her gesticulating on the stand with her hands, and that finger that she said was broken and she held it up to the jury like this, basically. It`s not like that in all the other video.
CONSTANTINE: That`s correct. In fact, when we saw for the first time, look at her looking down as she puts her hand up. So she can`t really look at the finger because she knows it`s a lie. I noticed the same thing you saw, too, when I was watching the testimony today when her hands -- when the cameras weren`t on her, weren`t really paying attention, she was moving her hands about very fluently, and there`s no wrinkling of her finger like what we saw in the other video. So, it`s a lie. We know that she was stretching her finger out or making her finger look like she had it broken, and it`s not.
GRACE: Well, a lot of people think it`s very difficult to bend only your ring finger, but actually it`s not. If you work at it, you can do it.
Straight out right now to Jean Casarez. She and Beth Karas had been in the courtroom from the very beginning. Jean, I thought we were going to get up to the stabbing, but they left me high and dry with Travis Alexander in the shower. What did we learn today about the day of the killing, Jean? Why is it so critical?
CASAREZ: You know, Nancy, for the first time I think we have had immense amount of inconsistencies as far as the planning of the trip and the day of the killing. She testified today that he got so angry at one point because a CD of pictures wasn`t happening, and she was so concerned that it would escalate to an argument, argument, and she said he`d only hit me once. We`ve heard five instances of domestic abuse here, and she testifies today he only hit her once? I mean, direct inconsistency.
And as far as the other aspect, she couldn`t look at the jury. She looked down. I can tell you in that courtroom, jurors were writing more notes than I`ve seen them write in a long time. Her mother was writing immense amount of notes in the gallery. But at one point, the jurors stopped, they stopped writing those notes and just listened.
GRACE: You know, Jane, we were getting explanations about all sorts of things, but I`m in the camp that says the more you talk, the more rope you give the prosecution to hang you with on cross-examination. And she is really talking. For instance, about those gas cans she blurted out, well, I didn`t want to fill up in California, but she did fill up in California. We know the reason she didn`t stop for gas, she wanted gas in gas cans, is to either burn evidence or because she didn`t want to be traced using her credit card or on video in the jurisdiction near Travis Alexander. She explained the rental car and said she had heard that cops pull over cars that are red. That`s inconsistent with what was said before.
Just one thing after the next, Jean, and then significantly said she will talk about anything in the sex text messages, but she suddenly says, oh, I wouldn`t talk about his pedophilia on text messages. Why? Why? She talks about everything else. Because it didn`t happen, that`s why, Jean.
CASAREZ: Right. Right. Right. I agree with you. And there are so many inconsistencies, Nancy, let`s look at the big picture. She was on a road trip to visit Hotel Coronado in San Diego, to visit Powell -- Lake Powell. These were all in that book, Nancy, that book of 1,000 things to do before you die, but he wasn`t going on the trip with her this time. She was going alone. How did that make her feel?
GRACE: And, you know, another thing inconsistent -- that`s a good point, Jean.
Another thing, Beth Karas, also with us, live at the courthouse, she was talking about she rented a rental car because she was broke. It`s cheaper to take your own car so you don`t have to pay for gas plus rental. But if she is so broke, why is she going to a salon to get her nails done? And I noticed she would either sleep in her car or stay at a friend`s house because she didn`t want to be caught on hotel surveillance cameras, Beth.
KARAS: That is probably what we`re going to hear the state argue, precisely, Nancy. She only kept receipts, also, for states outside of Arizona. Nothing regarding motels or hotels, either, even if she did stay in one, but she didn`t want a record of her being there. I think that will be the argument.
There was another inconsistency, well, at least she said that Darryl Brewer, the former boyfriend she stopped to see and borrow the gas cans from, he was simply wrong when he said that she actually mentioned to him that she was going to Mesa, Arizona. That`s what he said. And then he backed it up, he said, well, she said she was going to Arizona. She told the jury, I never planned to go to Arizona at that point when I was borrowing the gas cans. Basically Darryl Brewer is wrong. Everyone is wrong if it`s not convenient to her story.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Jodi Arias` testimony has gone on for days and days and days. It may actually end up working to the prosecution`s benefit if they handle the cross-examination correctly because she is giving them a story rich in detail. The more complicated a story becomes, the easier it is to pick it apart.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARIAS: It was verbal. He wanted me to text it, but I didn`t want to talk about his issues in the text messages.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you mean his issues?
ARIAS: His -- his sexual attraction to children. I promised him that I wouldn`t tell anybody about his issues if he promised to get help. And another stipulation I made was that he couldn`t stay the night at his friend`s house because they have children, and -- until he got help. And so my understanding was that he did actually end up staying there, and I talked to him about it, and I reminded him that he needs to get help, and I also sent the pamphlet around the same time because he`s on the tape fantasizing about anally raping a 12-year-old.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Today we learned so much about the day of the murder. Jodi Arias on the stand. Let`s go to the courthouse.
Jean Casarez, Beth Karas standing by. You know, we pulled footage, Jean and Beth, of Jodi Arias gesticulating in court, and in many of those instances her hand -- her finger is completely straight. We have got a ton of it. But I want to see Jean and Beth, Liz, if you don`t mind. Beth, we were talking with Jean right before you joined us about the critical testimony we heard today and why it is so critical. Weigh in.
KARAS: Well, you know, all the events of the actual day of the killing, what we`ve all been waiting to hear, so she now has Travis Alexander very angry with her in the afternoon, probably about within an hour before the shower scene, right? Court broke at the shower scene when she is about to take pictures of him in his newly sculpted body, he has been losing weight to go to Cancun, which is a week from the time she killed him. And she`s got to, she`s got to make sense to the jury of how he could get so angry with her that she would feel justified in her mind in killing him three different ways, the way she did, really an overkill, so she had to be so fearful of him. And at this point, we haven`t heard that much that he`s done to her even if you believe her. And some may not believe her. But if you believe her, he has kicked her, he has slapped her, he broke her finger, if you believe her.
But what did he do to her in the shower when he`s naked without any weapons near him to justify being stabbed in the heart, knifed in the back multiple times, had his throat slit back to his spinal cord, and shot in the head.
GRACE: You know, Beth, I would like to hear you give that closing statement.
You know, Jean Casarez, in addition to what Beth has just pointed out, didn`t she say that she did not have a gun or a knife with her? She did not take them with her. Now, what, those belonged to Travis Alexander?
CASAREZ: Yes, yes. In fact, she talks about there was cord and that he wanted to tie her up and she explains how they went in the bathroom and the cord was long and he cut it and then he tied her to this bed. It was a sleigh type of bed. So she goes into all of that. The question is, where is the cord? We know there was a knife, but, here`s, Nancy, there was one photo here. And I`m very confused because you probably can`t see it on the air, because it is very, very explicit. She is lying on her back. You see her whole body without clothes, and I see something up here around her arms. To me it looks like a cord of some kind, but, Nancy, the defense attorney didn`t question on that. As the picture was up and everybody was looking at the picture, he never asked one question, so it must not be cord or he would have asked her about it.
But if I was a juror--
GRACE: I thought it was a pony tail.
CASAREZ: -- I would ask what that is around her armpits. No, that`s another picture, this is a picture where you don`t even see her face. It`s shot from -- she is lying flat on the bed. It`s shot from the feet up her body, and I see something around her armpits and her arms, but the defense attorney didn`t question it. If I was a juror, I would ask what that was.
GRACE: So bottom line then, Jean, we don`t have the knife murder weapon, we don`t have the gun murder weapon, and we don`t have the cord she is talking about. Although she is claiming she didn`t have those with her and they were not in the home when police checked the home. So what happened to all of that?
CASAREZ: Stay tuned. Stay tuned until tomorrow. She is going to have to explain it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Straight out to special guest, joining me, friend of Travis Alexander in court today, Pam Larsen. Pam, thank you for being with us. How do you respond to what you heard in court today?
PAM LARSEN, FRIEND OF TRAVIS ALEXANDER: I think she has an amazing way of twisting things so that we all -- she wants everybody on her side, but, you know, she took Travis` rights away from him to say, yes, that happened or no, it didn`t, or this is why it did or didn`t.
GRACE: What do you make of her being on the stand, and when you first met Jodi Arias, what was your impression of her?
LARSEN: She had the most empty, deep, dark eyes that I`ve ever seen in my life on anybody. I mean, it was like -- I just wanted to get away from her.
GRACE: You know, you`re familiar with where the defense is headed. They`re claiming Travis Alexander had abused her for a very long time and that she reacted in self-defense. What do you make of that?
LARSEN: Well, I don`t believe it. For one thing, people do get mad at people. You get mad at your kids, you get mad at somebody that does something to you and you yell at them. That`s normal. But being abusive and attacking her and stuff, I don`t buy it. Why would you -- if you were treated that way, why would you drive a thousand miles to get treated that way?
GRACE: I agree. And after slashing his tires and breaking into his bank account and his e-mail, it sounds like she`s the abusive one, not him.
With me is Pam Larsen, a friend of Travis Alexander`s.
The court watchers were asked to all shift sides of the courtroom today and told to sit behind Jodi Arias` family. Why, and what was that like?
LARSEN: Well, I didn`t sit on that side. I`m close with Travis` family, and they asked me to sit in the front row with them, so that`s where I sat. But I kept a pretty good eye on the jury today, which I haven`t too much. I`ve been probably too much giving Jodi the evil eye for the last however many days this has been. But they were writing a lot, and -- but some of them -- I think they`re just tired of it. And now they`re just wondering whether they can even believe what she says now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: We remember American hero Marine Corporal Jeffrey Standfest, 23, St. Clair, Michigan, Purple Heart, National Defense Honor, plank owner. Parents Timothy and Karen. Sister Jacqueline (ph). Jeffrey Standfest. American hero.
Jodi Arias on the stand finally leads up to the day of the murder of Travis Alexander. 29 stab wounds, a slashing of the neck, a gunshot wound to the head, and what did we learn? We got a lot of inconsistencies on the stand today from Jodi Arias. You know, Matt Zarrell, out to those inconsistencies. Weigh in.
ZARRELL: OK. Well, another thing we didn`t get into was the grandparents` burglary of the home, the gun, the gun stolen from the grandparents` home. Now, the cops and the police report say that Arias arrived just a few minutes after the police came to the house. However, Arias says that she and her sister were at a Buddhist monastery and were out of cell phone signal and didn`t even find out about the burglary for hours.
GRACE: What?
ZARRELL: Correct.
GRACE: Oh, yes, oh, yes, she said she didn`t learn about the burglary of her grandparents` home because she was at a Buddhist monastery. And lucky for us, she gave the location. Well, we called that Buddhist monastery, and they told us that there was cell phone reception there. Oops.
Out to the lines. Ralph in North Carolina. Hi, Ralph, what`s your question?
CALLER: You caught me with my mouth full. I`ve been sitting here starving.
GRACE: Give me your question quickly.
CALLER: What does she think that she`s going to convince people of?
GRACE: You know what, what do you think, Caryn Stark?
STARK: I think that she`s so used to trying to convince people, Nancy, that it`s not like she thinks about anything. When you have that kind of personality, it just spews out of you.
GRACE: I think her main goal is to paint him as the bad guy and hope for self-defense.
Everyone, before we sign off tonight, a special good night from friends Tiffany (ph) and Chrisetta (ph) from the Pink Pastry Parlor (ph) at Phipps Plaza (ph) Mall in Atlanta. They really know how to throw a party for little girls. And thank you to Gray (ph) and all the staff at Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium where the twins and I visit weekends between court sessions. The twins loved it. Everyone, Dr. Drew is up next. I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
END
