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Nancy Grace
Cross-Examination of Jodi Arias
Aired February 22, 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: After weeks of seemingly irrelevant, innocuous testimony from Jodi Arias on the stand, finally this week, we get to the day that Travis Alexander was slaughtered, slaughtered in his own shower.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JODI ARIAS, CHARGED WITH MURDER: It was like mortal terror. It was like he -- I pissed him off the worst I`ve ever seen him pissed off. And then I tried to stop him, and then I pissed him off even more.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you say he wasn`t going to stop, did you fear that he was going to kill you?
ARIAS: For sure, when he said, Kill you, yes.
He`d almost killed me before and now he was saying he was going to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The cross-examination commences of Jodi Arias. And I think -- I`ve been asked repeatedly what is the single most important thing that happened on cross? Frankly, it is the demeanor of Jodi Arias because you see when the real Jodi comes out. She will sit there in front of the jury looking all meek and mild, and then with the right question, boom, out comes the cobra.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARIAS: It depends on the type of memory issue.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You say that you have memory problems, but it depends on the circumstance, right?
ARIAS: That`s right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And give me the factors? I don`t want to know about a specific circumstance. What factors influence your having a memory problem?
ARIAS: Usually, when men like you are screaming at me or grilling me, or someone like Travis doing the same.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So that affects your memory problems, right?
ARIAS: It does. It makes my brain scramble.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you`re saying that it`s -- basically, what you`re saying is it`s Mr. Martinez`s fault that you can`t remember things that are going on.
ARIAS: It`s not your fault.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: There is one point where she seems to believe she got the best of the prosecutor on a question and actually starts laughing into her lap. And that psycho behavior on the stand, let me just say, is not endearing.
Yes, the prosecution is getting her all caught up in this conflict and that conflict. I found one of the major ones to be, laughably, her finger, her broken finger that she waved around in front of the jury. And then the prosecution shows her photos taken of her after the broken finger incident, and her finger is completely straight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma`am, if he caused that damage on January 22nd, 2008, that would have been before this picture that we have here, which is exhibit number 453. It would have been about five months before that, right?
ARIAS: It was before that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five months, right?
ARIAS: Four.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four months, then, right?
ARIAS: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don`t have bent finger here in exhibit 453, do you.
ARIAS: My finger is bent there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re saying that your finger is bent there?
ARIAS: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold up your finger again, sideways so we can all see it.
ARIAS: My fingers are straightened. This one stays bent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that`s what it looks like, your finger, and you`re saying that`s what happened on January 22nd of 2008, right?
ARIAS: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: After the finger debacle, where he she basically gives the jury the finger, as I call it, then we go into her memory problems. And basically, she admits whenever she`s confronted with a stressful situation, such as the truth, she forgets. And there`s a pattern. Every time the answer to a question does not fit with her theory of self-defense, she forgets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have problems with your memory, ma`am?
ARIAS: Sometimes.
I have a vague memory of putting the knife in the dishwasher.
I filled up the tank and I filled up the gas cans, also.
It was upstairs.
I just remember screaming! I don`t remember anything after that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And so you lied to him at that point, right?
ARIAS: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you telling me that fabricating a text message is not a lie?
ARIAS: No, I`m not saying that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you can tell us, for example, what kind of coffee you bought at Starbucks back on June 3rd of 2008.
ARIAS: A busy Starbucks. I got a strawberry frappuccino.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you can`t tell us what you said yesterday or the day before?
ARIAS: I always got the same drink at Starbucks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Another interesting -- and I would call it point three. A major score for the state is this claim that Travis Alexander is a pedophile. That has really stuck in my craw from the beginning, when she said that.
If you look back and you look at the timeline, you will see, as I did, that the first time that was ever mentioned to a soul was when she was planning her defense in a murder one capital death penalty prosecution. That is the first time Jodi Arias ever raises the specter that Travis Alexander was a pedophile.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You claim that on January 21 of 2008, you caught Mr. Alexander masturbating to some images of boys, correct?
ARIAS: I only saw one image. It was a boy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma`am, didn`t you say that there were images, there were more than one?
ARIAS: There were more than one image. I only...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was there more than one image? I`m sorry. Was there more than one image, ma`am?
ARIAS: Yes. He did have a problem.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That`s what you claim, right?
ARIAS: That`s the reality.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That`s what you claim, correct?
ARIAS: OK, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When back then, there was this problem, did you call, for example, child -- the way you made it sound is he had this huge problem. Did you call, for example, child protective service?
ARIAS: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You didn`t go to the police department and tell them anything, right?
ARIAS: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The prosecution did an incredible job of going through her e- mails, her texts, during the day and the day after, where she says she learned -- she catches him in the act, with him knowing she`s in the very next room, masturbating to pornographic-type images of little boys.
If you read their e-mails and their texts, you`d think nothing was wrong. They`re, like, How late do you have to work tonight? Well, I might have to work late. Can you give me a ride? I mean, it`s extremely mundane. Not one thing is mentioned.
Also interesting about that night, she claims that afternoon she catches Travis Alexander in the act, a pedophilic type act, and she jumps in her car and races home. She`s in a stupor. Well, as it turns out, according to the text messages, her car wasn`t working. She needed a ride.
Does that prove her guilty? No. And remember, the jury is the sole judge of credibility, who is telling the truth. You don`t think she would lie to save her own skin?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you remember stabbing Travis Alexander?
ARIAS: I have no memory of stabbing him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you remember dragging him across the floor?
ARIAS: No. I just remember trying to get away from him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you remember placing him in the shower?
ARIAS: I`m sorry, that`s no.
I have a vague memory of putting the knife in the dishwasher, but I`d put the knife in the dishwasher before, so I don`t -- I`m pretty sure it was that day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know where you got the knife from?
ARIAS: It was in -- it was upstairs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Are you assuming that or do you remember that?
ARIAS: I`m assuming that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: A glaring hole in the text message and e-mail evidence is any discussion whatsoever of physical abuse. Seems to me that if there had been physical abuse and they text and e-mail so -- at such volume, such -- with such almost obsession -- it was never mentioned. I find that very, very difficult to believe.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said he grabbed you.
ARIAS: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where did he grab you?
ARIAS: On the upper arms. And he spun me around and then grabbed my right arm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) Did he grab both your arms?
ARIAS: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. At the time he grabbed both your arms, could you see his face?
ARIAS: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you see anger in his eyes?
ARIAS: He looked pissed off.
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 (INAUDIBLE) he`d done before.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you say he grabbed your arm and spun you around, right?
ARIAS: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Spun you around where?
ARIAS: Right -- right on the desk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Point to it.
ARIAS: We were standing right about here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: I do not believe the prosecution must change its strategy simply because of the length of Arias`s testimony. The only strategy or strategic change would be whether he prepped that hard or that intensely for her cross-exam. If you don`t think the defendant is going to take the stand, you don`t prep as much for their testimony.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exhibit here, exhibit number 458, does say that you explored every naughty fantasy we could conjure up in our fruitful imaginations that we haven`t already fulfilled with one another, right?
ARIAS: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You -- this doesn`t say that you didn`t enjoy it, does it.
ARIAS: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It does say you did enjoy it, doesn`t it.
ARIAS: I don`t see the word enjoy in there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No -- did I say the word enjoy was in there?
ARIAS: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I did say...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It says you explored every naughty fantasy we could conjure up in our fruitful imaginations. You`re saying that having a fruitful imagination -- that`s not enjoyable is what you`re saying, right?
ARIAS: I`m not saying that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you`re saying that every naughty fantasy -- that`s a bad thing, right? That`s what you`re saying.
ARIAS: I`m not saying that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, the Pop Rocks were part of this naughty fantasy, weren`t they?
ARIAS: Part of it, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they were part of fulfilling your imaginations, right?
ARIAS: His imagination, yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: I recall on nearly every jury trial I tried -- bench trials, too -- I would get a big folder and write very conspicuously "Defendant`s cross-exam notes" and lay it on my trial table. You couldn`t help but see it. And whenever anything would happen in court, I`d write it down and go, I`m getting you good, and put it in my folder.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you say monogamous, that means sexually, doesn`t it.
ARIAS: Which time?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we`re -- the time that we`re talking about right now, involving Mr. Alexander. No other time.
ARIAS: Our relationship evolved, so...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m not asking you if it evolved. At the end, right when you killed him, you indicated that you were monogamous with him, right?
ARIAS: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And at that time, you then left the killing scene, if you will, and you went out to Utah, right?
ARIAS: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And when you went out to Utah, ma`am, you ended up with somebody by the name of Ryan Burns (ph), right?
ARIAS: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you ended up in his bed, right?
ARIAS: I think it was a love sack.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Now, granted, sometimes there would be nothing in that folder, and sometimes there would be a lot. But it was just a tool to psych out the other side, to get them very anxious about what I was going to do to them on cross.
And let me tell you this. Arias`s lawyers better be worried about cross-exam. They`ve taken a very big gamble putting her on the stand, and I don`t believe it`s going to pay off for them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You seem to have a double standard here with regard to making comments about people, don`t you?
ARIAS: Yes, I do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Objection, argumentative.
ARIAS: I do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And in fact, it`s OK for you to make comments about, for example, Angela (ph) and call her dumb and stupid, right?
ARIAS: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, but you said it, right?
ARIAS: I did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When Mr. Alexander says something like, You`re going to be like your mother, that`s when you get emotional and upset, right?
ARIAS: I did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So it just seems like it`s OK unless it`s -- it`s OK to say these things unless it`s Mr. Alexander that`s saying them, right?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... different standard to Mr. Alexander, correct? Yes or no?
ARIAS: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Consistent with the many, many interrogations and cross- examinations that I`ve done on criminal suspects in the past, her story begins to veer almost out of control. And what I mean by that is that she is starting to catch herself in one inconsistency after the next. That`s what happens when you talk too much.
Now, there has been a school of thought that with Arias on the stand, that she is becoming more familiar to the jury, that they are starting to - - whether they like her or dislike her, they`re getting to know her and that will make it more difficult for them to give her the death penalty. On the other hand, all this testimony may very well backfire at guilt/innocence phase because she`s giving the prosecution so much rope on her direct exam that they will be able to hang her on cross-examination.
Now, is the jury beginning to be familiar with her? Maybe. And that may help her at the sentencing phase, the death penalty phase. But I don`t think it`s going to help her at the guilt/innocence phase.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Throughout the entire Jodi Arias trial, we have marveled at her incredible memory. She can remember what she had for breakfast over four years ago. It was an omelet. She can remember minute details that many of us would have long forgotten.
She can remember that after she stabbed Travis Alexander 29 times, slashing his throat, shooting him in the head -- she can remember that it was Costco water she took out of her trunk of her car and drank in the middle of the desert as she discarded the murder weapon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you were driving, was there blood on you?
ARIAS: Yes. There was -- when I finally came to and saw that there was blood on my hands, and I didn`t have my shoes -- I didn`t know where my shoes were. I was in the middle of nowhere, so I pulled over. And I just -- I got out of my car. I was really thirsty, so I went -- I had a case of water from Costco in the trunk, so I got some water, a water bottle. I rinsed my hands off with it, as well. I got my other shoes. I had business shoes for a prepaid (ph) thing, and I got those on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: It`s amazing that she can`t remember, however, the details of Travis Alexander`s murder. It`s all a big blur. There are big gaps. She never had any problems remembering minute details, even innocuous details, about their relationship, who said what, when, how he looked, what she wore, what this boy said when she was 14 years old about riding the ferris wheel at the fairground. She remembers it all.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Again, do you have a problem with memory?
ARIAS: Occasionally.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And so some of the things that you told us, for example, about other things in the past, you may also have had problems with your memory then, right?
ARIAS: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And so whatever you told us in the past is somewhat suspect, then, because your memory may be lacking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Objection, argumentative.
ARIAS: I only told things that I remember clearly that are crystallized in my mind.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: But the single most important moment in her life is all a big vagary to her. Why? Because she does not want to reveal to the jury what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once you broke away from him, what do you remember?
ARIAS: Almost nothing for a long time. There are some things that have come back over years, but nothing -- I don`t know if those are things that I`m thinking of from before or if it`s that day. It`s confusing. There is, like, a huge gap. Like, I don`t know if I blacked out or what. There`s a huge gap. And the most clear memory that I have after that point is driving in the desert.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Because there is no way that she can explain around the forensic evidence left in that home and come out with anything resembling to a self-defense theory. It`s impossible.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: What we heard on the stand from Jodi Arias this week is in direct contradiction to what the medical examiner said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t think it`s a contact wound. A contact wound will usually leave, like, a star-shaped tear, and I don`t see that here. If it`s not right up against the skin but it`s very close, you usually see soot and not stippling. I don`t see soot. I don`t see a star- shaped tear and I don`t see stippling. So that for me takes it out beyond the range of an intermediate. So it`s either a distant range or indeterminate. An indeterminate range of fire could be that there`s some object in between the face and the gun. So if there`s a garment, a towel, something like that, that could also cause you to be unable to determine range of fire.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: A scientific expert says that the gunshot wound to Travis Alexander`s head was the last wound to his body. Why do we know that? Because it did not bleed or bruise correctly. If it had been the first wound, there would have been a lot of blood. There would have been a completely different scenario. He was already dead. His body was no longer pumping blood at the time he was shot.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARIAS: I grabbed the gun. I ran out of the closet. He was chasing me. I turned around. We were in the middle of the bathroom. I pointed it at him with both of my hands. I thought that would stop him. If someone were pointing a gun at me, I would stop, but he just kept running.
He got -- like a linebacker, he got kind of low and grabbed my waist. But before he did that, as he was lunging at me, the gun went off. I didn`t mean to shoot him or anything. I didn`t even think I was holding the trigger. I was just pointing it at him. And I didn`t even know that I shot him. It just -- it went off. And he was -- he lunged at me and we fell really hard against the tile toward the other wall, like, kind of near the scales or whatever those things are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: But that doesn`t fit in with Jodi Arias`s theory of how the whole thing went down. She says she accidentally shot him as he was attacking her, and the rest was a big blur. She never addresses the 29 stab wounds, the slashing from ear to ear. Why? Because it conveniently does not fit into her self-defense claim. Nine stab wounds to the back don`t fit into self-defense, so she forgot them. They`re all a big gap to her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARIAS: At this point, I didn`t even know if he had been shot. I didn`t see anything different. He was just -- we were struggling and wrestling. And he`s a wrestler. He had wrestled in high school. And he was getting on top of me. And I didn`t want him to get on top of me because when he had done that in the past, I can`t get out of those holds that he gets.
So he`s grabbing at my clothes and I got up, and he`s just screaming angry. And after I broke away from him, he said (EXPLETIVE DELETED) kill you, bitch. Well, after the gun went off, I thought, Crap, because now he`s really going to be pissed. I didn`t know that I shot him. I thought I shot a hole in the wall or something, and I`m thinking he`s really going to be pissed at me now. So he`s -- he`s telling me he`s going to kill me, and I think I -- after he said that -- he had almost killed me before.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: I find Jodi Arias`s fear that Travis Alexander was going to kill her completely unbelievable. She had done a lot worse during their relationship than drop his camera in the bathroom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARIAS: I was showing him the photos, and we were deleting some. And at one point, when I was -- went to delete the photos, as I moved the camera, it slipped out of my hand. And I went to -- it didn`t, like, fall right away. I kind of caught it and then I -- I caught it like a football. Like, it bounced, and I almost caught it, but I didn`t catch it and it landed on the mat, and then it rolled onto the tile.
At that point, Travis flipped out again. And he stood up and he stepped out of the shower and he picked me up. I was crouching, but he lifted me up as he was screaming that I was a stupid idiot, and he body- slammed me again on the tile.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: A lot worse. She had wrecked his car, a BMW. She had hacked into his e-mail, slashed his tires twice, slashed his new girlfriend`s tires, hacked into his bank account, stalked him, followed him, spied on him. He never, ever beat her. He never retaliated physically.
So why would he do it because she almost drops his camera, because she drops his camera as they`re taking photos of him in the shower? It makes absolutely no sense.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARIAS: "You stressing me out on a daily basis is getting really freaking old. You cry over everything, and you`ve done countless bullcrap on me. I wasn`t appreciative of another thing to deal with because of you. It`s easy crap to fix, but you like to ruin every day of mine, and I`m tired of it. You texting about something time-sensitive is just a way to reel me back into the bullcrap. Otherwise, you would have just told me. I`m sick of your soap opera and your ways. You purposely try to ruin every day. It seems you`re getting good at it."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you respond?
ARIAS: "I`m just as tired of your hateful words. Do you think it`s a day in the park for me when you`re mean? I was just bragging to a girlfriend about how awesome and cool you are."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What does he say in response?
ARIAS: "If you`re tired of me, leave me alone."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And your response?
ARIAS: "Whatever, Travis."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: If you take her own words at face value, you don`t even have to read very deeply into them. She confesses on the stand. She says that she gave authorities a story that would fit the forensics as she understood them, yet exonerate her. That is exactly what she`s doing right now. That`s what she did all week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARIAS: I began to tell him things that I thought would comport with what their forensics would show, as well as create -- create, like, an -- not an excuse, but create a way for me to not have been responsible for it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why did your story include the idea that there were two intruders?
ARIAS: Prior to my arrest, there were a lot of rumors flying around, and Flores told me repeatedly that not -- had to have been more than one person.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: She took the forensics that have come out in the courtroom and tailored her defense to match the forensics. One problem. There`s no way to get around the fact that that gunshot wound was the last attack. The stabbings were first. There`s no way to get around the nine stab wounds in the back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: If there had been a shred of credibility left for Arias, I think that that was destroyed when she claimed she threw the gun away in the desert -- the desert, for Pete`s sake, where you would never be able to find it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you were pulling away or driving away, did you have the gun with you?
ARIAS: I don`t remember bringing the gun with me, but I remember throwing it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Throwing it where?
ARIAS: In the desert.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. What about the rope he had tied you up with? Did you take that with you?
ARIAS: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And do you remember what you did with that?
ARIAS: Eventually, it went into a dumpster.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where?
ARIAS: It was behind a gas station. I think it was -- I think it was somewhere after St. George. It was -- I don`t remember. It was getting light out, wherever I was parked at that point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: All of her movements, of her machinations following the brutal murder of Travis Alexander were in an effort to hide evidence, to obstruct justice, to deflect attention.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) but you`re not sure at that point.
ARIAS: I don`t -- I wasn`t really in my own mind. I was out of my mind, sort of.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So if you didn`t think he was dead, if that portion of you didn`t think he was dead, then it`s OK for you at that point, if you didn`t think he was dead, to sort of roll (ph) around with Mr. Alexander then -- with Mr. Burns, and that was OK, right?
ARIAS: I`m single.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. Just like he was on August 7th -- (INAUDIBLE) of 2007, right?
ARIAS: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So it`s OK for you, then it should be OK for him, right?
ARIAS: It was OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then why did you confront him the next day if it was OK?
ARIAS: Because he was still courting me. I wanted to know where I stood.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Jodi Arias has claimed that she didn`t even realize she had her finger on the trigger or that she had shot Travis Alexander. I find this to be an outright lie. She shot him in the head. How could she not know she shot him in the head? When she saw blood on her hands, how could she not know she killed him?
How did all of the evidence end up in the washing machine? There were clear attempts to clean up the crime scene. She doesn`t remember any of that? Impossible. Absolutely impossible.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You understand you look guilty here.
ARIAS: I understand that everything -- all of the evidence against me right now is very compelling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What really happened in there?
ARIAS: In a nutshell, two people took Travis`s life, two monsters.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You did not shoot Travis?
ARIAS: No, I`ve never even shot a real gun.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARIAS: When I grabbed the gun -- I grabbed the gun. I ran out of the closet. He was chasing me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Arias claims that she did not call 911 because she was scared and afraid what would happen to her family. Obviously, she was afraid she`d go to jail. That`s why she didn`t call 911. Typically, in my experience as a homicide prosecutor for many, many years, when there is a valid self-defense or there is an accident, people immediately call 911. Immediately.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why not just dial 911 and tell them what happened?
ARIAS: I was scared, and I couldn`t imagine calling 911 and telling them what I had just done. I was scared of what would happen to me. I was scared of a lot of things. I was thinking of all kinds of things, my family, myself, what would happen. I was thinking of having to explain that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Having to explain what?
ARIAS: How the day ended up unfolding.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: You immediately call 911. Her not calling 911 to ask for help, in my mind, is probative of guilt.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Jodi Arias would have the jury believe that she did not steal her grandparents` gun, which was a .25-caliber, that the .25-caliber bullet that was fired into Travis Alexander`s head was from a gun belonging to him that nobody else knew about, that there`s no record of him ever buying that, conveniently, she found while being ordered to dust the top shelf of Travis`s closet, and that she coincidentally threw away into the desert so it could never be traced.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you were pulling away or driving away, did you have the gun with you?
ARIAS: I don`t remember bringing the gun with me, but I remember throwing it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Throwing it where?
ARIAS: In the desert.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. What about the rope he had tied you up with? Did you take that with you?
ARIAS: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And do you remember what you did with that?
ARIAS: Eventually, it went into a dumpster.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where?
ARIAS: It was behind a gas station. I think it was -- I think it was somewhere after St. George. It was -- I don`t remember. It was getting light out, wherever I was parked at that point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: As I always say, there is no coincidence in criminal law. I think that somehow, Arias believed this would help her with the jury, but she actually told them she attended Travis`s memorial service because she thought it would look bad if she didn`t.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARIAS: There was a memorial service at his church in Mesa. And the funeral, I believe, was held in Riverside. I tried to attend both, but I only made it to the memorial service. I thought that if I didn`t show up, it would look suspicious because Travis and I were close, and a lot of people knew that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: She also said that they had promised each other they would go to each other`s funeral, which I find incredibly morbid.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARIAS: He was going to give the eulogy or something if I ever died. He would have come to mine, and -- even if it was in Antarctica.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Think about it, just think about it. Mull over your past girlfriends or boyfriends. How many of them did you discuss funerals with, their funeral?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: There are so many inconsistencies in Arias`s testimony. One of them is regarding those gas cans. Arias insisted on obtaining multiple gas cans, by hook or by crook, to fill up with gas on her trip to go murder Travis Alexander. Now, she now says it`s because she did not want to pay high California gas prices. She didn`t want to fill up in California. But in fact, she did fill up her car in California. I mean, everything she says is contradicted by another fact that she`s blurted out on the stand.
Arias also is caught in inconsistencies regarding her rental car. She claims that she drove a rental car because it saved money. Well, that doesn`t make sense. You already have a car, so you want to pay for gas plus a rental car, as opposed to just gasoline?
And that ignores the big question. If you`re rock bottom broke, why are you going on a walkabout? Why are you taking a vacation, anyway with a rental car and salon treatments. Clearly, Arias asks the rental person for a nondescript car, a car that would not stand out. Now her story is that she asked for any car but a red car because she heard police pull over more red cars than any other types of cars.
All right, that`s -- have you ever known anyone to say anything like that at a rental car agency? Ever? Have you ever said that?
The cross-examination on Jodi Arias will prove to be the single most important phase of the Arias murder one trial. Her credibility absolutely must be destroyed. And I don`t care how many days it takes, every single inconsistency must be battled in court. Right now, it`s do or die for the prosecution.
END
