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Jane Velez-Mitchell
Prosecutor Delivers Closing Argument in Jodi Arias Trial
Aired May 02, 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: I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell live here in Phoenix, Arizona, right outside the courthouse where it`s all happening now.
Up on the fifth floor, prosecutor Juan Martinez just completed his closing argument. And it was powerful. Everybody was in tears at one point, as we saw really awful photos, gut-wrenching photos. Travis Alexander, the victim, virtually decapitated. The family of Travis Alexander sobbing.
And of course, the family of Jodi Arias also crying. The grandmother of Jodi Arias crying. It was overwhelmingly emotional. Prosecutor Juan Martinez, many described him as absolutely brilliant. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUAN MARTINEZ, PROSECUTOR: "You only cry for yourself." And even after stabbing him over and over again, hearing her squealing like a cat. Even after slashing his throat from ear-to-ear, none of you will convict her. Taking a gun, shooting him in the face. Absolutely none of it was her fault. It`s Travis Alexander`s misfortune. Everybody else is wrong. And she`s right. Little does he know that he has less than a month to live. She scammed him. Are you going to allow her to scam you?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK, I just want to say we are here live at the courthouse. I just want to point out that that is the family of Travis Alexander, after probably the most emotional day of their lives aside from having heard that their loved one was killed, leaving the courthouse right now. Very dignified, walking quietly down the street, keeping it together but I`ve got to tell you, in the courthouse and inside court they did not keep it together. They were absolutely sobbing.
Such an emotional day, people coming out of court as we speak. What we`re going to do right now is start the debate. And we`re going to play you all the key testimony that occurred today, the closing of prosecutor Juan Martinez, which, in essence in the formal testimony is the most compelling of all.
He weaved together the entire story of what happened, beginning, middle and end. He told a story, which is what every great prosecutor needs to do.
Let`s debate it with our expert panel: Greg Tecce for the prosecution, Jordan Rose for the prosecution, Anahita Sedaghatfar for the defense. Starting with Jordan Rose, who is a stone`s throw away. She`s an Arizona attorney. Your grade for prosecutor Juan Martinez?
JORDAN ROSE, ATTORNEY: Jane, I`m so happy today, because if I had seven hours to explain this to the jury, I would not have done anything differently.
Juan Martinez was fantastic. He hit every point he needed to. He was meticulous. And he came out in a different way than we`ve ever seen him. He was so continually volatile in the courtroom, and some people liked that, some people didn`t. But today, he was even, he was powerful. He pointed out that she is a master manipulator, and you would have to suspend all logic to come to the conclusion that this woman should not get the death penalty. He was perfect.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Anahita Sedaghatfar, I think you have the toughest job in America today, representing the defense after this masterful closing by the prosecutor.
ANAHITA SEDAGHATFAR, ATTORNEY: Well, you know, I don`t deny that he did a great job with his closing, but Jane, where was the bang? Where was the spazziness that we`re used to seeing?
I mean, in this case, he got more effective in his closing as he went along. But in a case where you have such gruesome crime scene photos, you have these gruesome photos of the autopsy, why not start with your case with those photos with a bang? Wake up those jurors. Remind them why they`ve been sitting in that jury box for four months, why they had to pull, essentially, an all-nighter last night. You want to start with a bang, and you want to end with a bang. So I think he could have, frankly, been a lot more effective.
ROSE: I think he was bang, bang, bang.
SEDAGHATFAR: I disagree.
ROSE: The entire thing was a bang.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, and I`ll tell you something. He got to the key elements of this vicious killing very quickly. And when he did, he made a great point describing how Jodi`s version of events -- "Ooh, the gun went off when Travis attacked me" -- don`t stack up with the autopsy report and the crime scene.
And listen to prosecutor Juan Martinez describe the agony that Travis Alexander experienced after initially being stabbed in the chest in the shower when he staggers to the sink. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARTINEZ: He has defensive wounds to his left and to his right hand. As she is stabbing him, he is alive and he is cognizant of it. He begins to grab at the knife. All around the bathroom, everywhere, there`s blood. There`s blood everywhere. That means there is movement there. She was stabbing him in the back. The splatter that is on the mirror indicates movement. Then he goes and flies into the mirror.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I am here now with two "In Session" correspondents that probably know more about the case than anybody except the prosecutor himself. Jean Casarez and Beth Karas, we were talking about that extraordinary moment where he describes Travis Alexander bleeding over the sink and shows that that`s when he believes Jodi Arias stabs him repeatedly in the back.
JEAN CASAREZ, CORRESPONDENT, TRUTV`S "IN SESSION": Well, I think we were waiting for this story to come from this. And it shows the blood comes from what he said is the stab wound. And then there`s a leaning on the left-hand side. And it`s from his hand, because as he was trying to survive that initial stab wound. The defensive wounds and made a smearing of blood. The story was told, Travis`s story told through the blood.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You know what I have to say that I thought was so brilliant? Because remember during the Casey Anthony case, in the closing arguments, the prosecution focused so much on the lying. He didn`t just stop with the lying. He went beyond the lying to -- into the forensics to, I think, make an effective case for premeditation.
BETH KARAS, CORRESPONDENT, TRUTV`S "IN SESSION": There`s no question about it. He dealt with the felony murder, the premeditation. There`s a lot of it. He kept telling the jury, the definition of premeditation is thinking about it, just for a short period of time. It doesn`t require planning. And you have so much planning here. You have a week of it.
But just to continue the point that Jean was just making about how he told the story, that story continued from the sink with all the smears and the spatter and the spitting, down the hall. That 12-and-a-half-foot hall. I never understood which wall, if you`re going down the hall toward the bedroom, the right-hand wall -- OK, not the left -- the right-hand wall that has the arc. He called it a rainbow. That`s the rainbow. He said there was no good luck at the end of that rainbow. That`s where his throat was slit, at the end of the rainbow. That arc was his back, which had been stabbed nine times. He brushed against that back ,and it was a big arc because he was trying to get away from her, and he stumbled and probably was on all fours at the threshold to his bedroom.
It was very effective. The blood on the other side of the wall was toward the baseboard. That`s where she was dragging his body back and was smearing the blood there. So that told me more of a story than I understood during the trial.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: What I also thought was absolutely fantastic is that he went to motive. And he went to this message that Travis Alexander sent to Jodi on May 26, 2008, where he says, "I want nothing to do with you anymore. You`re the worst thing that ever happened to me." Let`s listen to that, and then we`re going to analyze that key moment where he says, she decides, "Uh-huh, I get this message. I`m going to kill him."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARTINEZ: Those are the truest words that were spoken in his case. And they`re spoken by Mr. Alexander, even though he`s not here, through his writing. You, Jodi Arias are the worst thing that ever happened to me. Any doubt that that`s the truth?
You can look at the pictures. His gashed throat. Do we need to look at the sort of frog-like state that she left him in all crumbled up in that shower? Do we need to look at his face where she put that bullet in his right temple to know that what he says there is true? You are the worst thing that ever happened to me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And then, Jean Casarez, he connects that message that was so, you know, it`s over to two days later, Jodi takes certain actions.
CASAREZ: You know it`s called the time line, right? I mean, May 26 is when all those words were spoken: You`re the worst thing that came into my life. You`re the sociopath.
Then May 28, the burglary. Four rooms, four items taken. And then you saw the gas cans and you saw the rental car agency and you`ve got the license plates and then you`ve got the hair color. And you`ve got the gas can. So all of those things were forming the premeditation.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, and I want to debate this with our expert panel. Fred Tecce for the prosecution, to me, he told a story. Because I got in the courtroom so many times and heard a closing argument where the prosecutor knows so much about the case that he doesn`t even tell the basic story, so he`s kind of talking to himself, because he knows too much. But this man told a story.
FRED TECCE, ATTORNEY: He did, Jane. He told a phenomenal story. And what fascinates me is that you notice he didn`t use a single note. And he stood up there, and the jury instructions. I watched him; I was really, really impressed.
But here`s the thing that he did. He took the physical evidence. Really, what he did is he was the narrator for the physical evidence. Which, when you start with that text message and you go by the time line and the physical evidence, it absolutely crucifies this woman.
The difference between this case and Casey Anthony is that the forensic evidence in this case is overwhelming and it tells one story. And in order for you to believe a single word that comes out of that despicable woman`s mouth, you have to forget all the forensic evidence. You have to forget everything she had to say. And he just ties it together. He`s weaving that she was lying, weaving that the experts were lying. And he stayed on target and he just followed the evidence, and did a phenomenal job.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And I got to tell you, I was a little worried at first. Go ahead, go ahead.
ROSE: No, I was just going to say, he even, he kind of indicated, you would have to be very charitable -- he called it charitable -- to believe any of these things. He said he would -- "I would throw out the word `charitable` and, in fact, you would just have to believe outright lies." And I loved that.
And then he picked out that this is the truest statement of the trial, which is, you know, Travis saying to Jodi, "You`re the worst thing that ever happened." And that is the genius of Juan Martinez. And I think that closing with the tone that he had, where he wasn`t over-the-top crazy, I just think that was "Bang, bang, bang, you`re dead, Jodi."
TECCE: Hopefully.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And I`ve got to tell you, so many people here. We`re very careful about who we show, because the jury is coming out. We certainly don`t want to, in any way, shape or form, video tape anyone we`re not supposed to.
But I`ve got to tell you, right here, tonight, we`re going to introduce you to a very close friend of Travis Alexander`s, the victim. D`Ann DaBell (ph). This is an exclusive interview. She joins us. And she`s going to tell us an extraordinary story about her interactions with Travis and you know who.
Stay right there. We`re back with all the key testimony on the other side. We`re going to debate it; we`re going to analyze it. And we`re taking your calls.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JODI ARIAS, MURDER DEFENDANT: When I finally came to, I saw there was blood on my hands.
MARTINEZ: And you enjoyed the pops, correct? You think that the braids are hot, don`t you?
ARIAS: I think cute is more appropriate.
TRAVIS ALEXANDER, MURDER VICTIM (via phone): I love the braids.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARTINEZ: Ma`am, were you crying when you were shooting him? Were you crying when you were stabbing him? How about when you cut his throat? Were you crying then? You`re the one that did this, right?
ARIAS: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Outside the Maricopa County Courthouse in Phoenix, Arizona, I have a very, very special guest, David Hughes, the brother of Chris Hughes.
Now, Chris and David were really mentors to Travis Alexander. They worked together in PrePaid Legal, which is now LegalShield. And I want to play a sound byte for you and then get your reaction to it. It`s when the prosecutor basically says, "Oh, yes, Jodi is crying," because she is crying in court at times, "but she`s just crying for herself." Let`s listen, and then I`ll get your response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARTINEZ: He says, "You only cry for yourself." You saw her crying on the witness stand. Can anybody debate the reason she was crying is because she cries for herself? She may cry now. The jury instructions have told you that sympathy is not to be considered in this particular case.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. So, David Hughes, you worked with Jodi Arias. So you were up close and personal with her. You knew her. What`s your reaction to the prosecutor making the point that when she cries, she`s crying for herself?
DAVID HUGHES, FRIEND OF TRAVIS ALEXANDER`S: Well, you never saw any tears today, that`s for sure. You know, she just wiped her nose. And, you know, I really think she`s putting on an act. There`s no sincerity behind that. And if there was any sincerity, it`s more of "Oh, my gosh, I`m busted."
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You actually worked with her. And so many people said that -- I`ve spoken to so many people who have the same reaction that there was a disconnect between her body movement and her eyes. That there was something, like, dead in her eyes. What are your thoughts? Did you have the same reaction?
HUGHES: Yes, absolutely. I think most people who got to know her really well could see that. There was something that, if you looked down inside, there was like no soul, when you really get to know her. And it was really hard to get to know her on a personal level. I`m sure Travis knew her really well, because they talked many hours late at night. But it was -- it was just difficult.
And so when -- but as a person, she was very nice and courteous. And you know, if you see her in the raw footage of the "48 Hour" footage, you know, you can see what her personality is. That`s what Jodi was like.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So, two faces?
HUGHES: Yes. Well, yes -- I never saw necessarily this, what are they calling it now? The bipolar? Not the bipolar...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Borderline personality.
HUGHES: Borderline personality. I never saw that about her but then again, I`m not a psychologist. But there was definitely a strange side to her, an elusive side that a lot of people didn`t know.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I know that your brother`s wife, Skye (ph), warned Travis, "Please, don`t have anything to do with her. You guys can`t come over to the house anymore" and then discovered that Jodi was right outside the door listening to that conversation.
Now, one of the big issues in this case, the fog. The so-called fog that Jodi says she went into after she claims the gun went off and Travis Alexander was shot. The prosecutor says that is a total fiction.
Listen to what prosecutor Juan Martinez does with that so-called fog.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARTINEZ: What does she do? She deletes only certain images. It`s not like all the images are deleted. This shows some devious thinking. "Well, I don`t want to delete the one of his dog. I`ll delete this. The only one that hurt me."
And that is directed behavior of somebody who claims to have dissociative amnesia. Dissociative amnesia, you heard what the definition of that was. Or is it a fog? Even San Franciscan fog, if such a thing existed, wouldn`t be so cloudy to account for this kind of behavior. We know that the knife was cleaned. We know that the knife was not left behind. So again, there`s this directed behavior with regard to the knife.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Again, I`m here with David Hughes, a dear friend of the victim, Travis Alexander. And I thought that the prosecutor made an amazing point. If you`re in a fog, do you really change your clothes before going downstairs so that you don`t get any bloody prints from the bloody socks?
And the deleting of the photos? How do you delete photos, and it`s a five-step process to delete one photo. And then delete only the incriminating photos.
I mean, I hadn`t really thought about all that, but he said it. He brought it all together.
HUGHES: The prosecutor did an amazing job of summing up this whole entire trial for the last four months. All of the little details. He mentioned several details that I just totally didn`t get in today`s summary, which was just an amazing closing argument.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Let`s debate it again. Anahita Sedaghatfar, it`s our format, we do both sides. That`s what we`ve done for years. So you probably have, again, the toughest job in America. What say you, Anahita?
SEDAGHATFAR: You know, this is a tough job. I have to concede that Juan Martinez did an excellent job in his closing. Now, I think the defense -- we have not heard the defense yet. I think the defense`s job at this point is really going to have to be trying to save Jodi`s life.
They`re going to have to do two things. They`re going to have to create sympathy for Jodi. They`re going to have to humanize her, remind those jurors that she was a victim of abuse her entire life, starting with her parents, with relationships she had with other men, and culminating with Travis Alexander.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK, Jordan, a lot of people believe that abuse she suffered all her life is also a fiction. She threw her own mother under the bus. You know, her mother told cops, oh, she`s always said that we were terrible parents, but it`s all in her head. We didn`t go into her room searching for anything. I mean, in a way, you have to feel sorry for all the victims she created on her own -- on her own family side.
ROSE: But they`re going to have to humanize her, Jane.
TECCE: She`s a complete monster.
SEDAGHATFAR: Well, that -- that`s the job of the defense attorney. Her life is on the line. Fred, her life is on the line.
TECCE: They`re defense lawyers. They`re not alchemists.
SEDAGHATFAR: Their job is trying to spare her life.
(CROSSTALK)
SEDAGHATFAR: Why don`t they just throw their hands up, throw her in jail and give her the needle?
TECCE: Whoa!
SEDAGHATFAR: Is this suggestion...
(CROSSTALK)
ROSE: She lied about everything. And...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. All right. You guys, time-out for you guys.
OK. I want to go to David because we were just talking there, and everybody is talking all over each other. They`re over-excited today. But you know -- and this is a tough question, but when you see that, you know, for example, the grandmother of Jodi Arias and she`s crying in court. I always say that crime destroys all families, and there are people in her family who have done absolutely nothing wrong. Their lives are destroyed.
HUGHES: Well, I -- I don`t know how their family feels. You saw the interrogation videos. In the interrogation videos, the mother couldn`t believe what her daughter had done. The father wasn`t surprised what his daughter had done. And so -- but I don`t know their feelings now. I mean, they may be here just supporting their daughter and hate to see that, if she does get the death penalty. I don`t think any parent would like to see their child get the death penalty, no matter what the crime is. But I don`t know about that.
But I do know is that Jodi is -- I know her really well. I`ve worked together with her for the whole time that she was in the business together with us. I was there with Travis. I helped train him originally. So I know him extremely well. We went to tons of outings together. We always went four wheeling together, snowmobiling and we went on multiple cruises together. I live -- you know, he came to my house, to our apartment complex, when he first got started in the business. And we worked phones together. We trained him, taught him how to build -- build a business.
So, you know, we knew each other very, very close. I knew both of them very, very close. And I could see how crazy she was towards the end of that relationship. She wanted Travis, no matter what.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. Thank you for that insight. And we`re going to continue this on an extraordinary day. Prosecutor Juan Martinez closing arguments. Stay right there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIRK NURMI, JODI`S DEFENSE LAWYER: Did you perform oral sex upon him afterwards?
ARIAS: Yes.
NURMI: Why?
ARIAS: We had already been intimate before, so it wasn`t anything new on that level, at least. And, well, you know, he`s turned on and just wanted to finish it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARIAS: I wish that it was just a nightmare that I could wake up from. And then just find out that everything was still the same way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, we have a very special guest, and we want to ask D`Ann DaBell -- this is an exclusive interview with a good friend of Travis Alexander. We`re so delighted to have you on tonight. I want to play a sound byte where prosecutor, Juan Martinez, talks about all the elements of premeditation, which is absolutely crucial for the prosecution to prove. And then I`m going to get your thoughts on it. Let`s listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARTINEZ: She starts the actual steps -- begins the actual steps to this journey that will take her to Mesa, Arizona, to kill Travis Alexander.
She does a burglary. She`s the one that stole the .25 caliber gun. Why would you take a gun if you are going to go on this trip, other than to kill this guy?
She doesn`t take her own car. She decides to rent a car. She goes to Reading (ph) so that people will not recognize her, because she is going to kill Travis Alexander.
She now has two gas cans. Nobody will ever know that you were in Arizona because guess what? You never filled up anywhere. You never put gas in the car.
All the state needs to prove is that the defendant thought about it, the killing, before she actually carried it out. And this is an extensive amount of plotting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: D`Ann, thank you so much for coming on. You have an extraordinary story to tell about complaints that Travis made to you about Jodi Arias when they had initially started dating. Kind of a foreshadowing of what prosecution said is a stalking pattern. Tell us about that.
D`ANN DaBell, FRIEND OF TRAVIS ALEXANDER: Well, yes, thank you for having me on, Jane. A good friend of Travis, met him in 2005, but we had a business retreat in August of 2007, a summit here in Utah.
And I was -- we always teased each other. I teased him about it`s time to find a girlfriend and get a wife, and he would tease me. And he just had this innocent flirtatiousness about him. But at the retreat, Jodi was with him. And when I saw him, I said, "Oh, you have a girlfriend, that`s great. How`s everything going?"
And he said, "Well, it`s going pretty well, except that she has to know where I am 24/7." He said, "I just feel -- I feel sort of suffocated." And so that was a telltale sign that the relationship probably wasn`t going to last very long.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And apparently, as you guys drove away to go somewhere, she comes running after you like frantically, like, "Where are you going? Where are you going?"
DABELL: Yes. Yes. Well, my husband asked Travis, he said, "Well, do you want to get a break from her and want to come to our house. We live in Park City," which was just 40 minutes away, "at least get a little bit of a break.
And he said yes. He was grateful for that. He came with us to our house just for a little bit of time. But it gave him a break.
But when we got in the car to leave for our home, she was in the distance a little bit. And she saw him get in the car and saw us start to drive away. She started running after the car, kind of like a puppy dog running after a car. We just kind of didn`t look back and kept going, which probably wasn`t very nice.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wow.
One of the most controversial aspects of her defense -- and that`s a fascinating, insightful story -- but one of the most controversial aspects of her defense was her accusations of pedophilia against the victim Travis Alexander, who`s no longer here to speak for himself.
Let`s listen to what the prosecutor had to say about that today in his closing argument.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUAN MARTINEZ, PROSECUTOR: How horrific it is to be accused falsely of being a pedophile. He`s not here to say "No, that`s not true." How absolutely hateful that allegation is and how absolutely extensive she was with it. Remember I said that she went a little too far with these thoughts?
First of all, her journal indicates there wasn`t such an event. Second of all, the text messages also indicate the same thing. What human being doesn`t go to the police and say this person is a pedophile. What she does is the new approach to pedophilia. What does she do? Well, "Let`s jump in the sack."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Beth Karas, again you know more about this case than almost anyone. The most offensive part of the defense for many was the pedophilia. What did you make of how prosecutor Juan Martinez handled that today?
BETH KARAS, CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": Well, that`s what he called it, something that is so offensive. And he said it was a hot button issue and that she really stooped low in making that allegation that Travis Alexander is not here to deny it and that, you know, there really isn`t evidence to support it except what Jodi Arias had to say.
He took that argument along with many other things and said the jury, look, you are free to believe her, if you want but if you believe her which means that some lesser crime, not first degree murder, that means that you are going to discount and then he rattled off all sorts of things that the state put on to show premeditation. So Juan Martinez was constantly waving in his argument various things.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And what I thought was so extraordinary is that he wasn`t looking at his notes.
KARAS: No.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I mean we have notes. I have notes right here. He didn`t have notes.
KARAS: This man knows this case so well. He has been living, eating, breathing this case. And he has 12 other cases, you know. But he knows this case inside out. He did not need his notes. I`m sure he`s had this closing argument ready for weeks.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: We`ll be right back with more. Stay right there. More key moments from prosecutor Juan Martinez`s closing argument.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JODI ARIAS, ON TRIAL FOR MURDER OF TRAVIS ALEXANDER: My understanding is that it meant that vaginal sex was off limits and everything else was more or less ok.
KURT NURMI, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: And who gave you that understanding?
ARIAS: Travis did.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
M1: He was the individual that somehow was this person that was so sexually interested in her and oh, by the way, she wasn`t. It`s not her fault that any of this happened. Of course none of it is her fault. Never occurred to her that in the lexicon of English language there`s a word. It`s called "no".
Mr. Alexander, that guy, always guilty, you know. Just like a bad disease, this guy -- always guilting me. You know, it`s not my fault. That`s what she keeps telling you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Now, I can tell you there`s a sizable crowd here outside the courthouse in the middle of Phoenix. And a lot of people are talking about the zingers. You just heard some of them, the zingers that prosecutor Juan Martinez leveled today during his closing.
Selin Darkalstanian, our producer, our fabulous show producer who has been here in court since day one. Those zingers, people were chuckling in court at some of them. Tell us about it.
SELIN DARKALSTANIAN, HLN SENIOR PRODUCER: That`s right, Jane; it was pretty funny at certain points of Juan Martinez` closing argument. At one point he said I didn`t know skateboarders carried screwdrivers. And you know, he really kind of brought it home but he also was very sarcastic at certain points.
But I think the sarcasm worked in court. And it really drove the point home to everybody. But -- and at certain points, it was very serious in the court. We saw the autopsy photos. And it was a very solemn mood in the courtroom. The entire family was crying. It was a very difficult day.
I just talked to one of them as they were exiting the courtroom and they said that they were too overcome with emotion to even speak but today was a really difficult day for them.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Of course.
DARKALSTANIAN: And then on the other end, we have these one-liners that Juan also wove into his closing argument. So we saw both ends of the spectrum today in his closing argument.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And I think that we have that zinger about the skateboarders. Do we have that? Because, of course, you know that she had her license plate upside down when the cops pulled her over in Utah. And she said oh, well, these skateboarders they turned my license plate upside down.
Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
M1: It seems there`s a co-incidental hoard of skateboarders in Pasadena. That`s the way the kids are there in Pasadena. They go in hoards, these skateboarders. And this hoard of skateboarders, well, they carry screwdrivers. That`s one of the things. If you are going to be in this hoard a skate boarder, you have to have a screwdriver. That`s what you have to do or else you are not allowed in this particular club out in Pasadena.
And you can get a strawberry frappuccino or whatever it is that you get at Starbucks when you go there. Be careful because when you go in to get this strawberry frappuccino, things are going to happen to your license plate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Again, I would like to go back to D`Ann Dabell, our exclusive guest. She`s a dear friend of the victim Travis Alexander. You were watching the closing. What did you make of prosecutor Juan Martinez` closing argument?
DABELL: Oh, he did an amazing, amazing job. I`m just so grateful that he is the prosecutor for this case. I don`t see how the defense can come back with anything even close to how Mr. Martinez did. I`m just so grateful for what he did today.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to ask Fred Tecce because you are a prosecutor. I was worried just because I`m kind of co-dependent in general. But I was like wow, he was in court until 8:30 last night, ok. Then he has to be back at 9:00 in the morning ready to deliver the most important closing of his life. I know, I was in bed wondering am I going to get enough sleep for today. Then I started thinking about him. That was pretty amazing, given the pressure of having to stay and do questioning until 8:30 at night and then come back and deliver this with probably what, four hours sleep?
FRED TECCE, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Yes. But you know what? I`ll tell you what, Jane, when you are a prosecutor like Juan Martinez, you could make a lot more money doing a lot of different things. You do this because you are passionate about what you do. You are a dedicated public servant. And quite frankly, a guy like Juan Martinez, my perception is, he lives for stuff like this.
To him the challenge was to get up and go into that courtroom and deliver for Travis Alexander. And that`s the kind of stuff that drives him and anybody on his team that was associated with this case. And what you see is just sheer talent, sheer commitment and just flat out adrenaline as he brought that home today. And I was very, very impressed.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Anahita Sedaghatfar, for the defense, when I first started hearing it this morning, I wondered, I said, this is dripping the sarcasm. And I have seen sarcasm backfire in the past in closing arguments. You always want to maintain the moral high ground and sometimes you can lose that a little bit with sarcasm. But I think he pulled it off because in a way to defuse what many people believe are just a series, a litany of lies, you kind of have to use sarcasm because what other weapon do you have to dispute something that`s sort of nonsensical on its face but somebody says with a straight face.
ANAHITA SEDAGHATFAR, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Right, I think he was pretty effective again, Jane, I have to concede, using that sarcasm there. But I think the most compelling part of his closing really was using Travis Alexander`s own words against Jodi Arias. Those text messages, that one text message that said you are the worst thing that ever happened to me and how prophetic that is. I thought that was very compelling.
But I think the defense is also going to use Travis Alexander`s own words to defend Jodi Arias. They are going to use that sex tape, Jane, and that is going to be powerful in their closing. So, those jurors will hear once again Travis Alexander using these vile, disgusting, demeaning words toward Jodi Arias to, again, play into their theory that she was abused sexually, that she was abused emotionally and that she was truly acting in self-defense.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Jordan Rose though, briefly, what the prosecution`s point was that A, you don`t know what was going on before she hit play with the tape recorder on the phone sex tape and there were many, many tens of thousands of e-mails and messages and IMs that they exchanged. And we kept hearing about the same four or five where he called her names.
JORDAN ROSE, ATTORNEY: Right. And I think that those things along with his sarcasm just sort of played into how ridiculous it is -- all of her lies. And you look over her when they cross to her face and she`s crying. She`s crying at moments not when she`s looking at the gruesome photos but rather when Juan Martinez is making points that you know are going to send her to death.
And so it`s just this narcissistic attitude that she`s had throughout the trial and that you can see and it`s just written all over her face today.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. We are going to take a short break. We are going to play more of the key testimony about the premeditation, a great little tidbit about the CDs. Remember, she claimed Travis threw some CDs and then had rough sex with her? We are going to play that.
And we`re also going to ask what does the defense have to do tomorrow for their closing?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARIAS: It`s a hotel room. I show up. We hang out, we have sex. He`s not really there presently. He`s not mentally present. I`m getting a lot of attention but only while we`re engaging in sexual activity. And then we check out and he takes off. I kind of felt like -- like a prostitute, sort of.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARIAS: He wanted to drive up to the home. He wanted to get out of the car, have me come out of the house, give him oral sex and he wanted to ejaculate on my face and then get back in his car and drive away without saying a single word.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. I`m here with a lady who was -- you were in court, right? We`re going to talk to you in a second. But I want to talk about an incredible little tidbit that prosecutor Juan Martinez dropped today. Remember, if you have been following the case, Jodi Arias said that on the day she kills him, they first have sex, then they get into an argument over CDs because she had brought him some CDs to look at and they were scratched. And then to assuage his anger they had rough sex.
Now here is what prosecutor Juan had to say about that incident.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
M1: I had brought over some CDs from the trips that we had taken with some photographs. That requires some volitional movement to get those CDs into her car and drive down to Redding, California and then put them in the rental car. There is no other explanation for those CDs to be in mesa, Arizona other than she knew, she absolutely knew and had already planned it.
She knew she was going to kill him that`s why (inaudible) for CDs. But she forgot about it and she attempted to manipulate the story from the witness stand. She forgot about it. It`s those little details that she forgets.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right Jean Casarez, briefly, explain why this was such a potent point.
JEAN CASAREZ, CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": Jane, I can`t hear you.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: What was the point of the CDs?
CASAREZ: The point of the CD was part of the premeditation. That she took them and they were the trips that they took together to put him in that vulnerable position because she knew what she was going to do.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I have to say that I thought that was one of the best points because I was like scratching my head like, yes, yes, if she made a last minute decision after she was on the road to visit Travis, why would she have CDs for him especially when she`s in a rental. Very good point.
Jayne, you got into court today?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: First of all, you said you have nine dogs because of me?
JAYNE: Yes, Jane is a very good animal advocate and I have rescued too many animals. But they`re all great and thank you.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wonderful. Now -- a woman close to my heart. What did you make of prosecutor Juan Martinez?
JAYNE: I think Juan did an excellent job driving it home. Some of the one-liners that you`ve heard about were kind of -- just wasn`t even intentional. It`s just the ridiculousness of the stories just came out today. I think that that will bring it home for the jury and anyone else watching the trial. As well as the seriousness of the crime that sometimes people may have forgotten in the smoke and mirrors of the defense.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes and the seriousness of the crime. I have to tell you, I was in the courtroom when that photograph which we can`t show you. It`s just really too graphic and gruesome of Travis Alexander virtually decapitated. And it just -- it hits you when it`s on that big screen in court.
JAYNE: Yes. I work in the medical field and I have been in surgery. Still, it`s just -- it`s not an image you want to have as a last remembrance. My heart truly goes out to the family.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, it`s really rough when you are in there. And I have to say it`s so different. Now everybody says, well a lot of people have said prosecutor Juan Martinez yells a little bit. You know what, when you are in court and he`s speaking in a normal tone of voice, you can hardly hear him because it`s big, it`s echoey so you have to project. I really don`t -- I don`t even buy that.
Now, look, what does the defense have to do? Let`s just quickly debate it with our expert panel. Jordan Rose, I know you are for the prosecution, but what does the defense have to do tomorrow. The attorney, Kurt Nurmi said he was feeling a little under the weather reportedly. I can understand a person can develop a cold. Wow, he`s got a job ahead of him tomorrow.
ROSE: I guess he has to give it all he`s got. He`s got to somehow create a reasonable doubt and try to I think personalize her. The fact that she spent 19 days on the stand that she may have talked to these jurors longer than they`ve talked to their own spouse or significant other.
I mean the fact that they know her so well, how can you possibly kill her? I guess that`s his only hope. I hope he doesn`t (inaudible) with that.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Well, we`re going to play more of the closing argument by prosecutor Juan Martinez on the side. Stay right there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARIAS: When I finally came too, I saw that there was blood on my hands.
M1: And you enjoyed the tootsie pops and the pop rocks, correct? You think that the braids are hot, don`t you?
ARIAS: I think cute is more appropriate.
TRAVIS ALEXANDER, MURDER VICTIM: I love the braid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Is there any statement you would like to make?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nothing to say.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not right now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No thank you.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ok, thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: That was this morning. I spoke the mother of Jodi Arias very briefly. She was wheeling in her own mother, Jodi Arias` grandmother. And they declined to comment.
Now, so many people have come here from all over the country and indeed as well from Canada. Carol from Canada you are here. I did speak to Jodi Arias` mother she didn`t have any comment on the way in. You were sitting right behind them.
CAROL: I was.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tell us about that.
CAROL: I sat behind the grandmother, the mother, the father and her sister. And I did feel some empathy for them. You know, they didn`t commit the crime. I did feel sorry for them, but I felt more sorry for Travis` family.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, and I want to ask you a little bit about what it is like to be in court. But I want to talk to -- D`Ann Dabell, our exclusive guest. And you know what strikes me, D`Ann, is that much like the Casey Anthony case, Jodi Arias has also as thrown her own family under the bus.
I mean the mother had to sit there while she sat and testified on the stand that oh my mother beat with a wooden spoon. The mother actually says in the police interrogation, you know what; Jodi always says that we did things to her. We never did anything. And we even said to her Jodi, you`re going to have to stop saying that. So what does that say about her character, do you think?
DABELL: Well, I think borderline personality disorder. They`re probably right on. You know, there are terrible teens and then there are terrible teens or terrible people. And so she might fall into the terrible people category. But, yes --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: As a matter of fact, the prosecutor -- the prosecutor described Jodi Arias as a master manipulator. Let`s listen to that segment of this closing argument and then we`ll discuss it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
M1: She is an individual who is manipulative, just an individual that manipulates people. This individual has attempted to manipulate you, this personality of manipulating the facts. She has always been this person who is manipulative and she`s is attempting to manipulate the evidence. How she always is manipulating it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right, and I`m here with Jordan Rose, Arizona attorney, and you have come from the cold and very shady booth out into the hot sun. But we`re talking about Jodi Arias being the master manipulator as prosecutor Juan Martinez described her. Tell us what elements led up to him being able to make that comment in his closing.
ROSE: It is lies, lies, lies, as it is from the gas cans. It is to the guns that were stolen from the grandmother`s house. I mean, what burglar steals the smallest gun -- makes no sense, zero sense. To her lying to the doctor, the expert on the stand. I mean it was a instant stream of just one lie after another.
And he said you have to actually select what you want to believe from this woman, if you want to find her you know, not -- not guilty of first degree murder. So why would you do that? Which things would you select, Jane? I mean how could you possibly figure out which things are true and which things are false?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. You raise a really important point. Before we get carried away, because we have been down this road many other times with many other trials; I covered not only the O.J. Simpson trial, Michael Jackson child molestation trial, the Casey Anthony trial, where all the pundits said a conviction was going to come down and they were all wrong.
In this case for the defense to wait, all they have to do is get anything less than is murder one. So murder two would be considered a victory, manslaughter, by sudden quarrel or heat of passion would be considered a victory. And the prosecutor addressed that very issue and almost really directly asked the jurors reject the whole notion of manslaughter by sudden quarrel or heat of passion. Listen and then we`ll explain.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
M1: She catches up to him and goes for the throat. If she really doesn`t know what is going on and can`t remember, why is she so directed at a place where she can certainly cause death? If she really didn`t know what was going on, if it was just really passion, if it was just a heat of passion then you wouldn`t have a direct hit to somewhere that is going to kill.
But she is not done with him yet. And again, (inaudible) if this were a heat of passion, that is, a situation where somebody was just upset it would be random all over the place. But this was a strike to kill right at the neck.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So this is so crucial, because the prosecution has to prove premeditation, essentially to have a victory that it wants. I mean we all know Jodi Arias killed Travis Alexander after telling two lies. First that she wasn`t there, then some masked ninjas did it. She finally admitted she killed him but said it was self defense.
But then the defense attorneys got in well, maybe they can decide that it is manslaughter by sudden quarrel or heat of passion which would have to be provoked. That`s according to the jury`s instructions. In other words, the victim would have to do something to provoke the person to kind of -- any reasonable person would get crazy under those circumstances. So that is sudden quarrel, heat of passion, manslaughter, explain why that is the big danger here.
ROSE: Well, it is danger, but the interesting part was that Juan Martinez said you just have to be firmly convinced, jurors, firmly convinced that this happened. You don`t have to suspend all reasonable doubt. And he reminded that -- to them over and over again, which was interesting. It was almost like they just came up with this heat of passion and there was no evidence to it.
(CROSSTALK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And I want to bring in the rest of our panel, Fred Tecce, Anahita Sedaghatfar, let`s debate it. Is there a chance for manslaughter by sudden quarrel or heat of passion? Starting with Fred Tecce.
TECCE: No, there is not. And I`ll tell you why, Jane, because Jodi Arias is driving her defense. She is not trying to get manslaughter. She is trying to get acquitted. And in so doing she is going to step on the rake. That is the problem. She`s trying to walk away scot-free. If all she wanted -- if she wanted manslaughter she would have told a different story.
And I guarantee you those two lawyers have told her she is making a big mistake. You will see it in the files after she gets convicted.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Anahita Sedaghatfar.
SEDAGHATFAR: Jane, I said all along I think the facts if anything support a heat of passion manslaughter killing. I mean just look at the stab wounds, the knife, splitting his throat. That screams manslaughter, that does not scream premeditation. And let`s not forget, the defense is going to remind those jurors in closing that ultimately the burden of proof is on the prosecution. The prosecution needs to prove all of these claims beyond a reasonable doubt.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Got to leave it right there. Got to say this, we are here, I am here in Phoenix, Arizona, for the duration. Tomorrow expected closing argument of the defense.
There is a big crowd here, and they keep running this way thinking they`re getting out of my shot. But actually, we want you in the shot. Ok, so we`re going to be here for the duration, keep it right here. The testimony, we will have it all, the closing arguments.
Nancy is next.
END
