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CNN Spotlight

CNN SPOTLIGHT: The Trial of Jodi Arias

Aired October 04, 2014 - 19:30   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A sordid did story of sex, lies...

JODI ARIAS, DEFENDANT: I'm not guilty.

KAYE: ... and audiotapes.

TRAVIS ALEXANDER, VICTIM: Certainly, the best times are when we just for a freaking romp session.

(LAUGHTER)

KAYE: The trial of Jodi Ann Arias.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We, the jury, find the defendant as to count one, first-degree murder, guilty.

KAYE: Though unanimous on their verdict, the jury deadlocked on the right penalty for Arias.

VINNIE POLITAN, HLN HOST: This is a case, this is a story, this is a criminal defendant unlike any other we have ever met before.

KAYE: This tale of passion gone wrong cost Travis Alexander his life. Now a new jury will have to determine whether it will cost Jodi Arias hers.

In the next half-hour, revisit the scene of the crime, review the evidence, and you decide whether Jodi deserves life or death.

In the CNN SPOTLIGHT: "The Trial of Jodi Arias."

Monday, June 9, 2008, 90 minutes until midnight in a Mesa, Arizona, community called Mountain Ranch. Nobody has heard from Travis Alexander in five days. So, a handful of concerned friends went looking for him.

They found their friend pale and lifeless on the shower floor.

CALLER: Oh, my God.

911 OPERATOR: Nine-one-one emergency.

CALLER: A friend of ours is dead in his bedroom. We hadn't heard from him for a while. His roommates just went in there and said there's lots of blood.

KAYE: Travis' body had nearly 29 stab marks, including the slash across his neck from ear to ear. There was a .25-caliber gunshot over his right eyebrow, and massive amounts of blood all over the master suite. His friends had immediate suspicions about who did it.

911 OPERATOR: Has he been threatened by anyone recently?

CALLER: Yes, he has. He has an -- his ex-girlfriend that's been bothering him and following him and slashing tires and things like that. Her name is Jodi.

KAYE: Jodi Arias, the woman Travis met in Las Vegas two years before.

DAVID HUGHES, FRIEND OF TRAVIS ALEXANDER: We were there for a convention. Our company had had a big event there. I was there in Las Vegas with him.

KAYE: Travis Alexander was a motivational speaker, compelling and effective. He was also a close friend and co-worker of David Hughes in the fall of 2006.

HUGHES: And I knew that he was single and he was always looking for Mrs. Alexander.

KAYE: Enter saleswoman and aspiring photographer Jodi Arias.

HUGHES: And I told Travis, hey, there is this cute girl that I work with. You should meet her. And he goes, introduce me. So, I introduced them and then they were able to develop a relationship pretty quickly from there.

POLITAN: They met in Vegas. The night they met, it seemed that things heated up very quickly, because Jodi Arias has said within a week or so, they are having sex in a car.

KAYE: Jodi and Travis had an instant physical connection, a whirlwind romance, but a long-distance one with her in Palm Desert, California, and him five hours away in Mesa, Arizona. Still, that wouldn't slow them down.

Shanna Hogan is the author of "Picture Perfect," about the Jodi Arias case.

SHANNA HOGAN, AUTHOR, "PICTURE PERFECT": From the very beginning, Travis and Jodi were almost in constant communication. They talked every day. They exchanged thousands of e-mails and text messages.

KAYE: But there were signs of trouble from the start.

HOGAN: Right away, Travis' friends were concerned. It was clear that she liked him a lot more than he liked her.

KAYE: By the summer of 2007, however, their relationship had cooled, in part because of Jodi's increasing jealousy over Travis' interest in other women.

HOGAN: Jodi went through his phone and discovered these flirty messages to other women, and she decided to end the relationship at that point. But, at the same time, Travis was looking to end the relationship.

KAYE: Jodi and Travis did break up. But that didn't mean they weren't still friends with benefits.

HOGAN: Clearly, Jodi enjoyed her sexual life with Travis. But it must have been tormenting. In her diary, Jodi writes about how she loves Travis so fully and completely that she doesn't know any other way to be, that he was just her entire focus, and she was extremely obsessed with him.

KAYE: An obsession that led Jodi to spying and violence against Travis.

HOGAN: She slashed his tires. She broke into his e-mail account. She hacked into his Facebook page. She broke into his house and stole his journals. She read his diary. She just did these crazy stalking behaviors.

KAYE: On June 4, 2008, she made one last visit to her estranged lover's home, arriving in the wee hours of the morning.

Vinnie Politan covered the trial for HLN.

POLITAN: Travis is there, according to her, and he's online, and they go to sleep. But when they wake up, then they get back to what Travis and Jodi always do, which is engage in sex.

KAYE: When Travis was stabbed to death, Jodi was immediately a suspect.

But when investigators reached Jodi by phone, she insisted she had been nowhere near Mesa for months. This was version one of her story.

But investigators are able to place her at the crime scene thanks to a handprint, hair and Travis' camera discovered in his washing machine. At 5:30 p.m., Jodi uses the camera to take the last picture of Travis alive. He is in the shower. By now, it was July. Jo dim. Was in police custody. But she was still sticking to version number one.

ESTEBAN FLORES, DETECTIVE: That was around April that you last saw him, right?

ARIAS: Early April.

FLORES: You haven't been back in town since then?

ARIAS: No, I haven't at all.

KAYE: But investigators are able to place Jodi at the crime scene, thanks to a handprint, hair, and Travis' camera discovered in his washing machine.

At 5:30 p.m., Jodi uses the camera to take the last picture of Travis alive. He's in the shower.

FLORES: What if I could show you proof you were there?

ARIAS: I wasn't there.

FLORES: You need to be honest with me, Jodi.

ARIAS: I was not at Travis' house. I was not.

FLORES: You were at Travis' house. You guys had a sexual encounter, which there's pictures.

ARIAS: Are you sure those pictures aren't from another time?

FLORES: Positive, absolutely positive.

KAYE: By now, it was July. Jodi was in police custody. But she was still sticking to version number one.

FLORES: This is absolutely over. You need to tell me the truth.

ARIAS: Listen, the truth is I did not hurt Travis.

KAYE: The very next day, Jodi decided to change her story to version two, claiming two intruders came into the house, attacked her, and fatally stabbed Travis.

ARIAS: They didn't discuss much. They just argued.

FLORES: About what?

ARIAS: About whether or not to kill me.

FLORES: For what reason?

ARIAS: Because I'm a witness.

FLORES: A witness to what?

ARIAS: Him, of Travis.

FLORES: Of Travis' murder?

KAYE: Then, in 2010, two years after the murder, Jodi's lawyer files a court document indicating Jodi will change her story yet again. She would finally admit to killing Travis, but claim it was self-defense.

POLITAN: Story one, I wasn't there. I wasn't there. What are you talking about? Version number two, all right, I was there. But there were these two ninjas that came in and they killed Travis and they threatened to kill me and I was able to get out of there.

Story three, I was there, and I did it, but I did it in self- defense because Travis was going to kill me.

KAYE: Coming up, the trial. Jodi takes the stand to give her side of the story.

ARIAS: He called me a bitch and kicked me in the ribs.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The state of Arizona versus Jodi Ann Arias, indictment. Count one, first degree murder, premeditated murder.

KAYE (voice-over): It's been more than four years since friends discovered Travis Alexander's dead body crumpled up in his bathroom shower.

JENNIFER WILLMOTT, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Jodi Arias killed Travis Alexander. There is no question about it. The million-dollar question is, what would have forced her to do it?

KAYE: After telling two different stories about her innocence, Jodi now admitted under oath that she was the killer.

KIRK NURMI, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Did you kill Travis Alexander on June 4, 2008?

ARIAS: Yes, I did.

KAYE: But she denied the charge against her, that she had planned Travis' murder.

NURMI: Why?

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

KAYE: She pled not guilty, claiming self-defense, that she was forced to kill Travis.

WILLMOTT: In just those two minutes, Jodi had to make a choice. She would either live or she would die.

POLITAN: In a death penalty case, you want sympathy. You need an explanation for the defendant's actions and what they did.

KAYE: The defense's explanation was to blame the victim. Defense witnesses portrayed Travis as conflicted, publicly, a devout Mormon respected in his community, but privately, a man with lewd interests.

Jodi was, in the words of her defense attorney, Travis' dirty little secret, something he vividly demonstrated in this lurid phone call. ALEXANDER: You -- you are hot. Start touching yourself.

WILLMOTT: When you hear this call, it's -- it's crucial to understand the difference, the difference between the type of person that Travis portrayed himself to be versus the things that he said on this recorded call.

ALEXANDER: That was so hot. That actually, so like the way you moan there, it sounds like, it sounds like you're a 12-year-old girl having her first orgasm. That's so hot.

KAYE: Then, there were the text messages.

NURMI: He says that this photo shoot is going to be one of the best experience of your life and his.

KAYE: Text messages from Travis, appearing to treat Jodi as his sex slave.

NURMI: He also says, "You will rejoice in being a whore that's sole purchase is to be mine to have animal sex and to please me in any way I desire."

POLITAN: The defense is trying, literally, to trash Travis.

KAYE: To the defense, it was Travis, the monster, Jodi his victim. But to the prosecution, it was all an unsustainable lie.

POLITAN: The road to the death penalty here is paved with premeditation. That's what the prosecution has to prove. So where do they go for premeditation?

KAYE: For starters, prosecutor Juan Martinez goes to what he says was Jodi's attempt at a cover up, including this message left on Travis' voice-mail after he was dead.

JUAN MARTINEZ, PROSECUTOR: This is the number 365.

ARIAS: My phone died, so I wasn't getting back to anybody. And, what else? Oh, and I drove a hundred miles in the wrong direction, over a hundred miles, thank you very much.

MARTINEZ: And the reason you went to great lengths to do that was because if there was any suspicion, it wouldn't be drawn to you, correct?

ARIAS: Not immediately, no. That was the plan.

MARTINEZ: Right. You wanted the police to look elsewhere, right?

ARIAS: I guess.

MARTINEZ: And so you called Mr. Alexander and you left him a message, right?

ARIAS: Yes.

KAYE: But despite her early efforts at a cover-up, Jodi now took the jury through the grisly details of the killing, starting when she dropped Travis's new camera.

ARIAS: At that point, Travis flipped out again. He stood up, and he stepped out of the shower, and he picked me up as he was screaming that I was a stupid idiot. And he body-slammed me again on the tile. He told me that a 5-year-old could hold a camera better than I can.

When I hit the tile, I rolled over on the side and started running down the hallway. I went into his closet and I slammed the door.

KAYE: Then, Jodi reached for a .25-caliber gun she said Travis kept on the shelf.

ARIAS: I grabbed the gun. I ran out of the closet. He was chasing me. I turned around. And 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.

POLITAN: There is zero evidence, independent evidence, evidence other than words out of Jodi Arias' mouth, that established Travis Alexander as a gun owner. There is none.

MARTINEZ: Your grandfather also had guns, didn't he?

KAYE: But there is evidence that Jodi's grandfather owned a gun, a gun that Martinez believed Jodi stole in a burglary she staged at the home she shared with her grandparents.

When Travis's body was found in the shower, there was only one bullet wound, but almost 30 knife wounds, and he'd nearly been decapitated, an unforgettable scene that Jodi claims she doesn't remember.

ARIAS: I have no memory of stabbing him. I was in the bathroom. I remember dropping the knife and it clanged to the tile. It made a big noise, and I just remember screaming. I don't remember anything after that.

There's a lot of that day that I don't remember. There are a lot of gaps. Like I don't know if I blacked out or what. There's a huge gap.

KAYE: But prosecutor Martinez didn't buy any of it and, in his final exchange, made his most important accusation, that Jodi Arias was a liar.

MARTINEZ: So you lied to him, right? ARIAS: Well...

NURMI: Objection, argumentative. Asked and answered.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sustained.

MARTINEZ: You didn't tell the whole story then, right? That's what you said, right?

ARIAS: That would be accurate.

KAYE: Next, jurors get a turn to ask questions.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "What is your understanding of the word 'skank'?"

KAYE: A hint of what they might be thinking.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTINEZ: Can you imagine how much it must have hurt Mr. Alexander when you stuck that knife right into his chest? That really must have hurt, right?

NURMI: Objection. Argumentative.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sustained.

KAYE (voice-over): In Arizona, lawyers aren't the only ones who can grill witnesses. After weeks of testifying, Jodi Arias faced questions from the jury.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the time set for the court to ask the questions you have submitted.

"How is it that you were so calm on the television interviews?"

POLITAN: It's rare that jurors get to ask questions. And this jury asked hundreds and hundreds of questions to the witnesses and to the defendant herself.

I mean, this is the woman who's facing murder one charges and the death penalty, and the jury asking her questions, some of them very, very important questions, others, a little sarcastic.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "What is your understanding of the word 'skank'?"

KAYE: They had questions about Jodi's sex life with Travis.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "If you didn't want to be tied up to a tree, why would you go up and look for a place where he can do that?" KAYE: Questions about her killing Travis.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Were you mad at Travis while you were stabbing him?"

KAYE: And question after question about Jodi's many lies.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Why did you decide to tell the truth two years after the killing?"

"Why did you wait for so long to tell the truth?"

"Would you decide to tell the truth if you never got arrested?"

ARIAS: I honestly don't know the answer to that question.

KAYE: After the barrage of questions, both sides wrapped their cases. After five months of testimony, including 18 days with Jodi on the stand, her fate was in the hands of the jury.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please be seated. The record will show the presence of the jury, the defendant and all counsel.

Ladies and gentlemen, I understand you have reached a verdict.

KAYE: It would take just over 15 hours to reach a verdict.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The state of Arizona versus Jodi Ann Arias, verdict, count one. We the jury duly impaneled and sworn in the above entitled action upon our oaths do find the defendant as to count one, first-degree murder, guilty.

POLITAN: Wow. Wow. Twelve people all agreeing that this was premeditated murder, huge win for Juan Martinez.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Juror number four, is this your true verdict?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

KAYE: The victim's family was relieved. Outside the courthouse, the public celebrated.

POLITAN: You have more of a reaction from Travis Alexander's siblings, who are all seated behind everything, and you can hear them. You can see them. Some are hugging. Others are just breaking down and crying.

KAYE: And Jodi Arias?

POLITAN: I don't think Jodi Arias was shocked. But I think this is a confusing part of her life, because I think she always got her way, because she took advantage of her looks, she took advantage of who she was and she was able to talk her way through everything. But you can't talk your way out of first-degree murder. KAYE: But Jodi wasn't finished talking. As the case moved into

the sentencing phase, Jodi focused on convincing the jury that she deserves to live.

ARIAS: Over the years I have spent in incarceration, I have received many requests from women to teach them Spanish or American sign language. Because my case was pending, I just didn't have the time. In prison, I will.

Until very recently, I could not have imagined standing before you all and asking you to give me life. To me, life in prison was the most unappealing outcome I could possibly think of. I thought I would rather die. But as I stand here now, I can't in good conscience ask you to sentence me to death.

KAYE: Ultimately, the jury deadlocked at the sentencing phase.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No unanimous agreement.

KAYE: Voting 8-4 for the death penalty. The judge had no choice but to declare a mistrial.

Now, more than a year later, a new jury will convene to sentence Jodi Arias. New witnesses will be called, and a jury of her peers will finally decide her fate, giving her either life or death.

(END VIDEOTAPE)