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Jane Velez-Mitchell

Secret Lives: The Jodi Arias Story

Aired May 23, 2014 - 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 (voice-over): Las Vegas. Glitter and glitz. It`s where they met. Jodi Arias, a waitress/aspiring photographer trolling for a career, crosses paths at a business convention with Travis Alexander. Travis instantly took a shine to the pretty platinum blonde who walked into his eye line.

(on camera): There it was, the most basic building block of a secret: chemistry, sexual chemistry.

JODI ARIAS, CONVICTED OF MURDER: He leaned in very close as if he wanted to kiss me. And he`s licking his lips, and he was staring at my lips like he wanted to kiss me, but he didn`t. He licked his lips and said, "I wish you didn`t have a boyfriend."

JUAN MARTINEZ, PROSECUTOR: Objection.

VELEZ-MITCHELL (voice-over): Travis was a Mormon, and Mormons aren`t supposed to have sex outside marriage. As Jodi and Travis`s relationship blossomed, the outside world saw a G-rated courtship, but behind closed doors...

TRAVIS ALEXANDER, MURDER VICTIM (via phone): I`m going to tie you to a tree and put it in your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) all the way.

ARIAS (via phone): Oh, my gosh. That is so debasing. I like it.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jodi even recorded their phone sex.

ALEXANDER: Honey, the pictures I`m going to take are so hot.

ARIAS: What are we going to do with ourselves? We are just horny toads.

ALEXANDER: Like let me tell you about some of the pictures I`m going to take. One of them is going to be me laying on my back. (EXPLETIVE DELETED), you know, sticking straight out.

ARIAS: You have a good looking (EXPLETIVE DELETED), baby. I just want to let you know.

ALEXANDER: You like my (EXPLETIVE DELETED)?

VELEZ-MITCHELL (on camera): Secrets are about a handful of human activities and at the very top of the list, sex. It`s where we tend to keep the greatest number of secrets and the most shameful secrets. Jodi and Travis were no exception.

ARIAS: (MOANING SOUNDS)

ALEXANDER: The way you moan, baby, it sounds like -- sounds like you`re this 12-year-old girl having her first orgasm. It`s so hot.

ARIAS: You`re bad. You make me feel so dirty.

ALEXANDER: You are dirty, baby.

BETH KARAS, HLN LEGAL CORRESPONDENT: To hear his voice in the courtroom was so eerie. And then, to hear what he had to say when he was talking about his fantasies, some of them very violent; having the sex over the phone with her and we hear them both climaxing, it was just -- it was a high point and a low point in the trial.

SELIN DARKALSTANIAN, HLN PRODUCER: Some of the jury members are looking down. They`re embarrassed. You can tell. They`re trying not -- avoiding eye contact with anybody in the courtroom. Others are staring directly as Jodi, judging her as the sex tape is playing.

Meanwhile, Jodi is on the stand, hair covering her entire face. You can`t even see her. She uses her hair as a shield in these really embarrassing moments in court.

VELEZ-MITCHELL (voice-over): Secrets can be murder. In this case toxic secrets that exploded in death on June 4, 2008.

Jodi Arias killed Travis Alexander by stabbing him 29 times, slitting his throat ear to ear, and shooting him in the face. All this happened in the confines of his master bedroom and bathroom, after Jodi and Travis had indulged in an afternoon of kinky sex and naked photo sessions.

KIRK NURMI, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Was it your idea to pose for that picture, or did Travis suggest that that take place?

ARIAS (on camera): He suggested all the poses.

NURMI: Is that something you really wanted to do?

ARIAS: That was not my favorite part of the day, no. I didn`t want to do that. I mean, I didn`t disagree. He wanted to get a picture of us having sex without somebody holding the camera.

NURMI: But it would be fair to say that he was directing you what to do and how to pose?

ARIAS: Yes.

NURMI: Why did you pose in these positions for him?

ARIAS: He asked me to.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: So how and why did sex lead to death? What are the secrets that exploded in violence? And who is ultimately responsible?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have pictures of you in Travis`s bedroom.

ARIAS: Are you sure it`s me? Because I was not there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ARIAS: He was grabbing at my clothes. He was trying to get on top of me. I don`t know where the gun was at that point. I don`t know if it got knocked out of my hands or I dropped it.

I broke away from him. And as soon as I broke -- the moment I broke away, that`s when he threatened my life. I have no clear memories after that.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jodi claims she was in a fog when she left Travis`s house after the killing. Nevertheless, she carried with her a new set of secrets. No one knew what she had done.

ARIAS: I don`t remember bringing the gun with me, but I remember throwing it.

NURMI: Throwing it where?

ARIAS: In the desert.

SHANNA HOGAN, AUTHOR, "PICTURE PERFECT": She`s terrified. She`s covered in Travis`s blood, and pulls over in the desert and starts to concoct her story, starts to cover up her tracks. She washes her hand of blood. She throws away the gun. And then she starts making phone calls, immediately coming up with this cover story that she maintains for the next month.

VELEZ-MITCHELL (voice-over): In her desperate attempt to keep secret her starring role in Travis`s extraordinarily violent killing, Jodi decided she would call Travis and leave him a voice mail.

ARIAS (via phone): I know Leslie called you, so I already talked to her so you can call her back if you want but it`s not necessary. My phone died, so I wasn`t getting back to anybody.

And what else? Oh, and I drove 100 miles in the wrong direction. Over 100 miles, thank you very much. So yes, remember new Mexico? It was a lot like that, only you weren`t here to prevent me from going into the three digits, so fun, fun. Tell you all about that later.

Also when we were talking about -- when we were talking about your upcoming travels my way, I was looking at the May calendar, duh. So I`m all confused. But Heather and I are going to see "Othello" on July 1, and we would love for you to accompany us.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: An invitation to see Shakespeare, a stunning testament to the lengths Jodi would go to keep a damaging secret. Her lighthearted tone a stark contrast to the blood-soaked crime scene.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A friend of ours is dead in his bedroom, and we haven`t heard from him for a while. We think he`s dead. His roommate just went in there and said there`s lots of blood.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Has he been threatened by anyone recently?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. He has. He has an ex-girlfriend that`s been bothering him, and following him, slashing tires and things like that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And do you know the ex-girlfriend`s name?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her name is Jodi.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jodi Arias, washing the blood off her hands in the middle of the desert, was carrying perhaps the most toxic secret you can ever keep. She had just killed a man.

Jodi began creating an elaborate smokescreen by canoodling with another man. She headed from the crime scene in Arizona into Utah and met up with this man, Ryan Burns.

NURMI: Did you kiss Mr. Burns?

ARIAS (on camera): Eventually, we kissed. We were watching some like scary movie, I guess, and he was laying next to me. We weren`t like really touching, but we were kind of laying next to each other.

And I just -- I don`t know. I felt -- I felt safe right there, and I figured like if I don`t kiss him at all, I don`t know.

I don`t know. I guess I just wanted to seem like normal. I wanted to seem like I was OK, like things were OK, like I didn`t just do what I just did.

VELEZ-MITCHELL (on camera): Welcome to our Secrets Lab. Joining me noted psychologists Jeff Gardere and Robi Ludwig.

Dr. Jeff...

JEFF GARDERE, PSYCHOLOGIST:

VELEZ-MITCHELL: ... she goes from killing Travis Alexander to canoodling in short order, within hours, with another guy, making out with another guy. What does that tell you about Jodi Arias`s mentality?

GARDERE: Well, I think this is a young woman who does have a personality disorder. And as we see with many women with these sorts of issues, they learn to use sex as a tool. She was doing that to cover up her tracks.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Dr. Robi Ludwig, what could the symbolic significance be of her killing Travis Alexander and then going and immediately making out with this other guy, Ryan Burns?

ROBI LUDWIG, PSYCHOLOGIST: I don`t know if she really felt like a person unless she was sexually engaged with another. So "as long as I`m sexually engaged, I exist, I matter, I`m alive." I don`t know if Jodi can feel like a person unless she was in that kind of relationship.

ARIAS: If I`m found guilty, I don`t have a life. I`m not guilty. I didn`t hurt Travis. If I hurt Travis, if I killed Travis. I would beg for the death penalty.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ESTEBAN FLORES, DETECTIVE (via phone): It was around April that you last saw him, right?

ARIAS (via phone): Early April.

FLORES: You haven`t been back in town since then?

ARIAS: No, I haven`t. I talked to...

FLORES: OK. I thought you mentioned you had been back in town like for a week or a couple of days.

ARIAS: Like I`ve been thinking about going there, so yes, I`ve been definitely planning on heading down there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you haven`t physically been here since you left?

ARIAS: Since I moved, no I haven`t.

VELEZ-MITCHELL (voice-over): Within hours of Travis`s friends finding his decomposing body stuffed in his shower, Jodi was reaching out to cops and insisting she was nowhere near the crime scene.

FLORES (on camera): Were you at Travis`s house on Wednesday?

ARIAS (on camera): Absolutely not. I was nowhere near Mesa.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And then, when confronted with a bloody hand print and other undeniable evidence that she was with Travis on the day of the killing, Jodi told a second whopper: that two masked ninjas invaded Travis`s home and she miraculously escaped.

ARIAS: They didn`t say a lot. They were white Americans, from what I could tell. They had -- what do you call those things? They`re like beanies, but they cover your whole face. 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 of what

ARIAS: Of Travis...

FLORES: Of Travis`s murder?

ARIAS: Yes. But I didn`t really witness it. I didn`t see much.

VELEZ-MITCHELL (on camera): When Jodi finally took the stand and admitted she killed Travis Alexander, that revelation came with a stunning avalanche of sexual secrets that would rivet the nation.

ARIAS: He wanted me to dress up in a schoolgirl outfit with braids.

We had sex in the bathtub and then again on his bed. With the candy. He wanted to put the Tootsie Pop inside of me. He wanted me to put Pop Rocks in my mouth while he -- while I gave him oral sex.

NURMI: And did you do that?

ARIAS: Yes.

VELEZ-MITCHELL (voice-over): Jodi described a sexually degrading relationship that crossed the line into sadomasochism.

NURMI: You describe the -- your wrist being bound in a noose-like manner, is that correct?

ARIAS: That`s correct.

NURMI: OK. Do you know how many inches or feet of rope it took in order to -- in order to have your -- these nooses around your hands?

ARIAS: No. I let Travis handle that.

KARAS: Jodi Arias and her attorneys drew on anything negative they could find in Travis Alexander`s background and just threw it all in to say that he was not the person he portrayed to the public, that he had a deviant and a violent side to him.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But the prosecutor countered with stunning evidence of Jodi`s secret sexual proclivities.

MARTINEZ: This is you sending him this text message, right?

ARIAS: Yes.

MARTINEZ: And in it, you say, "If you`re a lucky boy and you promise to give me a good, well-deserved spanking," and then you also say, "maybe you can give my (EXPLETIVE DELETED) a too-much-needed (EXPLETIVE DELETED), too. Kidding. Correct?

ARIAS: Yes.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But Jodi`s ace was the claim that enraged Travis`s family and brought them to tears. Was it Travis`s darkest secret, or Jodi`s most vicious lie against the man no longer here to defend himself?

ARIAS: I didn`t want to talk about his issues in the text messages.

NURMI: What do you mean his issues?

ARIAS: His -- his sexual attraction to children.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

ARIAS: Yes, I did.

NURMI: Why?

ARIAS: The simple answer is he attacked me. And I defended myself.

VELEZ-MITCHELL (on camera): Travis Alexander, a successful businessman and motivational speaker, shot and stabbed to death by his lover, Jodi Arias. But Jodi, in a bid to spare herself the death penalty, turned the tables and tried to put the victim on trial. Jodi said Travis led a secret life. A double life.

JENNIFER WILLMOTT, JODI`S DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Behind the smiles in these photographs there was a whole other reality for Jodi. A reality that Travis created. Because in reality Jodi was Travis`s dirty little secret.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: While the world saw Travis Alexander as an upstanding Mormon, chaste; an elder, in fact, in the Mormon Church, Jodi Arias painted him as a sexual deviant, a man who degraded her sexually over and over again.

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 (EXPLETIVE DELETED) right on my face and then get back in his car and drive away without saying a single word.

VELEZ-MITCHELL (voice-over): Smiling photos show Travis and Jodi after he baptized her into the Mormon Church. But Jodi claims right after Travis pressured her into submitting to anal sex, convincing her that the Mormon law of chastity only banned vaginal sex before marriage.

NURMI: You weren`t to engage in premarital sex. Your takeaway of that was penile-vaginal intercourse. Is that accurate?

ARIAS: I considered other forms of sex, sex. But after gaining a sort of clarification from Travis and how he explained it, then I came to understand that vaginal sex was the ultimate, like, only place to not go.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jodi`s attorney showed photos of panties and a T- shirt Jodi claimed Travis made her wear that referred to Jodi as Travis`s property.

ARIAS: Beneath that was a shirt that he had been joking about getting me for some months or weeks, maybe. It was over a month.

NURMI: Can you describe it for us?

ARIAS: Yes. It`s the one that was in the pictures of Travis Alexander`s, the pink shorts, which I didn`t see his name on the back at first. I just picked them up, and I thought they were cute.

ARIAS (on camera): Welcome back to our Secrets Lab. This trial really pulled back the curtain on what you might call a very common secret, kinky sex. What is sadomasochism and why do both men and women find pleasure in it? Starting with Dr. Jeff.

GARDERE: Well, when we look at the person who is sadistic, that`s the one who wants to give the pain. The masochist is the one who wants to receive it. So now you can have a perfect union if you have two consenting adults, because it takes the sex to another level. This is what they need in order to get the final sexual gratification.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now Dr. Robi, she tried to take that S&M and the dominance and submission games that they played and make the leap that that was somehow abusive. But there`s a big difference playing these games in the bedroom, working out your kinks as it were. It has nothing to do with being abused.

LUDWIG: Right. But if you have someone who`s not healthy, it may not be fine. In an ideal sadomasochism kind of situation, people have this feeling that they forget themselves, which is part of the pleasure. It`s very cathartic. They`re trying on a different role that they don`t get to experience in the real world. And that`s part of what makes it so sexy for them.

VELEZ-MITCHELL (voice-over): As evidence mounted that Jodi was into the kinky sex and encouraged it, Jodi countered with a stunning claim against Travis, a claim that infuriated the victim`s family. It involved Travis and young boys.

ARIAS: I walked in, and Travis was on the bed masturbating. And I got really embarrassed, even though we`d been intimate more times than I could count. It was just kind of awkward walking in on him like that.

And I was headed towards the dresser when I stopped and was trying to think of something funny or witty to say, like, "Do you need my help" or something. He started grabbing at something on the bed. And I realized there were papers. And as he was grabbing the papers, one -- one kind of went sailing off the bed and it fell. And that pattern of paper falls, and it landed face up near my feet. And it was a photograph.

NURMI: What was in the photograph? What was the photograph of?

ARIAS: It was a picture of a little, little boy.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Was Jodi innocently unleashing the darkest secret she knew about the lover she killed in self-defense? Or was Jodi lying through her teeth with a hideous story to protect the secret truth of why, the real reason she killed Travis Alexander?

ARIAS: I grabbed the gun. I ran out of the closet. He was chasing me. I didn`t mean to shoot him or anything. I didn`t even think I was holding the trigger.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JODI ARIAS, CONVICTED OF TRAVIS ALEXANDER`S MURDER: I would be shaking in my boots right now if I had to answer to God for such a heinous crime but I`m grateful that this is one thing that I will never have to answer to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HLN HOST: Of all the secrets that spilled out in the Jodi Arias murder trial perhaps the most jaw-dropping involved the elaborate murder plot prosecutors say Jodi devised.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BETH KARAS, HLN LEGAL CORRESPONDENT: Just a week before Travis Alexander was killed a burglary was reported at Jodi Arias` grandparents` home where she lived in Yreka, California -- a thousand miles away from Travis Alexander. One of several guns, a hand gun, was stolen from her grandfather a .25 caliber handgun. So this was reported and investigated, no one is ever arrested.

ESTEBAN FLORES, POLICE DETECTIVE: You report a gun stolen -- .25 auto. This happens to be the same caliber as the weapon used to kill him.

SHANNA HOGAN, AUTHOR, "PICTURE PERFECT": Jodi is confronted with this in the interrogation room and she still denies it and still is just acting like nothing happened and then so cheery and normal that she actually she does a hand stand after, you know, he leaves the room.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Late in the trial the world suddenly got to see this bizarre behavior.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARIAS: He knows my need

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jodi singing and doing a hand stand in the interrogation room minutes before she`s arrested. But this astounding tape remained a secret from the jury.

In spite of Jodi`s bizarre behavior police were far more concerned with why she killed Travis Alexander and investigators thought they knew the reason why -- jealousy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: Continuing to lie is not going help you.

ARIAS: Admitting to something I didn`t do won`t help me earth. Ok, let`s say for a second that I did. And I say I did it. I mean --

FLORES: The motive is there -- the jealousy issue.

ARIAS: But I wasn`t -- I wouldn`t even say it was jealous. I mean there may have been some jealousy there but I think if anyone --

FLORES: Then what is it? What caused this?

ARIAS: I think if, you know, if anyone maybe Travis was jealous, but --

FLORES: Obsessed is the word that they used. That`s the word I hear from everybody. "Fatal attraction" -- I don`t know how many times I`ve heard that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please be seated the record will show the presence of the jury.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: On the witness stand Jodi insisted she wasn`t fueled by jealousy over Travis taking another woman on vacation with him to Cancun.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIRK NURMI, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: When you saw this picture of Marie Hall, and he says this is going to be my future wife, are you jealous?

ARIAS: I didn`t feel jealous. He didn`t say this is going to be my future wife. He just said this is a girl he`s interested in. But when he began to talk about her, I can`t say it was jealousy. It was kind of bittersweet because I knew that I wasn`t going marry him but I still had feelings for him and I knew I needed to move on and I knew our relationship was unhealthy.

So I still had feelings for him but it`s more like bittersweet because I still have a desire for him to be happy as well as me to be happy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Welcome back to our "Secrets Lab". Let`s talk with our experts about jealousy and rage. You know there`s an old saying "Oh, if I can`t have him nobody else can." Jealousy is one of the most fundamental human emotions. Why is it at the heart of this case, Dr. Jeff?

DR. JEFF GARDERE, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: She`s thinking, ok, so you are treating me like dirt, but now not only you`re treating me like dirt, but now you`re kicking me to the side. I`m accepting all of this because I want something from you. I`m dependent. I`m allowing you to do all these things to me because I want to be with you. And now I don`t even get the payoff.

And so it`s about the rage. She took it for so long.

ROBI LUDWIG, PSYCHIATRIST: I think she saw Travis as a prize. This was a man who is going to save her. She converted for him. She really felt that he was something special.

So imagine thinking you`re doing everything within your power to win this prize and then this prize thinks somebody else is better than you? That`s a real assault to the ego. And I don`t think that Jodi could handle that.

GARDERE: And I think with her disordered mind, personality disordered mind, that`s when the rage was just, she just could not control it. So even if she did kill him out of self-defense, even that was overkill. The fact that she just went completely off is pathological in itself because she could have left a long time ago.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jodi used the lies to hide the secret truth of what happened between her and Travis in that bedroom and bathroom. But she also another tool and astounding claim that she went into a "fog" and doesn`t remember stabbing Travis Alexander 29 times.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARIAS: Most of the day was an entire blank and little pieces have come back but not very many. When I sort of came out of the fog I realized oh, crap something bad had happened and I was scared to call any authority at that point.

I really don`t know the answer as to why I blacked out or have memory gaps much of that day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Would this fog be a get out of jail free card or would jurors just assume Jodi Arias was lying yet again?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JUAN MARTINEZ, PROSECUTOR: Did you lie to the detective, yes or no?

ARIAS: Yes.

MARTINEZ: And did you lie to him on two occasions?

ARIAS: More than two, yes.

MARTINEZ: Did you lie to people in Utah?

ARIAS: Yes, everyone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NURMI: Did you kill Travis Alexander on June 4th, 2008?

ARIAS: Yes, I did.

NURMI: Why?

ARIAS: The simple answer is that he attacked me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: A stunning admission, disturbing revelations -- fiery confrontations in court.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTINEZ: How it is that you`re not remembering what you`re saying?

ARIAS: Because you`re making my brain scramble.

MARTINEZ: I`m again making your brain scramble. So in this particular case the problem is not you, it`s the questions being posed by the prosecutor, right?

ARIAS: No not the questions.

MARTINEZ: Yes or no? Yes or no?

ARIAS: I was saying no and you interrupted me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And then finally the last words.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARTINEZ: The truest words that are spoken in this case and they are 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."

Is there any doubt that that`s the truth?

Do we need to 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? Or 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."

He`s telling her enough is enough. Yes, he`s angry -- absolutely angry. After everything that she has done to him and you`ve seen the manipulation as she`s tried to manipulate you with what she has told you, although she tells you that, well he kind of was the person that pushed her in this relationship and that he was the individual that somehow was this person who 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.

It never occurred to her in the lexicon of the English language there`s a word. It`s called "no" that you can use when you don`t want to do something. And yet you can then take the witness stand however and say "Well I do know that word but I just chose not to use it." But it`s not her fault, again it`s not her fault. It`s Mr. Alexander`s fault for being interested in her don`t you see? Can`t you all see based on those days and days that she was on that witness stand that it isn`t her fault?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Not her fault. That`s exactly what Jodi`s defense attorney Kirk Nurmi wanted to show to the jury in his final effort to save her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NURMI: You may fear how your verdict will be received by those who loved Travis Alexander, by those who loved Jodi Arias or by the world at large. Each and every one of you are here because all the parties involved believe that you are the type of people that would have the courage of your convictions to stand by your personal belief against whatever pressures you may feel.

Each one of you is entitled to deliver your verdict to this courtroom. You do not have to succumb to the pressure of a fellow juror who may not agree with you. You can have the courage of your conviction to deliver your own verdict.

Couldn`t it also be that after everything, everything they went through in that relationship, that she threw him down again, that she did grab for the gun to defend herself, that after that she simply snapped. She may not know it. But she may very well have snapped -- out of control, sudden heat of passion. We`ve been through so much and look what happened now. If Miss Arias is guilty of any crime at all, it is the crime of manslaughter and nothing more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And then maybe the most astonishing admission of all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NURMI: It`s not even about whether or not you like Jodi Arias. Nine days out of ten I don`t like Jodi Arias.

MARTINEZ: Objection.

SHERRY STEPHENS, PRESIDING JUDGE: Sustained. The jury is directed to disregard the last statement.

NURMI: But that doesn`t matter. Your liking her or not liking her doesn`t objectively assess the evidence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But for the prosecutor, Juan Martinez in the end there was nothing but evidence, a mountain of it and it all pointed to one person, Jodi Arias.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARTINEZ: Goes down, he collapses then. She catches up to him, and goes for the throat. And if you want to believe her, that she doesn`t remember anything, doesn`t know anything that is going on, why then, why then if she really doesn`t know what is going on and can`t remember why is she so directed at a place where she and certainly cause death?

If she really didn`t know what was going on, if it was just really passion, if it was just the heat of passion then you wouldn`t have a directed hit to somewhere that was going to kill, it would have dispersed all over the place. But when he goes down, there is a direct strike to his neck, which is an indication of somebody who is thinking this person is not going to live. He may get away from me in the shower, he may get away from me all the way to the sink, and he may stumble his way down that hallway, but you know? I caught him.

What does she do? She believes only certain images. It is not like all of the images are deleted. This shows somebody who is thinking, well, I don`t want to delete the one of his dog, or this other one. I will delete this people -- the only one that hurt me. And that is directed behavior by somebody who claims to have dissociative amnesia. Dissociative amnesia -- you heard what the definition of that was. Or is it a fog? Even a San Franciscan fog, if such a thing existed wouldn`t be so cloudy to account for this kind of behavior.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jodi`s famous fog. Jodi killed Travis Alexander and now she found herself fighting for her own life. How would the jury decide?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHENS: Ladies and gentlemen, I understand you have reached a verdict?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m here with some members of the sheriff response team, and look, they`re dressed to the nine`s, prepared for anything. And right on the other side is the cell that is the same size and layout as the cell that Jodi Arias is in right now. And you see it sort of decorated with the kind of things that a prisoner would have, magazines, and there are little knickknacks, things that they can hold onto, but nothing that they can use to hurt themselves or others.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: For nearly five years, Jodi Arias called this Phoenix jail cell home. And after five months of lurid and graphic testimony about sex and lies and killing, the jury convicted Jodi Arias of the premeditated murder of Travis Alexander. And that same jury would quickly deem his murder to be excessively cruel, which would make Jodi Arias eligible for death by lethal injection.

Travis`s sister and brother made heart-wrenching and passionate pleas for the jury to end their pain by giving Jodi the ultimate punishment.

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STEPHEN ALEXANDER, BROTHER OF TRAVIS ALEXANDER: I cannot sleep alone in the dark anymore. I`ve had dreams of my brother -- all curled up in the shower, thrown in there, left to rot for days, all alone. I don`t want these nightmares anymore. I don`t want to have to see my brother`s murderer anymore.

SAMANTHA ALEXANDER, SISTER OF TRAVIS ALEXANDER: Our lives will never be the same. We can never get him back. We are so grateful for our wonderful brother, and we feel so lucky and blessed for the time we had with Travis however short-lived. We would give anything to have him back - - anything.

MARTINEZ: And that is the reason that these --

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: And the prosecutor told the jury they had no other true option than to send Jodi to death row.

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MARTINEZ: All of these items that are being presented to you, every single one of them is nothing more than the defendant`s statement attempting to gain sympathy. And in view of the fact that there are no mitigating circumstances in this case, the only appropriate sentence based on what the jury instructions tell you that you should do is death.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: And with that, the defense team made their final plea to spare Jodi`s life, but the only person who spoke up for Jodi was Jodi.

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ARIAS: This is the worst mistake of my life. It is the worst thing I have ever done. It is the worst thing I ever could have seen myself doing. In fact I couldn`t have seen myself doing it. To this day I could hardly believe I was capable of such violence, but I know that I was. And for that I`m going to be sorry for the rest of my life, probably longer.

I would like to implement a recycling program. I would like to start a book club or reading group.

My hair was past my waist and I donated it to "Locks of Love", which creates wigs for cancer patients who lost their hair.

Additionally, I`ve designed a T-shirt. This is the T-shirt, which 100 percent of the proceeds go to support nonprofit organizations which also assist other victims of domestic violence.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: A survivor shirt for victims of abuse? Was that one final attempt to ruin Travis Alexander`s reputation? Jodi`s other main argument was "Spare me for my family`s sake."

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ARIAS: As I stand here now I can`t ask you to sentence me to death because of them. Asking for death is tantamount to suicide. Either way, I`m going to spend the rest of my life in prison. It will either be shortened or not. If it is shortened the people who will hurt the most are my family. I`m asking you please, please, don`t do that to them. I have already hurt them so badly along with so many other people.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: And the final words the jury heard from either side?

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JENNIFER WILLMOTT, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: We are asking you to find that Jodi`s life is worth saving and to have the ability to understand that despite her very worst deed you can still show mercy and find that she still has value in her life. And sentence her to a term of life in prison.

MARTINEZ: Only thing that you can do based on the mitigating circumstances and their lack of, is to return a verdict of death. Thank you.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Final words, and then Jodi`s life was in the hands of the jury. But the trial was far from over.

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STEPHENS: I have received your note indicating that you are unable to come to a unanimous decision. At this time please go back to the jury room and continue deliberating. You are excused.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: And with that, the jury went back to deliberate one final time. But what happened next nobody could have expected.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We, the jury, duly impaneled and sworn in the above entitled action, upon our oaths, unanimously find, having considered all of the facts and circumstances, that the defendant should be sentenced -- no unanimous agreement -- signed, Foreperson.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: A hung jury, for Jodi Arias, no final answers. And for the Alexanders -- more frustration and anguish to endure. At this stage we still don`t know if Jodi will pay the ultimate price for slaughtering Travis. Leaving some to wonder is justice delayed, justice denied?

I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell. Good night.

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