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Nancy Grace
Jodi Arias Murder Trial Week 14 Recap
Aired April 05, 2013 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALYCE LAVIOLETTE, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE EXPERT: Do you want the truth, Mr. Martinez, or do you want yes or no?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m asking you questions. You seem to be having trouble answering my questions.
LAVIOLETTE: I have trouble...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you have a problem understanding the question, ask me that. If you -- do you want to spar with me? Is that -- will that affect the way you view your testimony?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) argumentative.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sustained.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So when you are interviewing, you`re not talking then, right?
LAVIOLETTE: Mr. Martinez, I think...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes or no. My question is are you talking? Yes or no.
LAVIOLETTE: Mr. Martinez, are you angry at me?
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma`am, is that relevant to you? Is that important to you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ladies and gentlemen, please refrain from laughing in the courtroom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that important, whether or not the prosecutor is angry with regard to your evaluation? Does that make any difference to your evaluation, whether or not the prosecutor is angry? Yes or no.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Objection, compound question.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Overruled.
LAVIOLETTE: It makes a difference to me the way I`m spoken to, and I would like you to speak to me the way I speak to you.
SANDY ARIAS, JODI`S MOTHER: Jodi has mental problems. Jodi would freak out all the time!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "I had a dream last night that two people were charged in the case of Travis Alexander."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I remember one time when she was -- she called me and started yelling. And I said, You know what? Have you ever thought of yourself as being bipolar?
SANDY ARIAS: ... said Jodi`s bipolar and she needs help.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He complained of having a stalker?
LAVIOLETTE: Yes. Specifically, I know to a woman by the name of Reagan (ph). He said it specifically to a woman by the name of Lisa.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "So again, it was just one of his cycles. I`ve somehow managed to become his whipping girl, and we`re both addicted to it."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Any type of indications of stalking activity from Ms. Arias to Mr. Alexander?
LAVIOLETTE: No, I didn`t.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "And we end up having makeup sex, or in this case, phone sex. We`ve explored about 90 percent of all our fantasies."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) abusive on the phone with her. You know, we could never ask her anything about her personal life.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "We`ve yet to pull over on the freeway and do it on the hood of the car in the middle of the day."
LAVIOLETTE: The verbal abuse is starting to escalate, as well, based on the text messages and the other print messages that I`ve read.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "It actually wasn`t really talking. Well, dirty talk, I guess you could say. I`m just as naughty as he is. More, in fact!"
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first time I saw Jodi after the murder and after we found his body was the following Monday at Travis`s memorial service. She`s normally a blond-haired girl, or was when I knew her, and then that week, I happened to see her with brown hair, different color hair entirely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Court watchers and legal eagles have noticed every minute detail in the courtroom, including Jodi Arias debuting a new hairstyle this week. I`ve actually been asked what do I think about her hairstyle.
I know it may sound as if people are nitpicking when they ask questions like that, but trust me, no detail is unplanned regarding Arias`s appearance in court. So for whatever reason, she`s been told to bring her hair back off of her face. Maybe they agree with me that she looked like Cousin Itt with the hair all down like that. But for whatever reason, nothing is a coincidence in this case, right down to her changing her look in the courtroom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This case must be tried in the courtroom, not in the media. That`s one of the boundaries. If we want to try this case outside the courtroom, and that`s what the county attorney`s office seems to be conceding now, I`m willing to do that, as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Once again, the defense counsel Nurmi has asked the judge for sequestration, to sequester this jury.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we were to believe -- you know, the court asks the question of the jurors every morning, Have -- or not every morning, on a weekly basis, Have you seen anything in the media in a group. No one raises their hand. No one wants to be singled out. But to believe that to be true is to believe in absolute fiction. It is a fairy tale.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: It is very rare that a jury is sequestered midstream. If he had wanted sequestration, he should have made a better argument at the get- go. It`s too late to get sequestration now. Maybe when they go into deliberations, that may change.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAVIOLETTE: There was an argument about her being interested in two other men. And when she talked about that, which was elicited from a conversation that they had -- not just volunteered, but elicited. When that happened, Mr. Alexander got very angry and he threw her down, straddled her and choked her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you aware of how severe the choking was?
LAVIOLETTE: She lost consciousness, and she woke up coughing a little while later.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The testimony of defense witness Alyce LaViolette has been extremely upsetting to the family of Travis Alexander, the murder victim.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So as of this particular -- in late January of 2008, given everything you know about the abuse that`s occurred before and now the kicking on this time, how would you characterize their relationship at this point in time, given your expertise in the area?
LAVIOLETTE: I would call it a domestically abusive relationship.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After this incident in January -- and you talked about the escalation in frequency and the escalation in intensity, how -- what effect does that have on women in a relationship, when they have experienced this escalation of intensity?
LAVIOLETTE: Well, it tends to add to their fear. And when I speak to victims of domestic violence, they might not talk about being fearful of their partners all the time. And generally, they don`t.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.
LAVIOLETTE: So I ask them, Are you afraid when your partner gets angry? And that`s when they say, Yes, I`m afraid when my partner gets angry. And they may be doing things and watching their behavior in areas that they know may specifically aggravate the partner. So they may be adapting behaviors or adopting behaviors that they`re not even aware they`re adopting, but that will ameliorate the tension in the relationship.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. All right. And so -- and that`s part of the victim starting to make changes in their own life, basically not knowing that they`re changing their personality or changing their -- well, changing their personality?
LAVIOLETTE: These are behavioral changes that can add to the character changes, but the character changes tend to be more associated with the psychological abuse and putdowns and that sort of thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The defense has handed over to LaViolette and she is using cherry-picked e-mails, conversations, examples to try and cobble together a picture to portray Travis Alexander as a vicious and hateful and cruel abuser, when I and many others believe him to be anything but.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAVIOLETTE: Well, he continues to claim that he`s a virgin to numbers of women that he has relationship with either by virtue of text or IM or in person. And he continues to say he`s a virgin. And apparently, prior to Ms. Arias, he had sexual relationships with other women.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: E-mails sent by some friends, the Hugheses, regarding his treatment of Jodi Arias took center stage at the beginning of the week. That suggested Travis was a, quote, "abuser." Certainly, we have not heard the end of that because I don`t believe that was the intent of those e- mails at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And that e-mail -- did that prompt a response then from Chris Hughes individually and then another e-mail from Sky Hughes individually?
LAVIOLETTE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. Can we talk about those for a second?
LAVIOLETTE: Sure.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. And I guess specific with Chris Hughes, when he responds, does he -- based on your review of his response, what is your impression of that conversation?
LAVIOLETTE: That he is basically telling Mr. Alexander...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Objection, hearsay.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Overruled.
LAVIOLETTE: That he is suggesting to Mr. Alexander that he has reason to believe that he mistreats Ms. Arias, that he is a flirt, that he has a history of not being particularly good with women, that he`s a flirt, that he`s the biggest flirt this side of the Mississippi, that he says things to Ms. Arias that aren`t very kind.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Objection, hearsay.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sustained.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m not asking you specifically what he says to -- what Mr. Alexander might say to Jodi, but is it your impression that Mr. Hughes believed that Mr. Alexander was not saying nice things?
LAVIOLETTE: Yes, it was my impression.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: I think we will hear either severe cross-examination by Martinez over these e-mails, or we will hear from the Hugheses themselves.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Last week, Jodi Arias stood up at the witness stand before crouching slightly and then reaching forward. She was mimicking the linebacker-style attack she claims Travis Alexander tried to use on her. The prosecution requested that performance, but it`s not the only time we`ve seen theatrics like this in a high-profile case. Who could forget O.J. Simpson and the famous line we`ll always remember.
JOHNNIE COCHRAN, O.J. SIMPSON DEFENSE ATTORNEY: If it doesn`t fit, you must acquit!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of course, that glove did not fit and O.J. Simpson was found not guilty. Gloves are one thing, but in the 2004 Susan Wright (ph) murder trial, the prosecution decided to use a full-size bed and act out the crime.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If the defendant were to get up on top of Jeffrey Wright (ph) (INAUDIBLE) like this and straddle him, and she`s right-handed, then how do you think she held the knife?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These aren`t actors, by the way. That is the lead prosecutor on top of another prosecutor who was tied down by a detective, certainly a contender for the best visual effects award.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... with the knife being held in this direction.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: I am not an advocate of sequestration. Jurors hate it. It sours them on the process. I think that that`s one of the reasons, although everyone whines and complains, this judge lets the jury off on Fridays. They need a chance to take care of their own business, be it personal or work or family, whatever. So she lets them do that on Fridays. I think if they had been sequestered all this time, we would be missing a lot more jurors than just juror number five.
And speaking of juror number five, she made a very unusual appearance after being thrown off the jury at the beginning of the week. Juror number five, who said she wanted anonymity, has come back into the courtroom. Maybe she wants to seek justice like the rest of us and she wants to see it unfold in that courtroom.
It is flirting with disaster because if she has a conversation with any of the other jurors, if they make significant eye contact with her, that will be more fodder for the defense to ask for a mistrial. Even if the contact between her and one of the sitting jurors is completely innocent, completely innocuous, completely aboveboard, if it even gives the appearance of impropriety, that would be yet another grounds for Nurmi to seek a mistrial.
Now, that mistrial would be -- that request for a mistrial would be denied, of course. But still, if a lot of factors, a lot of requests for mistrials and objections add up, some appellate court sitting in their ivory tower could order a retrial, and we don`t want that.
But regarding sequestration, I think that it`s so hard on jurors. It`s unduly difficult and burdensome on them. And I always wanted a jury that was happy, that looked forward to coming to court, that wanted to hear the evidence, had an open mind, and are not sitting in the box, the jury box, stewing over the fact they had not seen their family or slept in their own bed for three months. Yes, I don`t want that juror.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She just told me she got a gun. I said, what do you need a gun for? She goes, Where I`m going, I might need one. I go, Where are you going? I can`t tell you. She goes, I just want to feel safe where -- I just want to feel safe where I go. I go, Well, you know what? You can`t carry it loaded in the car. I says, You can`t carry it anywhere in the car. You`re going to have to keep it in the trunk and separate. You`re going to get a clip (INAUDIBLE) if it`s a clip. And I said, No, but (INAUDIBLE) bullets, you`re going to keep it separated from wherever (INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... great, great individual. I`m sure he would appreciate all of you being here.
JODI ARIAS, CHARGED WITH MURDER: He was going to give a eulogy or something if I ever died. He would have come to mine, and even if it was in Antarctica.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The defense has filed yet another motion for a mistrial.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Attorneys for Jodi want juror number five out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The court has denied the motion for a mistrial. Juror number five has been excused.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did the Hugheses advise Ms. Arias to do?
LAVIOLETTE: They advised her to move on from the relationship, that Mr. Alexander has been abusive to women.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`d like to know the context of...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why don`t you review the portion I asked you to review.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can do that.
LAVIOLETTE: He is suggesting to Mr. Alexander that he has reason to believe that he mistreats Ms. Arias, that he is a flirt, that he has a history of not being particularly good with women.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With regard to the vaginal sex in May, she was able to say no.
LAVIOLETTE: She still had boundaries, stopping him at a place that she believed was a real violation of the law of chastity.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And ultimately, she performed oral sex with Mr. Alexander, right?
LAVIOLETTE: Yes, she did. It was a lesser sin to perform oral sex.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And is that what Mr. Alexander had told her?
LAVIOLETTE: Yes, it was.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you were called to testify on Ms. Arias`s behalf, would you be happy about that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I would not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why not?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because she murdered my friend in cold blood.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Week 14 of the Jodi Arias murder one trial started off with a bang -- pardon the pun -- when the defense insisted that juror number five be thrown off the jury and that the entire case be thrown out by way of a mistrial.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Juror number five has been excused.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The judge dismissed juror number five, one of only a few women on the jury, after Arias`s defense team filed this motion, accusing her of misconduct that affected more than one juror. The court will not disclose what the juror did or said, but there are still 17 people who could decide Arias`s fate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You should not speculate or guess about the reasons for that decision. Did any of you see or hear anything about this case in the media? I see no hands. Did anyone try to speak with you about this case, other than the participants in this case, including the attorneys and court staff? Has anyone tried to speak with you about the case? I see no hands.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Apparently, the defense believed that juror number five, a young lady in her 30s, had been speaking to the other jurors about the case. Now, under our law, under our Constitution and its interpretation, jurors are not to discuss the case prior to the end of the evidence when the case is formally handed over to them to commence deliberations. Even discussing the case simply, such as, Oh, she`s a bad witness, or, I don`t believe Arias, or just any casual comment is a comment on the evidence prior to the official handing over the case to the jury. And it is disallowed under the Constitution.
Now, I can guarantee you this much. I don`t need to be a fly on the wall to know what happened. Obviously, the defense thought that juror number five was anti-Arias, so they moved to not only have her thrown off but to have the entire trial thrown out because of what she may have said to other jurors. Well, at the end of the day, the judge wisely did not grant a mistrial. She also wisely booted juror number five.
My take on this is that juror number five did not deserve to be thrown off the case. She should have been reprimanded. She should have been verbally warned not to talk about the case with the rest of the jury. The rest of the jury should have been questioned one by one outside of each other`s earshot whether whatever juror number five said to them would poison them so much they could not be fair and impartial any longer, and then continue with the trial.
But the judge was wise in her decision to throw off juror number five because that leaves no room for any perceived appellate error. I think the judge was overcautious, and did the right thing in the long run by getting rid of juror number five, even though her comments may have been extremely innocent.
This is a high-stakes game. Not only is it a murder one trial, it is a death penalty trial. And any perceived error, whether it`s truly an error or not, must be, let me just say, mended as best as possible. And the best way to mend this is to just throw off the juror. It`s the most cautious and the safest route.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAVIOLETTE: I`m confused. Are you talking about Snow White again? Because I`m not sure where you`re going here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m talking still about...
LAVIOLETTE: I`m not understanding this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m talking about snow White Exhibit 558.
LAVIOLETTE: That is not applicable to Snow White and the prince`s relationship, which is the relationship that that -- this is about adult intimate partner violence. And you keep referring to Snow White as a child. And what I`m saying to you is that that`s about adult intimate partner violence and not about her relationship with the prince, which I know nothing about after they get married.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So what you`re saying is, though, even though this involved adults -- and you did say, Is Snow White a battered woman, which would imply that she was involved with a man as an adult, right -- you`re saying disregard that now, right, because it doesn`t mean what it says, right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Objection. (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you have your suspicions that she might have been involved in Travis`s death?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I looked at it this way, you know, because after - - you know, it was like a day-and-a-half or two days later, I think that she heard about it because she was quite normal until then. And then when she heard about it over the phone, she was hysterical (INAUDIBLE) I think I talked to my in-laws and they said, Man, she`s been crying all day. And I go, What about? So I went over there, and she was just hysterical.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: In newly uncovered interrogations, Arias`s parents are seen speaking with police. During that interview with them, they reveal that Jodi Arias has had mental problems since she was a girl that seem to exacerbate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDY ARIAS: Jodi has mental problems. Jodi would freak out all the time. I`ve had quite a few of her friends call me and tell me that I needed to get her some help. I`ve had one call me in the middle of the night and tell me that she needed help. Jodi didn`t (ph) call me. We don`t have a good relationship, me and Jodi.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, your husband kind of told me about the relationship.
SANDY ARIAS: And she would call me in the morning all happy, and call me an hour or two later in tears, crying and sobbing about something she didn`t want to talk about. And it happened constantly. And her friends saw it, too, and they -- I had one friend call me in the middle of the night, and he even called a hotline for bipolar people, said Jodi is bipolar and she needs help. And that`s why we talked her into coming back here so she could be around family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We learned she lies to her parents.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When she was in eighth grade, she got busted for growing marijuana (INAUDIBLE) Tupperware (INAUDIBLE) on top of the roof. We found it and called the sheriff department. And they busted her, and then rounded up some of her friends or something. And then we searched her room. That was the first time we`ve ever searched her room.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We did learn from the discussions with her parents that she was growing pot already in the 8th grade. You know, that`s pretty young. That can be as young as 13 years old. She`s growing pot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After that, she was -- so she was kind of like something turned in her head that we were nosy parents and we`re going to - - we were going to search everything she has, so she hid everything from us and always has since then. (INAUDIBLE) never -- she`s never been honest with us since then, and she was probably 14 then, because she has never been honest with us ever since then.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: She mistreats her mother, screams at her mother, has been evasive and lied to her parents since she was a very young girl.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She called my wife and was really kind of crazy (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So she would definitely go off? Was (INAUDIBLE) upset about him...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was upset. And she treated my wife like crap.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We learned so much from the discussion police had with Jodi Arias`s parents, who -- I really feel for them. I mean, who wants to be hauled in to police HQ and told your daughter is a monster, your daughter is a murderer? I mean, they put their life`s blood into raising Jodi Arias as best as they could, and this is the thanks they get. Jodi Arias, their daughter, is a murderer.
You know, I`ve watched the mother and the father in court. And I`m sure that somehow, they feel they could have stopped this murder from happening, that, What did they do wrong to raise her? It`s not their fault. It`s not their fault at all.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, verbally abusive on the phone with her. You know, we could never ask her anything about her personal life ever since the day she left the house, never, because she would never tell us. She`s just secretive about that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: It all fits into the pattern that we are seeing unfold in the courtroom.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, so just because she was lying, it`s OK to sort of smile at the lie? Is that what`s going on here?
RICHARD SAMUELS, PSYCHOLOGIST: No, I`m not saying she was lying, either. I`m saying that she built up a defense mechanism to help her not deal with the emotional trauma of what really happened. She created an alternative universe that she responded to. So it`s not surprising that she could smile and laugh about this alternative universe because it didn`t actually exist. When talking about Mr. Alexander at a later time with me, she had blunted (ph) affect.
JODI ARIAS: What about a lie detector test?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can do that. That`s fine.
JODI ARIAS: Would that help me at all?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, you can`t use it in court, but...
JODI ARIAS: Well, then there`s no point in taking it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where were you taking the photographs when this happened? I want to see it on this exhibit.
JODI ARIAS: Outside the shower.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pardon?
JODI ARIAS: Outside the shower.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, why don`t you put a mark on there. Ma`am, were you crying when you were shooting him?
JODI ARIAS: I don`t remember.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were you crying when you were stabbing him?
JODI ARIAS: I don`t remember!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How about when you cut his throat? Were you crying then?
JODI ARIAS: I don`t know!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: In many, many years of practice, I have never had a witness leave the stand ill. I have had witnesses that at some point during the trial became ill, but never on the stand. I would question whether it was a ploy of some sort.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JODI ARIAS: I didn`t go to his funeral. I tried to go, and I didn`t make it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She said that she didn`t go. She said that she had caught a flat just outside of Fresno or somewhere in central California.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was tearful and she was painting a picture of a friend in mourning.
JODI ARIAS: I felt that if I didn`t show up, it would look suspicious because Travis and I were close.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... nothing out of the ordinary, nothing unusual for me at the time, but looking back, knowing what she`s done now, it`s pretty creepy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She came up to me and gave me a big hug and just said, I`m -- you know, Isn`t this just horrible? I`m so sorry you had to go through that. Nonchalantly, just, How is everything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She didn`t cry. She didn`t laugh. She didn`t break a smile. She didn`t shed a tear.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She came up to me and introduced herself. And she introduced herself as Jodi Arias.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very aloof, very distant.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She seemed like she was trying to act sad like the rest of us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We obtained about 600 pages of Jodi Arias`s private diaries. Frankly, I think she fabricated the diaries. It shows she lives in an alternate universe that`s created out of her own lies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "I had a dream last night that two people were charged in the case of Travis Alexander. One person was charged with murder, and one was charged with conspiracy. The one charged with murder was in custody, and the one charged with conspiracy was not yet arrested on some contingency having to do with legal matters in some jurisdiction, like FBI or something. I was riding in someone`s yellow truck when I got the call. It was raining outside. Anyway, keep praying."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And I really don`t think you can put much stock in really anything that Arias says or writes. She`s a pathological liar.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "So again, it was just one of his cycles. I`ve somehow managed to become his whipping girl, and we`re both addicted to it. It`s the same pattern as always. He gets pissed, goes off on me, feels bad, we make up. Things are mellow for a few days, and then the cycle begins again."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The current defense expert, Alyce LaViolette, started off very low-key. She was likable. She seemed knowledgeable. She`d been around the block a couple of times. But I think after so many days of her talking in generalities and trashing Travis Alexander, the murder victim in this case, I imagine that at this juncture, she has turned the tide against her all on her own. I doubt she needs Martinez to slice her up too much on cross-examination, but I have no doubt that he will.
As likable as she may have been at the beginning, or that some may still find her likable or knowledgeable, the reality is, is that she, LaViolette, has based her entire analysis on what Arias has told her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAVIOLETTE: He ties her hands to the bed. They have sex. Then there are pictures taken of her genitals. After the pictures are taken, they -- I believe that she goes to shower. And when she -- after she showers, they`re going to look at CDs of trips that they`ve taken. And the first CD that she pulls out, the CD is scratched or won`t play, and that Mr. Alexander gets very upset and throws it. And then they have -- he bends her over the desk and they have sex again. It`s rougher this time, and she says it`s still consensual.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that something that she would rather do than face anger from him?
LAVIOLETTE: Something she has consistently done to quell his anger.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Her whole theory in this case is built on what Arias told her. So therefore, it must fail.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ladies and gentlemen, juror number five is in the courtroom to observe as a member of the public. I want to remind you of the admonition. It continues to apply, and you should have no contact with juror number five until the trial is over.
You may continue.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, your honor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: When all the brouhaha, the tempest regarding the motion for a mistrial was going down, it evoked memories of other high-profile trials, for instance Scott Peterson, just to name one, where there was a juror revolving door. I think three jurors in all were booted off the Peterson trial. Every other day, there were claims of misconduct, getting rid of this one and that one, get rid of the judge, get rid of the prosecutor.
Five minutes late turned into ten minutes late turned into half an hour late, then an hour. People were being shuttled in and out of the judge`s chambers, including Travis Alexander`s family and attorneys. So everyone was extremely concerned a mistrial would be granted.
JEAN CASAREZ, "IN SESSION": We don`t know what the jurors said at all. We know the court was delayed for two hours on the first day of this week of testimony. And juror number five was excused. The judge told the other jurors in open court that. And we do know that juror number five walked out of the front door of the courtroom in tears.
GRACE: Once I learned that it was because of juror misconduct -- which sounds very harsh, like juror number five did something unseemly. She did not. She probably made an offhand comment to other jurors about the case. I really did not believe the judge was going to grant a mistrial at this late stage of the game, especially when there is a cure under the law, and that is getting rid of the juror and questioning the other jurors as to whether they have been tainted or poisoned and whether they could fairly and impartially hear the remainder of the evidence.
CASAREZ: The jurors were originally told that this trial would go until April 11th. So have the jurors had enough? They were forewarned that this trial would go into April. We`re not to April 11th yet. But I think the issue will be how long after April 11th will this trial continue? Will jurors have plans? Will they have paid vacations? Will things get in the way?
This is a very serious jury. They are invested in this case, it is obvious. But there also has to be a time limit because jurors do have lives that they have to get back to.
GRACE: When juror number five was dismissed, the judge cautioned the jury and instructed them not to discuss amongst themselves or speculate as to why she left the jury. Why? Because that would induce even more inappropriate conversation about the trial. One of them would probably have said, Oh, I`m sure it`s when she told us she didn`t believe Arias. And that would then compound the error. So by instructing them not to discuss it, hopefully, that cut off further similar conversation.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: I`ve been very, very disappointed at LaViolette on the stand because with her experience, I would assume that she knows better than to drag a murder victim through the mud the way that she has.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In these text messages, are you starting to see anything like character assassination?
LAVIOLETTE: Yes, indeed, I am.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Can you tell us why this is character assassination versus name-calling?
LAVIOLETTE: Because he`s talking about her as less than human, because he`s calling her a pure (ph) whore or you look like a pure whore, which is like calling somebody a pure whore. He`s talking about spitting, people spitting in her face. He`s calling her evil.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: It just disturbs me as a crime victim to see someone that should know better, LaViolette, taking potshots at a dead victim.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. And he continues to tell her that she couldn`t -- she couldn`t get off her lazy butt to read what he had written to her.
LAVIOLETTE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he calls her a sociopath.
LAVIOLETTE: Yes, he does.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he tells her that he doesn`t want her apology.
LAVIOLETTE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did he say that?
LAVIOLETTE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But he wants her to understand how evil he thinks she is.
LAVIOLETTE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he tells her that, You are the worse thing that has ever happened to me. Do you see that?
LAVIOLETTE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then he continues. He continues to call her a sociopath.
LAVIOLETTE: He does.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Castigating him, you know, posthumously for not being a virgin or suggesting to others that he was a virgin when he`s not, for not being as wealthy as Arias presumed that he was.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAVIOLETTE: The next day, they`re talking. He wants to borrow some money from her. She says, I don`t have any more money, basically, to loan you. I`ve loaned you almost $700. He calls her selfish. They have an argument. And during this argument, he grabs her and throws her to the floor.
And when she hits the floor, she makes a sound. And he says, basically, Don`t act like that hurts, bitch. This hurts, and he kicks her. And then he kicks her a second time. And she`s trying to block that kick, and he kicks her finger and breaks it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We will see Martinez go into action. He has been unusually, uncharacteristically quiet during LaViolette`s direct examination. And I expect that he will unleash the hounds.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Using your expertise, we can make a determination, for example, that Snow White was a battered woman, can`t we.
LAVIOLETTE: No, we cannot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, then let`s talk a little bit about Snow White and whether or not we have some of these issues that are presented here.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes or no. Can we do that? Can we do that? Could you do that with me?
LAVIOLETTE: You`re mischaracterizing, Mr. Martinez...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Objection. Relevance.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Overruled.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: I predict a murder one verdict.
END
