Exposed: The Secret Life of Jodi Arias

by Velez-Mitchell, Jane

  At a little before 2:30 P.M. on Wednesday, May 8, the jury notified the judge’s bailiff that—after deliberating fifteen hours and five minutes—they had reached a decision.

  Word quickly spread that the verdict would be read at 4:30 that afternoon, giving the media two hours to reinforce their armies. Soon several hundred spectators from the community and beyond had formed a crush at the base of the courthouse steps. Chants erupted. “Justice for Travis!” one woman called out and dozens of others joined her, repeating the phrase over and over. The cameras rolled.

  Inside the courtroom, Travis’s siblings filled the gallery’s first row behind the prosecutor. Many of his friends were also present, including his ex-girlfriend, Deanna Reid, and best friends Chris and Sky Hughes. Jodi’s mother and aunt were seated several rows back from their usual spot behind the defense table, and neither woman betrayed much emotion. Jodi’s maternal grandmother was there looking stoic but frail. Several people fanned themselves with sheets of paper, adding some movement to a packed gallery that was otherwise eerily quiet.

  Once Judge Stephens took her seat at the bench, the anticipation in the courtroom was overwhelming. For two very long minutes, not a word was spoken.

  Jodi, dressed in a tasteful black pantsuit, sat quietly next to her attorneys. From her expression, it seemed apparent that she did not believe the jury would find her guilty of the most serious charge of premeditated murder. She swallowed hard when the judge finally addressed the court. “Ladies and gentleman, I understand you have reached a verdict,” Judge Stephens began, noting that the verdict form had been handed to the bailiff. After silently reviewing the form, the judge handed it to the clerk.

  “We the jury, duly empaneled and sworn, upon our oaths do find the defendant as to Count One, first-degree murder, guilty.” the clerk declared to gasps and cries of elation from some in the gallery. Travis’s siblings and close friends hugged one another, some smiling, some sobbing, most doing a little bit of both. It was an emotional catharsis after almost five hellish years of living in limbo waiting for justice. Jodi fought back tears, but it was clear to all that she was shocked, saddened, and taken aback. “Five guilty of premeditated, zero felony, and seven premeditated and felony,” the clerk continued. In other words, all twelve jurors believed it was a premeditated murder and seven of them believed it was also felony murder.

  “Is this your true verdict?” Judge Stephens, always the epitome of reserve and professionalism, asked. She then instructed the clerk to poll each juror individually.

  Jodi looked forlornly from juror to juror, as if wishing that one of them would change his or her mind if he or she would just look back at her. But her magical-thinking powers had proved to be as phony as her stories. There was no whooping or hollering inside the courtroom, although outside, the crowd erupted in jubilant cheers.

  Because of the advance notice, the courthouse area was a mob scene of massive proportions, with most everyone excitedly cheering and chanting “Justice for Travis!” It was absolutely festive, everyone having waited so long, months and years, for justice. There were no statements on the courthouse steps by the trial attorneys. When the guilty verdict was reached, there were still two phases left to the case, so no one talked.

  As usual, Jodi showed her perverse brilliance for pulling focus and bringing the attention back to her. Within a half hour of the verdict, Jodi gave an exclusive interview to reporter Troy Hayden of Fox 10 Phoenix in the secure area of the courthouse where inmates are held. When asked how she felt upon hearing the verdict, Jodi said, “I think I just went blank. I just feel overwhelmed. I think I just need to take it a day at a time.”

  Jodi admitted she had not expected the verdict the jurors had reached. “There was no premeditation on my part. The whole time I was fairly confident I wouldn’t get premeditation, because there was no premeditation.”

  She told Hayden the worst outcome for her would be a sentence of “natural life” in prison. “Longevity runs in my family, and I don’t want to spend the rest of my natural life in one place. I am pretty healthy, I don’t smoke, and I would probably live a long time, so that is not something I am looking forward to.” Jodi’s next statement would grab the next day’s headlines and reportedly devastate members of her family.

  “I said years ago that I would rather get death than life and that still is true today,” she told Hayden. “I believe death is the ultimate freedom, so I would rather just have my freedom as soon as I can get it.” When asked about the moment she was driving in the desert, and came out of the fog, if she would do things differently if she had the oppportunity, Jodi answered in the affirmative. “I would turn around and drive to the Mesa police,” she said. She didn’t know how the outcome would differ, but said, “It would have been the right thing.” Interestingly, with that question, Jodi had a chance to turn the clock back a few more hours to the master bathroom and say she would have pivoted left and out the door to safety instead of into the closet to allegedly get a gun. In other words, she could have said she wouldn’t have killed Travis. But she didn’t say that, perhaps because she has no regrets.

  Even though the jury had found Jodi Arias guilty of first-degree murder, the trial was far from over. Ahead of the jury was the “aggravation phase” of the trial, where the very same jury who had convicted Jodi needed to decide if the murder was “especially cruel.” The prosecution was delighted with the way things were going, but the next phase was just as critical if Martinez was going to succeed in getting the death penalty. He regarded the number of wounds alone as especially cruel, but he still didn’t want to take any chances. He was certain that the number of wounds coupled with the defensive wounds would prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Travis had suffered a painful death almost beyond imagination. He also would argue that the gunshot was the last of the fatal wounds, and may have even been administered after Travis was already dead.

  The aggravation phase was scheduled for the following day, but was postponed until May 15. Thus the next phase began at noon that day, same place, same intense Phoenix sun blazing down on the loyal crowd of trial watchers, most of whom were hoping Jodi would pay the ultimate price. Mr. Martinez only called one witness for the prosecution, Dr. Kevin Horn, the medical examiner who had performed the autopsy on Travis. He had also been the rebuttal witness a few days earlier, so the jury was quite familiar with his opinion. It was often shared with terms so graphic that the faint of heart grew queasy. His hyper-clinical language, tied to a face and a savage crime, the jumble of familiar words spoken without any emotion was actually more gut-wrenching than a dramatic recounting would have been; the descriptions of Travis’s injuries morphed into something macabre, supernatural, grotesque, nauseating, and shocking. This time the focus of Dr. Horn’s testimony was on how long and how much Travis suffered before he died.

  Again, Dr. Horn described what he had determined to be the first fatal wound, a knife thrust to the chest that cut a major blood vessel. The stab wound probably took two minutes to kill Travis, meaning he was conscious during much of the rest of the assault on his back, head, and torso. Dr. Horn reminded the jury of Travis’s defensive wounds, so important to his determination that the knife attack happened first. The cuts on Travis’s hands were likely the result of trying to wrestle the knife out of Jodi’s hands. The next fatal wound was the slash across the throat, which would have required considerable effort. Dr. Horn thought there was a possibility that the neck had received more than one assault before it was successful. “It could also be that there are several attempts to cut the throat in the same area,” he testified. “The skin would offer some resistance to the knife, the airway itself is firm cartilage, so there would need to be some effort.” In between the infliction of these fatal wounds, Travis was stabbed multiple times in his back, head, torso, and legs.

  One more time, the testimony was unbearable to Travis’s family and friends. They wept openly in agony and distress as once more, the pictures of Travis, his body riddl
ed with deep stab wounds and gouges, were slapped down on the projector and put up on the monitors around the room. After the corpse and crime scene photos were over, Martinez did something that was truly inspired. He asked everyone in court to pause with him in silence for two minutes to illustrate just how long it had taken for Travis to die. Never did any courtroom sit through a longer two minutes. The seconds seemed to go on and on and on. The already traumatized audience was shaken when the prosecutor finally began speaking again. “The last thing [Travis] saw before he lapsed into unconsciousness was that blade coming to his throat,” he said. “And the last thing he felt before he left this earth was pain.”

  The defense didn’t have much to add. Jennifer Willmott offered that the adrenaline rushing through Alexander’s body may have prevented him from feeling much pain during his death. She also suggested that although the first wound was not immediately fatal, Travis’s moving around would have caused him to bleed faster, thus hastening his death and shortening his period of suffering.

  The jury didn’t need long to come to a unanimous decision. In one hour and thirty-three minutes, they agreed with the prosecution: the murder was especially cruel. The state had proven that “the victim consciously suffered physical and mental pain, distress or anguish prior to death” and “the defendant knew or should have known that the victim would suffer.”

  Now that Jodi was eligible for the death penalty in the premeditated first-degree murder of Travis Alexander, next up was the penalty phase of her trial. Had the jury found the aggravating circumstance, especially cruel, was not proven, the jury’s role would have been finished and Judge Stephens would have determined Jodi’s sentence: natural life with no possibility of release or a life sentence with the possibility of release after twenty-five years. Now, under Arizona law, the same jury that had reigned during the guilt and aggravation phases would sit in judgment of whether Jodi would die for her crime.

  The first part of the penalty phase was devoted to victim impact statements. This was the moment many in the Alexander family had been waiting for. They had watched patiently while their nemesis spewed her lies and skewered their brother. But now they would finally have their moment in front of the court and the world.

  On May 16, Travis’s brother Steven was the first to address the jury and the judge. He stood before the jury and kept his back completely turned to the convicted murderer. Dressed in a light gray suit, he cleared his throat before beginning to read his written remarks. With great agony, he described in painstaking detail that he learned that his big brother was dead while serving our country in the U.S. Army. Through tears, he went on to say how it had impacted him in all the years since. “The nature of my brother’s murder has had a major impact on me. It’s even invaded my dreams,” said Steven, standing a mere six feet from the men and women who would decide the sentence of his brother’s killer. “I’ve had nightmares about somebody coming after me with a knife, then going after my wife and my daughter. I don’t want these nightmares anymore.” He went on to say Travis believed he was born to do good, because that was his destiny. He would never do it now. “He was brutally ripped out of this world, my world,” Steven said with anger. He softened his tone substantially as he finished his loving tribute. “Hopefully one day, I can make him proud.”

  Samantha Alexander, Travis’s sister, was next. She too had been serving her country, as a police officer in Carlsbad, California, when she got the news. She began by holding up a photo of Travis and his beloved grandmother. “This is a picture of my grandmother,” she began through swells of tears. “She is the one who raised Travis.” She went on to say how much her grandmother had suffered at the loss of her grandson, and how she had died shortly before jury selection for this very trial. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. “Losing Travis has completely destroyed the health of our family . . . Travis was our strength, our beacon of hope, our motivation. Our lives will never be the same. We would give anything to have him back.” In the face of unthinkable circumstances, the Alexanders conducted themselves with dignity, grace, and courage.

  And then it was time for Jodi’s side to plead for her life. On May 20, court was cut short when a penalty phase defense witness, Jodi’s friend Patricia, who was supposed to be providing mitigating circumstances on Jodi’s behalf, suddenly withdrew. She was expected to give character witness testimony about Jodi, who was her best friend in grade school. Jodi had attended Patti’s wedding and had given her a photo album as a gift. But Patti suddenly withdrew from the witness list, saying threats to her life made her reconsider. Nurmi told Judge Stephens that Martinez himself was involved with intimidating the witness, claiming he had some kind of dirt on her at a personal level. Nurmi immediately moved for a mistrial. Patti later explained that, yes, she felt threatened by anonymous online bloggers and mischaracterized by an intimidating prosecutor. But, in the end, she also felt that she didn’t really want to speak on Jodi’s behalf because she didn’t condone Jodi’s violent actions. She said the child she knew was loving and fun. The adult on trial was a stranger to her. Patti also felt bad for Travis’s family.

  Judge Stephens denied this latest mistrial motion, but this time the defense team seemed genuinely furious. Nurmi and Willmott angrily asked to withdraw from the case. “Ms. Willmott and I move to withdraw,” petitioned Nurmi. “We cannot present a full picture [of Jodi’s life] as incumbent upon us. We cannot fulfill our duties.” Judge Stephens denied that request also. In a shocking move, Nurmi told the court there would be no defense witnesses for the penalty phase. The defense abandoned its plan to call witnesses in support of eight mitigating factors they had listed. Jodi’s own statement to the jury, known as an allocution, was all the defense would present at this phase. The eight mitigating factors included that Jodi suffered abuse as a child and an adult. The defense had presented their evidence of this factor, ad nauseam, in the guilt phase of the trial. So it wasn’t as though the jury had no evidence to consider. Other factors were that she had no criminal history, she lacked family support, she was a talented artist, and that she consistently tried to improve herself.

  On May 21, 2013, slightly after noon, Jodi began her nineteen-minute allocution. She was not under oath and she could not be cross-examined. The big question was whether she would express remorse for killing Travis. She wore a black sweater-like top matched with a tailored black mid-length skirt. Her glasses were on, and she rose from the defense table to take the podium.

  Jodi told the panel about charitable work she was planning from prison, including donating her hair to the Locks of Love organization. She acknowledged that the jury did not think she was battered, but she said that didn’t prevent her from wanting to help raise awareness of domestic violence. With that, she held up a T-shirt of her own design, emblazoned with the word “Survivor.” It was a jaw-dropping move. She was supposed to be pleading for her life. Instead, she seemed determined to get in one last dig at her dead ex-lover. Court spectators were dumbfounded by her gall . . . and her self-destructiveness. Did Jodi really think this was going to win her points with a jury that had clearly concluded she was lying about Travis hitting her? She also said she hoped to improve literacy in prison by starting a book club and reduce solid waste by implementing a recycling program. Jodi talked about happier times. She showed pictures from her childhood, displaying ones of herself at different ages throughout the years. She had pictures of her ex-boyfriends, remembering the good times they had shared.

  A weirdly comfortable and confident Jodi showed samples of the drawings she had made in jail. They were done in pencil, as that is the only medium allowed an inmate at the jail where she had been residing for almost five years. Besides no longer being able to paint in oils, she listed other life milestones that would never be enjoyed by her: being a mother, going to her sister’s wedding, or spending time with her family.

  Finally, Jodi came to Travis. She said she loved him. She had wanted to avoid a trial for the sake of his reputation, but she
felt obligated to answer the questions posed to her truthfully. She had not wanted to expose the secrets inside the emails, texts, and phone calls, but in the name of the truth, she had honored the oath she had taken. Her presentation was perhaps the most astounding display of doublespeak ever broadcast on TV. The nation’s most infamous liar was speaking of honor and oaths and truth. Was she aware of her capacity to infuriate?

  As for murdering Travis, “I can hardly believe I was capable of such violence; I will be sorry for the rest of my life, probably longer . . . I see with Travis’s family much greater loss, one that I can never make up for. I hope with the verdict they will gain a sense of closure.” While the word “sorry” was uttered, it never came in the sentence I am sorry for what I have done. Please forgive me. For the family of Travis Alexander it was one more slap in the face. With that, the case came to a close.

  Yet, even as jurors retired to grapple with the agonizing question of whether Jodi should live or die, she was back at the Estrella jail giving a slew of media interviews to local and national TV outlets well into the night. Amy Murphy, a reporter with Phoenix’s ABC 15 TV, was one of the journalists who made Jodi’s cut. Amy had actually observed the process whereby Jodi decided whom she’d talk to, describing it as “very anal, ’cause I saw the list. She had actually gone through the list herself. She took her pen and drew a line all the way across the news agency or the reporter’s name. And then the ones that she wanted, she put a little check mark by.” Jodi appeared wearing makeup and a civilian top and asked the reporters not to shoot her from the waist down, so as to hide her jail uniform bottoms. Amy explained, “We learned later that a local station had purchased makeup for her upon her request. She asked for waterproof mascara, foundation. And they brought that to her. And she looked like a tiny little waif of a woman . . . so incapable of doing the horrific things that she did to Travis Alexander.” Amy, scoring a coup for her news station, asked Jodi the questions that were at the tip of tongues across the nation. Everybody wanted to know why Jodi’s mother failed to get up and plead for her daughter’s life before the jury. Jodi said that it was her defense team’s decision not to have her mother talk. But, Jodi claimed, her mom had written a letter and the court had a record of it.