“He didn’t want to get married, so he made that very clear right off the bat,” Jodi said. “I was young at the time so it didn’t bother me. I figured I still had many years left and I enjoyed being with him so that’s what I did. I enjoyed the time we had together.”
Years later, however, Jodi would have a very sudden change of heart.
* * *
By 2005, Jodi and Darryl had been dating seriously for three years.
Financially, Jodi was in a good place in her life. She had saved more than $10,000 and had earned good credit. With her savings, she had even been able to pay for breast implants, which she had wanted to enhance her figure.
But Jodi yearned for a future beyond being a waitress. She saw herself as a future real estate investor. She began taking real estate classes at Monterey Peninsula College, as well as following trends in the housing market.
Because the housing market was taking off at the time, she wanted to buy a home as an investment. Darryl, too, thought it was wise to purchase property.
In June 2005, Darryl and Jodi bought a house in Palm Desert. Approximately eleven miles east of Palm Springs, in the heart of Southern California’s famed Coachella Valley, Palm Desert was a small resort community surrounded by hotels, shopping boutiques, and dozens of hilly golf courses. A popular retreat for snowbirds, each winter the city’s population practically doubled with seasonal residents.
Darryl and Jodi cosigned on the property, which they purchased for $357,500. Located at 76572 New York Avenue in Palm Desert, the house was a 1,482-square-foot single-family home with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and an open floor plan. Built in 1981, the house sat at the end of a long driveway. It had a terra-cotta roof, grassy front yard, and tall hedges that blocked the front windows from the street. The backyard pool was encircled by mature fruit trees.
For the first year they lived in the house, their mortgage was $2,200 a month, which Darryl and Jodi split down the middle. Because they each had a full set of bedroom furniture, Darryl and Jodi kept separate rooms, although many times they slept in the same bed.
By then, Jodi had left her job at the Ventana Inn and was working as a waitress at an Italian restaurant called Piatti, as well as tending bar at a California Pizza Kitchen location inside the local mall.
For the first few months, the arrangement worked out fine, even though Jodi was unsure of their future. But by the following summer, Jodi had begun to rethink many of her life’s aspirations. She realized she wanted to marry and have children.
“At the time, my goal was marriage and children, at least someday,” she said. “I became a little more disenchanted in the relationship.… We were going in different directions. We had different visions for our future.”
At the time her relationship with Darryl was deteriorating, the economy was also faltering. Housing prices had peaked and home values in the area were stagnant. Even more disconcerting, Darryl and Jodi had signed on for an escalating house payment. In the summer of 2006, the mortgage climbed to $2,800.
At first, Jodi was able to pay it by dipping into her savings, but soon, she was forced to make payments on her credit card. As she struggled, Jodi began to feel discontent with her unplanned future. She had spent her early twenties aimlessly drifting from one waitress job to the next. Without a high school diploma and with limited job experience, however, she found few career opportunities.
“I was looking for other ways to get on my feet financially so I could invest in real estate, and could do other things I enjoy such as photography,” she said.
While working her shift at the California Pizza Kitchen her manager asked her a question: “What do you plan to be doing in five years?” He continued, “Because I plan to be retired.”
The manager had recently signed up to be an independent associate with Prepaid Legal and was attempting to recruit Jodi as an associate.
The man gave Jodi a DVD and encouraged her to learn more about the business opportunity. For months that DVD sat in the corner of a room collecting dust. Then, in early 2006, Jodi was cleaning out her room when she came across the DVD. She was about to throw it away when something compelled her to watch it.
On the video she heard speeches about several people just like her who had become independently wealthy through Prepaid Legal. She decided to call and learn more. In March 2006, she signed up to be a Prepaid Legal associate.
Soon after, she met up with her representative, Michelle Hagen, who provided her with marketing materials.
But while Jodi had been initially excited, she couldn’t envision herself approaching family, friends, and strangers to sell legal insurance. For months, the marketing materials sat in a closet.
In the fall of 2006, she got a call from Michelle Hagen, who informed her about the upcoming Prepaid Legal convention in Las Vegas. Although Jodi was initially reluctant, after some convincing she decided to attend.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” Jodi said. “I wasn’t looking forward to going, but I figured I should give it an honest shot.”
In September 2006, Jodi, Michelle, and another associate carpooled to the convention at the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas.
There, Jodi Arias would meet a man who would change her life forever.
CHAPTER 11
Jodi and her two traveling companions had just finished dinner at the Rainforest Cafe and were standing outside the restaurant at the MGM Grand. Across the hotel, from a small group of Prepaid Legal associates, a handsome young man in a dark suit emerged. It was Travis Alexander.
“Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone walking toward me, pretty fast-paced,” Jodi recalled. “He stepped right in front of me, and stuck his hand out and introduced himself.”
Travis and Jodi chatted briefly and he explained his position with the company. As the entire group made their way back to the lobby of the hotel, Travis stayed focused on Jodi. Wandering through the labyrinth of slot machines and blackjack tables in the casino, Travis made a point of walking next to Jodi, keeping her engaged in conversation.
After they parted ways, Jodi thought little about the encounter. She had a boyfriend, and Travis was just another Prepaid Legal associate with a name she had to remember. But for Travis, Jodi left a lingering impression.
The next day he called and invited her to the Prepaid Legal Black and Gold Ball, a special event reserved for high-level executives and their guests. Initially, Jodi was hesitant. It was a black-tie affair and she hadn’t packed anything appropriate. She eventually agreed to attend, granted she could find a formal dress. As she searched a local department store for something suitable, Travis called once again.
“I found you a dress,” he said.
Travis had informed Sky Hughes about the pretty girl he wanted to take to the ball. Because Sky was always eager to assist her friend in matters of the heart, she offered to loan an extra dress she had packed for the trip.
“She’s about your size,” Travis told Jodi. “It should fit you.”
Sky provided Travis her hotel room key and Jodi met him outside the Hughes’ room to change. Dressed in the borrowed gown, Jodi looked stunning. She strutted into the ball on Travis’s arm. That night Travis and Jodi talked, laughed, and dined.
For Jodi, the experience was intoxicating.
As part of the banquet, various Prepaid Legal associates gave presentations about their financial success with the company. Jodi began to realize it was a legitimate business opportunity, one that could transform her future.
“It definitely made a big impression on me,” she said. “It stuck out in my mind.”
Throughout the weekend conference, Travis continued to pursue Jodi. During the presentations, he invited her to sit with him in the executive level seating. On Saturday night they went out for dinner.
At first, Jodi was unsure about Travis’s intentions. He was friendly, but not overly flirtatious. But by Saturday night, it became clear that his interests were romantic. She decided she needed to make it clear
to him that she had a boyfriend.
Late on Saturday night, she asked to speak to Travis privately, and they took a walk around the hotel.
“I like you,” she told him. “But I’m in a relationship.”
Jodi went on to explain the crumbling status of her and Darryl’s relationship. She said she wanted to get married and have kids, but Darryl did not. “I’m not sure where it’s going, but he is my boyfriend.”
Strolling around the lobby, Travis and Jodi found a bench where they sat and chatted for hours. Throughout the conversation, Travis spoke about Mormon values, including the importance of marriage and children.
At dawn, Travis escorted Jodi to her room. Inside the elevator, he leaned close to her, licked his lips, and stared at her mouth. Just when it seemed he was about to steal a kiss, he withdrew.
“I wish you didn’t have a boyfriend,” he said softly.
When the elevator doors opened, Travis put his arm around Jodi, and walked her back to her hotel room.
The following morning they had brunch together and she escorted him to the lobby, where he checked out and left in a taxi for the airport. At the end of the weekend, Jodi returned to Palm Desert, not knowing if she would ever see Travis again.
When she arrived back home, however, Jodi began to question her relationship with Darryl. Just one chance meeting with Travis had caused her to reevaluate her life.
“Leaving the convention was painful. I knew there was a lot of change on the horizon at that point,” Jodi recalled. “The idea of change was uncomfortable. I really liked Darryl, but I could not continue.”
That realization was further solidified the day after the conference when Travis called. Over their subsequent conversations, he encouraged Jodi never to settle for mediocrity.
“The things he said made a big impression on me,” she said. “He made me think about the direction of my whole life, where I stood and where I was going.”
Now in her mid-twenties, Jodi wanted more than anything to get married.
Travis was young, attractive, and financially successful. A future with a man like him was alluring.
Four days after meeting Travis, Jodi sat down with Darryl and explained her recently realized life goals.
“I know we’re not getting married,” she said “But I’d like to have kids someday, and I think I’d like to pursue that goal.”
Meanwhile, Darryl was dealing with his own life change. His ex-wife had remarried and wanted to take his son to Monterey, about a ten-hour drive from Palm Desert. For Darryl, living so far from Jack was not an option. He told Jodi he was looking for a job in Monterey and was making plans to move.
Later, Darryl would say he was unclear that their relationship had ended at that point. But for Jodi, she now considered herself a single woman and had every intention of pursuing a budding romance with Travis Alexander.
* * *
That Friday—five days after the convention—Jodi met Travis at the house of Chris and Sky Hughes. The Hughes lived in Murrieta, an upscale city in Southern California, about an hour-and-a-half drive from Palm Desert.
For Travis and Jodi, it would be the first of many visits at the Hughes’ house. Over the next six months they would visit the Hughes every couple of weeks.
At first, Chris and Sky were impressed with Jodi. While she was soft-spoken, she was extraordinarily friendly. And Travis was clearly enamored with her.
“We liked her when we first met her,” recalled Sky. “She was very charming, excellent eye contact. She seemed to be really well-read and intelligent. She was almost overly nice.”
That first weekend, Chris and Sky hosted a party, which Jodi attended. Both she and Travis stayed the night, assigned to separate bedrooms in the house.
On Sunday morning, Travis and Jodi attended church with the Hughes family. It was Jodi’s first visit to a church since she was eleven, and her only visit to a Mormon church at that point in her life.
After church, Jodi drove back home to Palm Desert.
Three days later, as Travis was heading back to Mesa, he met with Jodi at a Starbucks in Palm Desert. There, he presented her with a gift—a copy of The Book of Mormon.
“I challenge you to read it,” he told her.
Jodi took the challenge very seriously. After that she was rarely seen around Travis without the book.
* * *
Although Travis and Jodi lived in different states, over the next few weeks they got to know each other through lengthy late-night phone conversations. They kept in almost daily contact, exchanging thousands of e-mails, text messages, and instant messages.
On their respective MySpace accounts, Travis and Jodi also publicly posted flirty comments.
“I wonder how much you raise the hotness level of Yreka all by yourself, factoring in its per capita hot stats before you came, I am sure it has raised exponentially,” Travis wrote.
Scrolling through Jodi’s online photo album, he complimented many of her photos. “What a knockout,” he posted on a photo of her smiling.
Jodi responded by commenting on many of Travis’s pictures. In one, Travis had his nose playfully stuck inside a flower. Jodi wrote: “You look so innocent—very much what Adam must have looked like in the Garden of Eden.”
Travis would grow to have a significant impact on Jodi’s life. As they got to know each other, Travis spoke often about his passions, ambitions, and methods for staying motivated. As he did with everyone he met, he also discussed his faith and how the gospel guided his life.
With Travis, Jodi seemed receptive and genuinely interested in the Mormon faith, asking thoughtful questions. Many of their conversations focused on religion.
To educate her further on his faith, Travis arranged for Mormon missionaries to stop by Jodi’s house once a week. Jodi began studying The Book of Mormon and attending church each Sunday.
In addition to his religious influence, Travis would also encourage Jodi on her career path. He recommended inspirational books, which Jodi quickly bought and consumed.
Jodi began to get heavily involved in Prepaid Legal, attending regular business briefings and events. Unlike Travis, however, Jodi found limited success. While she was very active in the company, she failed to thrive in sales. For a few months she earned more than a thousand dollars in commissions, but the business would never grow to become a substantial income.
Jodi explained to Travis that her true passion was photography, and he encouraged her to pursue it professionally. In 2006, Jodi launched a photography business she called J Fine Art & Photography. She later created a Web site and online portfolio, with portraits of her brother and sister, and a few weddings.
During their many inspirational talks, Travis explained one of his motivational tools was a dream board, a collection of images and words used to visualize goals. In his office, Travis kept a poster board filled with images to reflect his life’s dreams. Soon after, Jodi created her own dream board. On it she posted a picture of a sports car, a private jet, and the words “Explore the World.” In the corner of the board was also an image of a large diamond engagement ring—a reflection of her deep desire to marry.
On MySpace, Jodi made a blog of inspirational quotes of many of Travis’s favorite motivational authors. Included on the page was a quote Travis himself often used.
“The difference between a stumbling block and a stepping stone is the character of the individual walking the path.” —Travis Alexander.
She began talking in the same vernacular as Travis, referring to motivational techniques like “limitless thinking” and the “power of attraction.” Jodi began to mimic Travis’s own personality traits, presenting herself as a driven young professional.
The changes in Jodi were so abrupt that for many people in Travis’s life, they would go unnoticed. Travis’s friends, not knowing Jodi prior to her involvement with the young Mormon, assumed that they just had a lot in common.
Jodi herself would later say that she and Travis were drawn together
because they were both inspired visionaries.
“He shared a lot spiritually with me—his wisdom, his insight, his philosophy, his creeds,” Jodi recalled. “I adopted a lot of them.”
Prior to meeting Travis, however, Jodi had not been an exceptionally driven entrepreneur who wanted to change the world. And she was not particularly religious. With Travis she seemed to transform herself into what she believed would be his ideal mate.
At first, Travis seemed to believe he shared a strong connection with Jodi based on their mutual drive to succeed.
“You are as enlightened as you are beautiful,” he wrote on her MySpace page.
* * *
While still living with Jodi in Palm Desert and preparing to move, Darryl Brewer noticed the changes in Jodi.
Unaware of Travis Alexander or his influence, Darryl thought it was Prepaid Legal that spurred the changes. As Jodi got more involved in the company, she seemed less responsible and stopped paying bills.
“I saw a lot of changes in Jodi. She became a bit of a different person than I had known previously,” Darryl said in court. “It seemed she wasn’t as logical and rational as she was prior.”
Jodi explained the Prepaid Legal business model to Darryl, but he was skeptical. As she grew more focused on Prepaid Legal, their relationship seemed to further deteriorate.
“I think she had thoughts of succeeding in Prepaid Legal and being able to support herself through those efforts, and it didn’t quite seem to be the case,” Darryl testified. “There was an almost magical thinking that if we only believed and worked hard enough that Prepaid Legal would come through.”
Even more peculiar was Jodi’s sudden spiritual awakening. Over the four years they had been dating, he had never known Jodi to be actively religious. Her newfound interest in the Mormon faith seemed out of character.
Picture Perfect: The Jodi Arias Story: A Beautiful Photographer, Her Mormon Lover, and a Brutal Murder Page 8