Is Arias Manipulating The System?

Uggh - Jodi Arias has bought herself a knowledgeable expert witness in Alyce LaViolette. LaViolette has provided the jury and court room with an education about domestic violence and the various ways, shapes and forms it can take. Will she go out on a limb for Jodi Arias? Or has Arias, Willmott & Nurmi built their defense around this witness, manipulating the "battered wife syndrome" because she believes it's hard to prove she was not battered? Was she aware of the statistics around reporting or victims who don't report abuse, and this is what she built her defense around?

Alyce LaViolette is probably the best person the defense could have chosen/bought to speak on the subject of domestic violence. While her testimony about specifics on the actual case should be limited in nature, I mentioned yesterday that I felt that parts of LaViolette's discussion on domestic violence had a familiar feel - and it seemed clear that Arias was coached. On a previous post, I listed some of LaViolette's prior expert witness experience, and this jumps out at me.

2011 - 13 Expert Witness & Consultant, Death Penalty Murder Trial. Phoenix, Arizona

1998 Consulant, Murder Trial - Interviewed defendant, assisted in developing strategy for defense.

1984-85 Expert Witness, 1st degree murder case (battered woman who allegedly killer her husband) Consulted with defense attorney on jury selection and development of questions to develop battered women syndrome.

Do you think LaViolette helped Nurmi & Arias develop their questions and answers? Is that why we hear a theme in her descriptions of various types of abusive relationships that sound familiar? 

I always believe that liars throw in a little bit of truth in their stories. Perhaps Travis Alexander did get fed up with Arias following him on dates, reading his personal e-mails and breaking into his My Space and Facebook accounts - and maybe he yelled at her and said some things that were less than kind. That's about all I can imagine happened to this woman. Was that punishable by death, as she already carried out Travis Alexander's death sentence when she murdered him.

I think that Jodi Arias has manipulated people her entire life, beginning at a young age and continuing into adulthood. Alyce LaViolette seemed to be describing many of Jodi Arias's traits in her "Continuum" - many more than Travis Alexander's. She is using the system to try to mitigate her responsibility for cold blooded murder. I no longer feel impartial about this case or trial, and I don't know if there is anything the defense could say to make me believe what she did was justified.  They may have bought a good expert witness, but not even Alyce LaViolette can change the facts around what Arias did on June 4, 2008.

If Travis Alexander had wanted to physically harm Jodi Arias, I believe he could have. Those defensive wounds to his hands show that he was trying to protect himself, not attack. The cluster of stab wounds on his back prove that Arias attacked him at a time when he could not have been a threat to her. She went well above and beyond self defense by any stretch of the imagination. All of this domestic violence, PTSD and fog-talk is just white noise!

I believe that in order for Arias to have walked away without injury on June 4, 2008, she had to have completely disabled Travis and attacked him until he was no longer able to move. She didn't stop until she was certain he was dead. She did enough damage to kill him three times over - even if he did lunge at her and verbally threaten to kill her, she is not justified in what she did. Nobody knows how they would react if somebody suddenly attacked them without provocation, but it actually happened to me when I was in my mid 20's.

I was meeting some friends for drinks after work, and the parking at this particular place was set back in a poorly lit parking lot. I still had my work clothes on, and was wearing a skirt, jacket and had heels on. I parked my car and started walking towards the street to get to the front entrance, when I noticed a man approaching me. He was still a good distance away from me when he began to ask me for directions - I had a sense that something wasn't right and felt uneasy, so without being rude I told him I didn't live in the area and wasn't familiar with it. I kept walking towards the street, and just as he was getting ready to pass me in the other direction, he grabbed me and put his hand over my mouth and tried to drag me back into that dark parking lot.

I can honestly say that how I reacted surprised me. It happened very fast, but I remember thinking that if I let him drag me back into that dark parking lot, who knows what his intentions were. I couldn't let that happen, so I fought him as hard as I could, and I pulled my legs up in a way where he would have my full weight and drop me - which is exactly what happened. I was now laying on the asphalt and he was on top of me with both of my arms pinned down. I screamed as loud as I could and struggled with every ounce of energy I had and I guess he hasn't planned on having someone put up that much of a fight. He suddenly got up and grabbed my wallet out and started to run.

I found myself so infuriated at this man that I actually grabbed his leg while I was still on the ground and he was trying to run away. I grabbed his leg and he tripped, by that time I was on my feet and I just started kicking this guy, and screaming at him! I can't believe I reacted that way, and thinking back on it I probably should have just ran after he took my wallet and was running away. But my point is, it was my first reaction to fight and not let him get me back to a place where he could've really hurt me.  I ran into the bar and my friends were there - the bar staff called the police, and a few of the bartenders ran out to look for this guy. The police came and took a report but did little else. I had a friend drive me home shortly thereafter, since my clothes were torn and I was a nervous wreck. When I got home, the man I was living with at the time said when he got home that night, my wallet was by the front door, when we opened it the money was gone, as I'd expected. But what I didn't expect is to find a used condom in my wallet.  This man had come to my house and I felt that he left me a message in my wallet! I called the police to report what I had found, and they did nothing more than "add a note" to the police report I filed earlier. They didn't come to my house or collect that "evidence".  I moved shortly thereafter.

I ended up being just fine, but I just started to think about that and how I know I reacted when I realized this guy was going to attack me. Travis had to have been caught completely off guard, trapped in that shower stall unable to get away before being seriously injured. That's the only way Jodi Arias walks away with no injuries. To me, that's all that matters in this case.  There has been talk about this expert swaying the jury in Arias's favor, but I think this jury cares about what happened to Travis Alexander and I don't expect Arias to get a pass on this murder. What do you think?