Kirk Nurmi's closing argument got under way this morning in the Jodi Arias murder trial. He began picking away at the State's theme that Jodi Arias had a "covert" plan to kill Travis Alexander that began in May of 2008. "This case is about fear, love, sex, lies and dirty little secrets", Nurmi told the jury. He then told the jury that they didn't have to like Jodi Arias - saying "9 days out of 10 I don't like her", to which Jodi Arias laughed.
Nurmi warned the jurors to not be afraid of the way their verdict may be received, which prompted an objection from Juan Martinez. Nurmi made light of the State's theory of the covert plan, explaining that Jodi Arias did leave a paper trail of her trip through rental car receipts, gas receipts and through telling Darryl Brewer she was going to Mesa. He seems to be taking Jodi Arias' mistakes and trying to use them in her favor. "She's an intelligent person", he keeps saying.
He disputed the notion that Arias stole the gun from her grandparents home. "She could've just taken it", he argued. He named other sources where Jodi could have gotten a gun that would not have produced a police report. Well, Mr. Nurmi - if Arias had simply taken the gun, wouldn't it have been even more suspicious if it was suddenly missing? She couldn't have returned it after using it after all. Borrowing a gun surely would have been more suspicious after Travis ended up being shot. He's trying, but I'm afraid the damage is done.
Nurmi tried to dismiss the entire gas can issue as well, pointing out that Jodi had enough money in her bank accounts to have purchased gas cans with cash instead of borrowing them from Darryl Brewer, if she were on a covert mission. He's taking the "covert mission" theme too far - remember, Arias told most people she was going to Utah, so it's not the trip that was covert - just the stop in Arizona. Doesn't he think the jury will put this together? He then began displaying photos of Travis in the shower - in particular, the one where his back is to the camera. He pointed out several instances where Jodi could have simply shot or stabbed Travis and been on her way. He has a point there, but I believe it took some time for her to work up the nerve to actually kill him.
Court is in a recess now. More later! This is nerve wracking. Arias has a new hairstyle today, part of her hair is pulled back into a long pony tail while the rest of her hair is down. Both Willmott and Arias are sitting upright and paying close attention today.
**UPDATE**
Kirk Nurmi couldn't resist going back into the allegations that Travis was a pedophile. I thought he may tone this down during his closing argument, but if it's even possible to sink any lower than they previously have - HE DID. He repeated the comment Travis Alexander made during the phone sex tape about Jodi sounding like a 12 year old girl having her first orgasm - and then said "let's hope he doesn't know what that really sounds like". Wow. ALL TIME LOW. This jury isn't privy to the litigation that went on for years around the forged letters Jodi reportedly produced while in jail, supposedly from Travis in which he admitted to being attracted to young boys. At one point, the State wanted those letters IN, to show the extent this woman would go to in order to lie about the facts in this case. In the end, it was all thrown out. But the jury has no idea about the backstory to this. And for Nurmi to keep throwing that out there is just beyond repugnant.
In the afternoon session, he fell back on playing the phone sex tape again, as if the jury hasn't heard ENOUGH of that to last a lifetime. This isn't a case about sex. It's a murder trial. I'm so disgusted right now that it's hard to type. Nurmi was more effective this morning, when he was pointing out the many opportunities Arias had to kill Travis after arriving on June 4, 2008. He should've stuck to those areas instead of going back to the sexual deviant theme. Shame on him. Thank God Martinez will get the last word!
MY CRIMETIME BY MY FORTE. A DISCUSSION OF MURDERS IN THE NEWS.
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I was watching Nancy Grace lastnight and there was a picture of Jodi sitting on some rocks at the Grand Canyon and the pants she was wearing in the phote looked like the one in the picture from the crime scene. The yoga pants with a strip down the side.
ReplyDeleteIt's established that it's her in the photo's, no argument has been made that it's not her.
DeleteAnon (5/3 @ 10:50AM & 2:08PM),
DeleteYes, I'm sure those were indeed the pants she wore. Scary. The fact that so many of his friends picked up on her strange vibe so quickly is very telling. I wish Travis had listened to those friends, although it may not have made a difference if she was determined to make him pay. Just sad and senseless.
If you look carefully at that "Chicken Dance" video that was broadcast on TV- you know, the one where Travis is dancing, laughing & having fun, while Arias is running back & forth like an obsessed teenaged fan, snapping pictures of him- you'll notice she's wearing the black flip-flops that were left at the crime scene (State's Evidence marked #50). That is so creepy to me, as I think during her frantic "cleanup" before the roommate returned home, she showered off & ran through the closet, so she wouldn't run through all the blood in the hallway. That's why no blood was found on the way out of the house. As I've commented before, there's no way she left Travis' house looking like CARRIE (Sissy Spacek) at the prom. These Cluster B personality disorders are such adroit pathological liars; weaving truth in their lies to manipulate others. That's where her "I ran away from Travis into the closet & just happened to find a gun" lie came about. Despicable. She premeditated this & went to great lengths to cover it up. Nurmi tried to say, "If she was so smart, then blah, blah, blah..." Well, that simply means she's just not as clever as she thinks she is. Murder 1.
DeleteThanks, My Forte! You have pointed out many things I am sitting here wondering about. The gun for instance, yes it would have been way more suspicious if they immediately thought she had taken it.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes! Her story was she was driving to Utah.....so she needed a car, etc. Good point. Ugh, Nurmi is hard to watch..... although at this point I feel Willmot is even worse.
Sue
Sue,
DeleteYes, it makes sense that she didn't want to ask to borrow a gun that could later be traced back! Nurmi doesn't think the jurors have common sense. He used Arias' mistakes to his favor -he kept saying how intelligent she was. There's no such thing as a perfect murder! I think it was harder than she thought it would be,and it took some time to work up the courage to do it! Don't you? I actually liked Willmott in the beginning, more than Nurmi anyway. But she sunk to lengths I didn't know existed! I believe you can do your job without sinking soooo low.
I had to repost on this thread!
ReplyDeleteThe FBI profiler that they interviewed on HLN put her on the level of Bundy. This was before we knew she has BPD which I am sure you know used to be called Borderline Psychotic. Enough said.
I can't stand listening to Nurmi today... Just because she made mistakes and is not as smart as she thinks she is doesn't mean she isn't a cold-hearted premeditated murderer. And unless your completely dilusional, don't you think even the coldest person takes a little time to build up the courage to actually kill someone? Even with serial killers isn't that the case? Besides that I still think she was there with her last ultimatum and attempt to manipulate him.
Sonja
I agree Sonja, not to mention she had to murder him at a time she knew she'd have enough clean up time. She had to be sure none of the room mates knew she there so, had she shot him in his sleep, she couldn't be sure of that.
DeleteRight his roommate had to leave for work first. I keep thinking about her showering too. She most likely would have showered upstairs and where would have TA been... Maybe in the shower too. She's despicable beyond belief!
DeleteSonja
Yes Sonja! A naked person is so vulnerable, had she chosen to run he was not going to chase her down the street naked. She was fully clothed. One of the room mates was fairly new so she probably wasn't 100% sure of his schedule.
DeleteSonja - I have thought the same thing about mentally preparing yourself to murder someone. That issue was not brought up in anything I've seen or read. I also agree that she was possibly going for the final attempt to win him back & the plan was murder if that didn't work. I have no doubt the pictures were her mementos that are often taken from crime scenes. They were both very big with taking pictures.
Delete- C
Sonjua,
DeleteInteresting about the Bundy comparison. I completely agree that Arias didn't kill him right away in part because she wanted to give him one last chance to get back together - but when the sex failed to do the trick, she had to work up the courage to actually follow through with the plan. She brought the gun, no doubt about it - and may have brought the knife too. But thinking it and doing it are too different things. She had to work up the rage in her head until she could finally do it. I absolutely believe that!
I think that seems pretty clear to most of us and I think the jury is going to fall the same way as the general public.
DeleteThe media wants to make us believe that there are two sides of every story but I think in this case there is pretty much just one.
The people who compare this case to the CA case are wrong. There was no evidence of murder or that the mother was even present when the baby died. What they should have charged her with was criminal disposal of a body and interfering with a police investigation, etc, etc. Those they could have gotten plenty of years on. You don't get Al Capone on racketeering you get him on tax evasion.
I though JM was awesome how he laid out the jury instructions and how they find murder 1.
Sonja
I completely agree. I also think she was lying in wait for the PERFECT time. What BETTER time to slice someone up gthan when they are naked and sitting in a shower stall? All the blood could be easily washed away.
DeleteI agree as well. I think she planned to kill him in the shower to contain the blood and evidence. But when her plan failed she panicked and all she knew was he was supposed to die in shower so in keeping with her original plan she dragged him back to the shower and washed him clean. I just wish Martinez would have brought that detail to the attention of the jury...why couldn't she just have left him bleeding on the carpet?
DeleteI can't believe the huge smile Jodi broke into when Nurmi said he didn't like her, it was like she was trying to say, without words "Oh Nurmi, you are just too funny, you know what great buddies we are!". Her emotions are SO inappropriate, it's just mind blowing.
ReplyDeleteNurmi's voice going into a high pitch is not appealing at all. He's trying so hard to be a slick as JM, not using notes.
As to why Jodi didn't shoot Travis in his sleep, she needed time to try and seduce him out of going to Cancun with Mimi Hall. She knew Mimi only wanted to be friend with Travis but Travis saw her as future marriage material. Jodi was terrified this trip was going to win Mimi over for Travis and, once he was married, that would be it...he'd have his nice Mormon wife, he'd have a sex life with her and no longer need her. The thought of this terrified her so, after she wasn't able to talk him out of it, she killed him.
Nurmi's saying "none of this makes sense as to premeditation"...sorry Nurmi, it makes tons of sense.
Pathetic argument at best but they don't have anything in their favor to argue. Nurmi is just too boring to even make it seem like he's got something with his style of delivery. To say that she had plenty of chances to kill Travis and didn't take them ... well, she sure took one of those chances. The one where he was the most vulnerable, sitting in the shower. Pathetic. Guilty in the 1st degree and death ... and it shouldn't take long.
DeleteYep anon, and also she made sure the coast was clear as far as his 2 room mates. She loves to talk about how intelligent she is but she's dealing with people (Flores, Martinez) MUCH more intelligent than she is.
DeleteAnon (5/3 @ 11:01AM),
DeleteI believe that during one of the initial interviews w/Det Flores, Arias revealed that she believed Travis was very interested in Mimi Hall - describing her as "the woman he wanted to share his life with", but she was not aware that Mimi only wanted to be friends! She didn't seem aware of that, only aware of how Travis felt about the potential with Mimi. I could be wrong? Just my 2 cents....
My Forte, that is what I remember, too.
DeleteI'm sorry but people KNOW when you're in a bad relationship. I was slapped once by my ex H and he threw something at me once but, other than that, he never got physical in the 16 years we were together. He was very jealous and emotionally abusive and people KNEW! His jealousy became so bad and obsessive HIS friends would call me and check and me to see if I was okay. When I left him nobody was surprised or shocked. People know these things! Even my husband's friends knew the issues he had!!!
ReplyDeleteHere we go, Nurmi's on with the sex talk.
Kurt Nurmi Theme song:
ReplyDeleteA Rambling Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htTLWC1unMc
Does anyone know the jury reaction to this bs from Nurmi?
ReplyDeleteRemember when Jodi stopped and bought the
ReplyDeletegas can she also both 2 tubes of sunblock,
Plan A seduce him & trip to Cancun Plan B
kill him!!!
Yep, I think so, too.
DeleteSue
I didn't know that about the sunblock. I think that's a big point.
Delete- C
My Forte, so so true! I completely agree with you. Bringing in all that sex stuff again makes Nurmi look like the sexual deviant, IMO. Unbelievable. The jury will not be distracted from he truth, Nurmi! So absolutely creepy and disgusting.
ReplyDeleteSue
A very sweet comment from Travis to Jodi, on her my space page, before she brutally murdered him.
ReplyDeleteTravis
Wow I used to be fat. You look great though.
5 years ago
RIP Sweet Travis
I think it was more of an obsession with Travis.
ReplyDeleteShe liked all of his friends, the life he had,
everything she didn't have. I think she smothered
him. I remember one of his friends saying that
he went to their house for a couple of hours just
to get away from Jodi, so Travis left with them in
their car and Jodi was running after them. And one of Jodi's ex roommates from Ca. saying she couldn't take Jodi weirdness and only stayed 3 weeks and moved out.
Anon (5/3 @ 9:44PM),
DeleteThat was so creepy to hear, I can just imagine her chasing that car down the street. She was jealous of his friends, especially the female friends he had. Flirting was in his nature and she couldn't stand it!
I think Nurmi playing the sex tape was a huge mistake. I think the jury is sick of it and it could only irritate them. Wouldn't it be nice if one of them could have looked him right in the eye and said, "Seriously?!"
ReplyDeleteAlso, JA brought the sexual dynamic to the relationship and I think the 12-year old thing was something she said she liked and waited and taped it. Vile.
Sonja
Sonja, If you notice in the sex tape, she had him
ReplyDeleterepeat himself a couple of times, so she could
make sure it was taped. Her brother said on his FB page that his sister taped the sex tape for future girlfriends, that was posted in 2008, but
has been since removed. I think she was going to
black-mail him with the Bishop and his friends.
And I don't think he realized she was taping it.
And the funny thing about the phone that was
supposed to be lost in 2008, was found in
Grandfather's car, by Aunt in 2010. They did a
search of Grandparents & parents home for
evidence, I think she hid the phone the same
time she destroyed the hard drive on her PC.
Anon - Agreed!
DeleteAdditionally most pedophiles don't cross genders and all we heard was the 12-yr old girl comment. Nothing about boys except her words.
Pedophiles would leave some kind of trail, searches, photos, witnesses, past girlfriends, family, etc. Just like Dr. Demarte was saying... You don't get to be a 30-yr old man with some kind of fetish that has never been noticed by anyone or any evidence anywhere!
Sonja