Arias's Words Continue to Haunt Her

The prosecutor pulled out more of the sexually charged text messages between murder defendant Jodi Arias and victim Travis Alexander, showing a much different portrayal of her role in their sexual exploits. During her direct examination, she testified about feeling like a prostitute during these encounters.

I've never heard such graphic testimony in a courtroom, it has to be making even veteran attorneys blush. Very telling. If you recall, Arias described earlier events in which she fell asleep fully clothed with Travis Alexander, and was awakened to Travis initiated sexual contact with her. Her attorney stopped short of calling it rape, but the implication was clear.  Martinez produced a text message conversation between the pair from 2/25/08 that said:

JA: "if your a lucky boy & you promise to give me a well deserved spanking then maybe you can give my ass a good pounding".

After Alexander sent Arias a photo of his private parts, Arias sent him a text that said: 

JA: O my Gosh, this is so hot. I want to lick it up and then sit on it...it's so tasty".
TA: I'm glad you like it.
JA:  I want to fu*k you like a dirty horny little school girl"

Wow, this is explosive stuff. Didn't Arias's attorneys anticipate these messages would come out? What this shows is that only one side of these events was being told, and in a very different way than Arias and Alexander's own written words tell.

Earlier this morning was more of the same, with Martinez playing clips from Arias's 48 Hours interview in which she describes that trip they took to Ehrenberg that she described as "unromantic" during direct. In the 48 Hours interview, she described how generous Alexander was to total strangers. She said they were driving and saw what appeared to be a homeless woman, and Travis rolled down the window and asked if she was hungry. The woman said she was, so he turned the car around and went to a Wendy's and bought her a triple decker burger and brought it back to this woman he didn't know.

They have discussed and listened to parts of the now infamous "phone sex" tape, and Martinez challenges her that Travis Alexander never knew the call was being recorded. She insisted that he knew, even though it was never mentioned during that call. Martinez is trying to point out that much of Travis Alexander's sexual experience came during his time with Jodi Arias. She denies this. Martinez played parts of the tape, in which Travis tells Jodi "before I met you, I never ja_ked off, since you left I do 2-3 times a day". Arias discounted that claim, telling the jury she believed that wasn't accurate. Martinez played it back again, his words were clear "before I met you, I never ja_ked off"....

The 48 Hours Mystery interview was again played, where Arias first introduces the two armed intruders killed Travis story. She is very detailed, she claims her life was threatened and she was warned that if she told anybody her family would be killed, and she would be killed. The story is ludicrous.  Martinez brings up the point that nowhere during that interview does Arias seem to have any type of memory loss or memory issues. He points out that she gave a slightly different version of that story where she is again talking to 48 Hours Mystery, and she said she and Travis were looking at photos they had taken and she was suddenly hit over the head with something. She claimed to have been unconcious and Travis being down on "all fours" with a woman standing over him. She claims she charged this woman and tackled her, then grabbed Travis and tried to pull him to safety. In detail, she describes getting him halfway down the hall before the female intruder came back after them. She gave a very very detailed description of what she claimed happened, but in this version she rushed the woman and tried to help Travis Alexander.  Oh brother.

Even if you are against the death penalty, after looking at the crime scene photos of Travis Alexander and the injuries she inflicted on him, you'd have to question whether the death penalty is enough punishment for this crime. I keep picturing Jodi Arias, laughing with Ryan Burns and kissing him - with injuries so minor they only required band-aids, and comparing them to the photos I viewed again this morning taken of Travis Alexander's wounds. The damage to his body was something I can't even describe. There is a slideshow on Huffington Post which has 161 crime scene photos, including close ups of the neck wound, head wounds and the way the body looked when it was found. It was much worse than I imagined. He had a large, deep cut to the back of his neck or the very top of his shoulders. He had deep cuts all over his fingers, hands and his palms - clearly, these were defensive wounds.

I understand the death penalty doesn't bring a person back and some studies suggest it doesn't deter crime. But there are some crimes so heinous that the they scream out for the ultimate punishment. This is one of those crimes.

Juan Martinez seems to be getting to the events around the fatal roadtrip now.  I'll update this page later!