The Dirty Lil Secret Who Couldn't Let Go ~ Travis Alexander's Murder Part 3

 

It has now been reported to the authorities that Travis Alexander was dead. Now the investigation begins. But before I can start with the investigation, there are some small details I need to reveal...

On May 28, 2008, the home in which Jodi resided in, was still at her grandparents, had apparently be robbed, and one of the key items missing was a gun. A gun that was never recovered, but it became blatantly obvious that Jodi staged the robbery and used that very gun to kill Travis.

There were also several phone calls made to her ex-boyfriend, Darryl Brewer where she asked him for two 5-gallon gas cans, which he lent to her; but she never returned. She mistakenly kept a receipt from the local Walmart in Salinas, California where she purchased another 5-gallon can plus a few other personal items. This all happened on June 3, 2008; when she was technically supposed to be in Arizona, not California.

Jodi returned the rental car on June 7, but all the floor mats were missing and the company had the interior of the car detailed when they found some, what they believed to be, kool-aid stains in the car. Unfortunately for the police, this meant all DNA that was left in the car was destroyed or would be inadmissable in court.

In the meantime, Police had been investigating the violent death of Travis Alexander. They came upon a spent bullet casing that matched the gun missing from Arias' home. They found a bloody handprint that had both Jodi and Travis' DNA in it. Upon further examination, they found Travis' brand new camera inside the washing machine. Water damaged most of the photos, while others were deleted; but they were able to snag pictures of the last few hours of Travis' life; and Jodi was very much a part of them.

At this point, Jodi Arias is insistent that she hadn't seen Travis since April 2008; even AFTER she was shown evidence that contradicted what she was saying.

Jodi was indicted on July 9, 2008, when the police were able to provide enough evidence to indict and arrest her for Travis' murder. She was arrested on July 15, at her grandparents home in California. She was extradited to on September 5th and went before the judge on September 11, 2008; where she plead not guilty.

Again, she couldn't keep her stories straight. She first said she wasn't anywhere near his home. She then said she was there, but there was a burglary and they killed Travis and assaulted her. Her final statement was that she DID kill Travis, but it was in self defense as he had abused her; claiming that she NOT him was the victim of domestic violence.

Pretrial was just as messy as the crime scene itself. There were repeated appeals and motions placed before the judge; mostly to extend the pretrial past the allotted time of March 3, 2010. Originally it was denied, but later it was agreed to put the date to August 31, 2010. In December 2010, after a rule of the Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure was amended changing the "last day" in capital cases from 18 to 24 months from arraignment. It was made very clear that the State of Arizona was seeking the death penalty.

In January 2011, the prosecution were in a bit of a mess when they told Jodi Arias' defense team that even though they wanted all the text messages, that there was nothing of sustenance in them, but the judge ordered the prosecution to hand over the 8000+ messages.

Jury selection began on December 10, 2012. Again, this was not an easy process as they defense legal team was claiming that the prosecution was being biased by not including women nor African Americans on the jury; which the prosecutor denied. The judge ruled in the prosecution's favour on this particular instance and found there was no bias in the jury selection.

We are now going to reveal information about the trial, convictions, sentencing and aftermath.

To be continued...