It’s time for day two of the prosecution’s cross-examination of Jodi Arias! It should be a great day for those of us who are trial junkies. Last Thursday, Juan Martinez began his cross-examination and many trial commentators felt that he was going a bit hard at Arias. The concern there is that it may cause one or more jurors to feel sorry for her. From what I have heard about Martinez, he’s barely getting warmed up. From the defense standpoint, their ploy seems to be to interrupt the flow of testimony with as many side bars as possible. Jodi did not crack as expected on Thursday. She maintained her composure and was annoyingly smug and at times even confrontational toward Martinez. I can’t wait to see what today brings! Do you think Martinez is making a mistake by being aggressive with Arias on the stand?
Thanks to everyone who recapped on Thursday, especially P. A gentle reminder to recappers to wait to post until you have several sentences or several minutes of trial to report. A few descriptive posts an hour is plenty so that everyone’s comments can be read. And be sure to read others comments while recapping in case they have questions! I can’t wait to see everyone’s comments!
I’m listening to In Session and Beth is saying that one of the jurors was smiling at Jodi during most of the cross but stopped later into it. Lord I hope these people are not buying this. I might have been swayed by some of the testimony to be lenient UP UNTIL he smug behavior all through cross.
Thanks for covering this, TT! I think Juan Martinez was perfect. Zigzagging a bit will totally confound her. Nurmi took it pretty chronologically, which is how she has been prepped. Zigzagging should knock her out of her prepared lies/responses.
I also think Martinez knows that she is being smug and totally acting superior. He WILL knock that right out of her, maybe even today.
i don’t think Martinez made a mistake by being a bit aggressive with her– like you said, she came off as smug and confrontational at times, which shows (i think) the jury that she’s no shrinking violet. i think his having been aggressive brought that out of her.
I like his aggressiveness. He being tough and asking questions just like I would want to ask her questions. I like how he cuts her off and doesn’t let her ramble on. And if her lawyer knows anything he hopefully lectured her on her smugness and told her to knock it off. Because its definitely not doing her any favors with the viewers so I can’t imagine the jury likes her attitude any more either
Before the trial began the were discussing a male friend of Travis’ who was on HLN with Jane the other night with pictures of them at a shooting range. The guy is going to be called to testify that Travis always had to borrow a gun at the range because he did not open weapons,
Martinez is beginning with the lying angle showing video of her lies to the police.
Prior to this he tried to go somewhere and there was a sidebar and after that the jury was instructed to disregard a picture they saw on the overhead. I missed what the picture was did anyone catch that?
Ha ha! “God’s not here. We can’t subpoena God!” OMG, dying laughing. Love this prosecutor!
The movie “The Green Mile” keeps going through my head!
BARBEQUE, BARBEQUE! Stinky, stinky, P..U!! LOL
Jodi is being very smug and pretending she does not understand questions. She is making Martinez painstakingly drag things out of her. She answers “I think so” or “I think I did” a lot. Martinez is pointing out that she is very good at remembering minor details from years ago but now claims she doesn’t remember anything that makes her look guilty.
WHOA! I think he got her to her on that question about how badly it must have hurt Travis when she drove that knife into his chest. She’s gonna break soon if he keeps it up!
Martinez pointed out to Jodi how much it must have hurt Travis when she stabbed him. Defense objected and called a sidebar. During the sidebar Jodi started to cry. Testimony briefly resumed and Defense makes another objection resulting in a sidebar again.
Martinez is so good. He was asking her about her failed suicide and how she knicked herself and it stung, so she decided that she wasnt going to kill herself that way. Then he says, could you imagine how much it must have hurt Mr. Alexander when you stuck a knife right in his chest? Then she starts to cry.
I have to comment on the fact that Martinez asks her a question. She tries to take him down another path. He doesn’t miss a beat. He comes back at her with the attitude you wanna explore that avenue, I can find holes in your story there as well! He is not losing his footing one bit. Damn he is good!
NOW she’s ambidextrous, depending on the activity!!!!
liar, liar pants on fire.
Judge Judy says, “When you tell the truth you don’t need a good memory.”
For as long as this trial has been going on the lawyers have had a hard time hearing the witnesses. Why don’t they move the damn mike? Or turn up the volume? We can hear fine, but they can’t? Also some people in the gallery have to wear headsets to hear, Like Beth from In session who sits in the back row with headsets on.
Now she is trying to say she is not left-handed, that she is ambidexterous. She really does not want to give a straight answer. He is talking about her visit to the other guy the next day. This testimony makes me anxious…it’s very slow moving. It takes three questions to get an answer other than “I dunno” or “I think maybe” Martinez is trying to get her to say she knew he was dead when she went to make out with the other guy.
how long is the cross-examination supposed to last? The same as the direct examination?
I just watched 48 Hours “Picture Perfect” about this case, and I can’t get over how different she looks in the courtroom as opposed to her appearance in day to day life. Does she think this school marm look is going to score her points with the jury? Here’s a link for anyone that may want to watch that interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1ca_t551lQ
Thanks for posting this link. I remember seeing the 48 Hours segment when it aired and have looked for it several times.
Her appearance in court is definitely different than in the interview.
Too bad this prosecutor didn’t have a go at Casey Anthony’s trial!
Martinez must want to shake her really hard to get a straight answer. She’s aggravating me. Just answer the stupid question no one is buying your sudden lack of memory. She’s jut making herself look even more stupid
It can last as long as the prosecution has questions. Can be shorter or much, much longer.
Jodi is barely able to eek out a yes or no as she is weeping on the stand. The lunch break is taken as Marinez is grilling her about emailing and sending flowers to Travis’ grandmother expressing her condolences. Good lord this chick is sociopathic.
I think he is doing a fantastic job with the cross examination. I am with you Tamara, she really is a sociopath!! I really am anxious to know what the jury is thinking…they have to see what we are seeing.
I am mostly listening while cleaning today and dashing back in to moderate comments frequently. I understand that Martinez has two sisters on the front row behind him. One is a cop. one is in a black blouse and the other is in a beige stripped shirt. I will be keeping my eyes peeled when watching because I havent seen them yet.
Wish I could post a picture, there was a great view of them at 4:28 of the last half hour. The one in beige stripes is sitting with a man in a suit and bright blue tie. The one in black I have spotted a few times, very pretty with high cheek bones and very angry face. She’s with the bald guy in white tie that is consoling her sweetly this whole time and she appears to be the police officer if I had to guess. This must be one of the worse things in life to experience watching this sociopath and listening/seeing all the details. She didn’t give Alexander a second thought after the first 28 violent movements she can’t remember. How can you go make out with some other guy after? I can’t wait until Martinez gets to the evening of, he is saving for last…
why is she weeping on stand today? i’m at work, can’t watch trial, so can only read the posts – which are great! keep it up everybody! But again, why the weeping today? After last week where she was smart alecky, confrontational, smug….
Jodi said something about killing herself and she started but it was too painful so she stopped. Then Martinez said, well WHAT ABOUT WHEN YOU STABBED HIM IN THE CHEST WITH A KNIFE? I BET THAT HAD TO HURT ALOT, RIGHT? The defense objected and got a sidebar and while that was happening she started to cry. Not hysterically just weepy.
She is still confrontational, smug and smart assy today at times.
My guess for the change in her demeanor is that she was heavily coached over the weekend. Her “victim” persona was replaced on Thursday with the real Jodi. She is trying to be the shrinking violet once again. JM is doing a good job! I have been glued to the trial!
Martinez is BRILLIANT today ! Defense attorny’s objections overwhelmingly over ruled ! Martinez is cornering Jodi like the vermin she is. I do not find him aggressive. Perhaps it’s a cultural thing. Todays cross is thoroughly satisfying. And his passion when he talked about the pain Travis must have felt when she stabbed him brought tears to my eyes. Bravo Mr. Prosecutor. Bravo !
I have been obsessed with this trial since day one. One of the body language experts said on one of HLN’s shows that when Jodi has to answer a question she doesn’t want to answer, she sticks out her tongue. She does. Her lips must be chapped today. I do believe she is a socio-path. When she smiles after her answers they call that ‘duping delight’ meaning she is lying and thinks she is getting away with it. Love Martinez.
I was watching some show, I don’t think it was about this, and there was an expert on there saying when lying people don’t use contractions and distance themselves from the person they are lying about by not using their name.
She said about the guy she went to make out with after killing Travis, ” I did not grind with that person.” So even that was a lie.
I misunderstood the person on twitter talking about the two sisters sitting behind the prosecution. I thought she said they were the PROSECUTOR’s sisters who I didn’t know were there. It was Travis’ sisters who have been there every day.
The sister with the lighter hair and the longer face is the cop. She looks pissed the entire trial. The other sister has more expressions and rolls her eyes and has a look that says, “You are so full of shit!” a lot.
Yes, and the male with blue tie is his brother.
This sidebar has been going on for almost 30 minutes. Why the hell can’t they get this worked out befor the testimony is set to resume? We only have the CHANCE at four hours of testimony a day anyway. This is so annoying.
why can’t the judge make a decision on the issue/testimony in less than 1/2 half? What’s everyone’s opinion of this judge by the way? I’ve only observed her couple of times making a ruling/decision out loud but she seems nervous to me…..
Unlike the judge in Casey Anthony trial….but then, look how that ended up!!!
Wonder what the whispering is all about?!?
This judge ain’t not Judge Perry. I loved him. I have no idea what that whispering was about there were a whole lot of papers flying back and forth between judges and attys during sidebar before the whispering.
Apparently the whispering was, “please be sure to take 20 forevers to read everything he gives you. The longer you pretend to read the less time he has to ask you questions!.” good Lord.
Exactly what I was thinking. She sure takes her sweet time when she has to read something.
What the hell are all of you people doing here on this blog?? I hope you aren’t using your work computers to watch this trial because I’m making a list and checking things out.
I work at home! 🙂 TV in office. This is riveting stuff!
I am suddenly overwhelmed with a desire to nap, but I don’t want to miss anything. I think Martinez is making his point with the journal entry on the day she alleges that Travis slapped her. Her journal entry is very lovey dovey.
Oh now he is going back to pictures of her injured left hand. Showing it uninjured before the murders and injured afterward.
My sweet Lord. This girl is as full of chit as a Christmas goose.
Too funny! What is driving me crazy, is that she can never directly answer a question.
Prosecutor: Are we having trouble communicating? Is there evidence that he hit the door frame?
Arias: Yes
Prosecutor: Yes he told someone?
Arias: Yes we are having trouble communicating.
DEFENSE ATTORNEY LAUGHS AT HER SNARKY COMMENT!
wow.
Thank you so much for all these awesome updates on the trial! I am consumed with work today and haven’t been able to listen to the live feed. Every time I come back to my desk I pull up the comments here so I can see what is happening. YAY!
I walk the dog every day during the afternoon break and today there was a chatty neighbor in my path. I kept trying to explain I had to get back to watch a trial but she was just chatting away, lol.
Martinez is pointing out that when Jodi testified that on June 4th she flashed back to the previous August when they had a fight and that is when she felt her life was threatened. Martinez walked her through the August event in which she essentially after much hemming and hawing admits that at the end of that argument he had not injured her and that he hugged her and apologized. His point is that based on that, she had no reason to feel her life was threatened.
There is a problem with some sort of technology and they are taking YET ANOTHER BREAK to fix it. Good Lord this is the slowest cast in the history of law.
I’ve got to give praise to Travis’ family in the gallery for not leaping up and slapping the soup outta that lying bitch. Maybe with 4 1/2 years to wait for this, they’ve developed the collective self control to stay still. Can anyone tell me why this trial has taken so long to begin?
Did I miss something… Looks like the lead defense atty is p,o’d at his co-counsel for objecting. She objected and the lead defense atty said:none now if I heard correctly… Did Jodi open the door to evidence that can be admitted without objection?
Jodi’s defense attorney has taken on a snarky attitude today. Not just laughing at Jodi’s backtalk, but when asked if he had an objection to the admitting at evidence responded with “well not NOW…” I generally like this defense guy but he seems really pissy today. Things not going well?
And MaRiley the length getting to trial isn’t that unusual for a death penalty case. Plus at first Jodi wanted to represent herself, then one of her public defenders asked to be excused from the case and then the general setbacks and extensions followed.
Martinez is showing six mugshots on a page. The other five arrestees have neutral or upset expressions on their faces. Jodi’s mugshot shows her psycho smile. The prosecutor says she had a reason for the smile. She agrees. He plays her discussing on 48 hours why she is smiling because the Internet world was upset about her smile. On 48 hours she says there are many reasons for that, first of all she was thinking of Travis and knew that he would smile, plus she knew it was going to be all over the internet, and finally she knew she was innocent so she might as well just smile.
Cray. Cray.
Tamara, thanks for your answer. She’s gotten to be “above ground” longer than she deserves.
She’s a psychopath…that flouncy smiley stuff about the mugshot.
her answer and demeanor are completely sociopathic.
she really is not as clever as she tries to appear. once again she shows how unpolished she is by calling her prospective boyfriend a “piece of crap”…not a good comment on the stand
She is so pageanty on the 48 hours interviews. Martinez just played another clip. After each clip he tries to show that she doesn’t take responsibility for her decisions, she moved to Mesa because Travis wanted her too…etc. But in reality, you were broken up and there would be no reason for Travis to convince her to move there. Defense is objecting a lot with things like “Asked and answered at least three times.”
Jodi looks tired but she is not breaking and is still very evasive with answers and asking what words like ‘fault” means in the context of “Was it Travis’s fault you moved?
Now he is trying to show that she is the aggressor in the relationship at least at times. It is not that everyone is manipulating her to do things.
The judge calls for the evening recess. I hate how she just arbitrarily does this rather than waiting for a logical end point.
I’m not as enthralled with the prosecutor as you guys. He seems to be focused on proving that it wasn’t self-defense instead of proving that it was premeditated murder. I think that the relationship perhaps had some abusive elements to it, perhaps mental abuse or even a lot of sexual pressure. I’m not convinced that it rose to the level that she is portraying it, but it’s this dynamic that makes the circumstances for premeditated murder seem more plausible. The more they try to push that her version of the events in the relationship is not true and the reality is the relationship was normal the less Premeditated murder seems likely. I don’t think it’s victim blaming to concede that a young man acted like a jerk towards a female. Everyone’s been the jerk in the relationship at one time or another. No one deserves to die because of it!!! At this point I’m unclear as to how the prosecution is framing premeditated murder.
Give him time…it’s coming :o)
Good point, VP. I think they really need to drive home the premeditation issues (the gun, the gas cans, the hiding the trip, the not using your cell phone while in Mesa on en route, etc.)
I was irritated today while watching. It’s hard to stay focused when he has to ask her the same damn question 50 times. She keeps trying to figure out where he is going with his questioning and she won’t answer in hopes to out smart him. So it ends up all going in circles. All the side bars and interruptions are annoying. I think Martinez is doing a good job of tripping her up on her lies and dates. But i think we( including the jury) realized that she is a bold face liar. Its time for him to move on and get to the premeditation. Hopefully tomorrow is better to watch.
Couldn’t they prove whether or not Jodi broke her finger just by taking an X-Ray?
they could…a past break would show on an xray
she evades, equivocates, invents and embellishes…and then conveniently forgets.. the jury must surely see thru her by now. she’s gotta be pissing them off.
Juan Martinez is doing a perfect job, never losing stride, matching her stupid asides. Her ass-saving BS extras, “I think,” I believe,” I was…” are always met by Martinez saying, exactly, “I didn’t ask if you ‘thought/believed/etc.,” forcing her to be precise. She keeps being mercurial, amorphous, ambivalent, and he ain’t playing that game. The jury, by now, should see that she has been extremely manipulative and can’t rise to the truth occasion.
I’m so very tired of attorneys going on HLN shows criticizing Juan Martinez, he is doing a great job with Jodi. It not easy dealing with a pathological liar. Also I definitely believe Jodi attacked Travis for the most part while he was on all fours crawling– because i noticed with all of her television interviews she keep mentioning him being on all fours. Liars like her interweave some truth with lots of lies.