The day begins with a sidebar at the bench. Because, Arizona. Up first is Esteban Flores. Nurmi is finally getting to cross-examine him because for some reason Horn had to be on the stand yesterday. If this is your first trip to the rodeo, Flores was the lead investigator in the murder of Travis Alexander. There have been seats available in the courtroom everyday. The overflow viewing room has not been needed. Who wants to go be the TamaraTattles.com intern for this case? Anyone?
Nurmi immediately goes in on Flores asking him if he lied in any previous court proceedings. At issue once again is the sequence of the wounds inflicted on Alexander. Flores has been accused of changing his story and pressuring Horn to change his. Horn denies having a conversation of that nature with Flores, and continued to do so yesterday. Nurmi whips out the transcripts of previous testimony by Flores where he said the gunshot happened first. Ooopsy. Flores testified that the neck slicing came last. He claims that it was Horn that told him it was the final wound. This is not what Horn said yesterday. Martinez objections and calls a sidebar. Sounds like Nurmi is doing a good job trying to impeach the testimony of Flores. 
Nurmi moves on. He puts up all the photos of Travis in the shower moments before he was murdered by Arias. For some reason he wants to stresss that Travis eyes were closed. All tweeters have various versions of him noting that his eyes were closed. “It doesn’t appear JodiArias took any of these opportunities w/Travis’ eyes closed to injure him, does it?” And that is basically it for Flores. The interesting thing is that the whole Travis lunging at Jodi like a line backer forcing her to kill him story is out the window. Now Nurmi says that Jodi shot him while he was sitting in the shower? How does this help anything? Doesn’t that make him look worse. Ten minute smoke break. Hope they designated an area for the jurors today. So no more jurors get the boot. Martinez wanted to redirect before the break. Denied. Travis’s sisters are both sobbing as they leave the courtroom.
When court reconvenes no one mentions Martinez’s re direct at all.
We move on to Amanda Webb a Wal*Mart investigator. She’s there to talk about gas cans. Jodi says she returned the gas cans the same day she bought them. According to Amanda that is bullshit. That was all Martinez asked. Nurmi says the Wal*Mart has moved locations and the file of receipts might not even be from the right store. Nurmi SLAMS the folder of receipt info on the podium and walks off. One of Travis’s sisters leaves court again crying. Juan comes up to the podium and slams the folder TWICE. Sounds like we are missing the circus. Juan goes through every single solitary register one by one, pointing out no gas can had been returned. I have flashbacks to when he did this in the first trial. Then a clusterfuck of objections. Nurmi is heated. Martinez is happy Nurmi is heated. The jury asks one irrelevant question. Wal*Mart lady is excused.
Next up, Kevin Freedman cop with Yreka Police Department. Can I just say these jurors must be confused as hell because I am. And I’ve already watched this shit show once. Freedman was called to investigate a burglary at Jodi’s grandparents house. A .25 handgun was stolen. Not the other guns. Not money laying around. just the same type gun used to shoot Travis. Jodi was called to scene and her $30 was missing but thank god she hid her laptop in a laundry basket before she left the house just in case it was robbed. Nurmi has no room to cross. Barely tries. Martinez on re-direct, who told you what was missing? Answer: Jodi. Jury asked if fingerprints were taken. Nothing usable.
LUNCH TIME!
Thanks for recapping this so thoroughly. Second best thing to watching it on tv.
can they just change the story now? i.e., Travis didn’t rush her like a linebacker, he was sitting in the shower when she shot him? Does that mean she didn’t get chased through the apartment? Wait, didn’t she say last time that she got chased into the closet by a murderous Travis and that is where she found the gun? Is Nurmi in a fog?
In this trial there is no murderous chase through the closet. She just popped one off in the shower. Totally new story and the only one this group has.
On Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 4:30 PM, Tamara Tattles wrote:
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But, WHY? She is a convict. I thought that was the 1 thing we all knew on Monday when this “penalty phase” began. They are retelling the death story and both have changed their version of how TA was killed. I thought Az. had a messed up system, but this seems bizarre by any standard.
Is nothing from the actual trial allowable as evidence? Even crime scene photos? Will they not know about her defense claims and theories?
They can use or not use anything they want. They are not interested in proving guilt at this time, that is a given. They are trying to prove cruelty and torture and death in a very grisly manner that warrants death.
On Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 6:36 PM, Tamara Tattles wrote:
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i have to agree with nurmi that jodi shot Travis while he sat in the shower. the bullet case on top of dried blood that JM says shot came last cant be right. not enough time passed for blood to be dry. the pictures tell the timeframe. one of Travis’ friends kicked it and didnt know they did due to shock from the horrific scene they found. my opinion.
I’ve always thought the same thing and just had that convo with my mom again this morning. I also believe that Travis didn’t even know that Jodi was back in the house. I think they said their goodbyes and she left. He thought she was actually gone and got in the shower. I don’t think this is some photo shoot that they were claiming. I think it’s just a guy taking a shower not knowing that she had snuck back in the house and was standing there snapping pictures. As they often ate, his eyes are closed during most of shower, and sound of water mashes it hard to hear her or the camera. I think the one where he’s looking at her and they say it’s a “sexy” expression is really a look of confusion at opening his eyes and seeing her standing there with a camera and a gun. I believe she had him get down on his knees and shot him, but it didn’t kill him like she thought it would. I think he was hurt and stumbled out of shower and held onto sink, while simultaneously Jodi ran for the knife and that’s when she started stabbing him in his back. That’s how I have always imagined it to have gone down.
Or something very close that.
Your senerio sounds so logical But I thought they said the first stab wound was in his chest & she continued to stab him irratically. If anyone has an answer to this question I would appreciate your input. This was a very bloody scene, she had to be covered from head to toe in blood, how or where did she clean the blood off her HAIR & BODY before she left that house?? The answer to this question has been haunting me for months since the first trial. Anyone have an answer?
No one except for Jodi knows the answer to that. That’s why I said “or something very close to that”. All I know is that he fought really hard for his life, and I truly believe that he had no idea that she was in the house and was completely ambushed by her.
Does this jury have the option to give her life with parole? I hope not, because I think they are going to be so confused with all of the info from the last trial coming in, and everyone now changing their stories as to how our why it all happened is just too much for them to figure out. I don’t think anyone (prosecution or defense) should be allowed to change their stories AT ALL from the original ones that found her guilty of those charges in the first place. It doesn’t make any sense at all that the courts would allow this. It’s very upsetting!
If the fatal gunshot sound came first, how did the enormous blood trail happen??
the gunshot wasnt immediately fatal. it traveled through his sinus cavity. the ME cant determine if it hit any brain matter due to decomp. JM has him already dead when she shot him. timewise makes more sense shot first but jodi thought he was dead, started going through pictures when Travis gets up from the shower and goes to the sink to see why blind in one eye a major headache breathing blood and she dropped the camera grabbed her knife and finished him. mad because heruined her clean getaway
If I still loved in Mesa, AZ I would gladly sit in the courtroom and be your intern! Sadly however I moved to the cold winter state of Wisconsin (currently it’s raining and 36 degrees)
Gotta start watching this.
I work right down the street from the courthouse. I drove down that way and it didn’t look anything like it did for the first trial. The first trial was a total zoo with craziness, TV trucks and so many people around. I didn’t even see any cameras, let alone the TV trucks that were permanently there during the 1st one. Now that you said there’s open seating, I might have to try to make it in there one day. Also I am a court reporter and used to work in the courts there a few times but a few years back. Wonder if my Court ID would still get me past security without standing in line.. not that I saw any lines this time. I’ll be sure to report if I do get to get in there one of these days.
*message not posted per request*
Hilary. There are no lines, and there is a viewing room with a TV screen for spillover if the court fills up. So far everyone has gotten a seat in the courtroom who wants one according to folks tweeting from the courthouse.
You know what would make Jodi semi respectful to me? That she opens her gobbler of a mouth and cleans herself enough to say wtf went on. But since she is crazy, moreover, SCUM…her shut mouth has cost people time, money and thank goodness a whole lot of teeth for her.
I’ve always thought that the gunshot came first as well. In a sick way because I tried to put myself in Arias’ shoes and think how I would approach a ‘murder’. I think she had him in a vulnerable position in the shower (contained), and shot him – thinking he would be dead and she could faux ‘burgle’ the house to make it look like an intruder came in and killed Travis during a robbery and Travis didn’t hear the intruder because he was in the shower. Theoretically, that would be a nice easy murder.
Instead, Jodi had terrible aim, and the bullet lodged in his sinus and then the gun jammed because it’s an old crappy gun. Travis did a WTF and ran to the mirror to assess the damage (coughing, bleeding all over the sink). That sink shows someone was lingering there in front of the mirror for a while – I don’t believe a guy being stabbed would just hang out there for no reason in the midst of a stabbing attack.
I think Jodi realized at this point, it was a ‘me or him’ kind of thing. If she doesn’t finish him off, she goes to jail, so she ran in frantic panic mode and grabbed the knife and came back into the bathroom in full stab-lunatic mode. I think Travis probably was in shock and thought she’d run away so he wasn’t expecting the secondary assault. The knife wounds, especially on the back are very ‘crazed’ – as he continued trying to fend her off and crawl away from her, she finally went for the neck wound at the end of the hall in murderous desperation.
To me, this makes the most sense. I don’t think she would shoot him while he’s dead – as “movie-evil” as that sounds, I think it would be dumb to further incriminate yourself for no particular reason, having just stolen a gun. As well, with all her careful plotting and planning – I don’t think a messy knife attack would be her first choice – too much of a risk for DNA mishaps and things to go wrong, plus she’s still meeting another guy afterward to use as her alibi – she can’t be cut up or bloody. It’s still first degree murder – but yeah, I don’t think the gun shot was last.