Court began a bit this morning and after the requisite sidebar the jury was called in and the mitigation witness Dr. Forseca returned to the stand. She continues to go over emails between Travis Alexander and Chris and Skye Hughes. In the emails, Travis expresses remorse for wasting seven years of Deanna’s life because he was unable to commit. He says he still loves her. Travis refers to himself as “a bit of a sociopath in the email. Dr. Forseca is reading the entire lengthy email while it is up on the screen. They judge asks both sides to approach the bench despite the lack of objection. Speculation is she is going to tell the defense that she has to give her opinion of the email rather than simply reading evidence into the record. But no one knows for sure.
Travis speaks highly of Jodi in the emails saying, “Whoever scores Jodi will win the wife lottery. She looks good on paper and let’s face it in person. I have to separate myself from Deanna to give more to Jodi, but I haven’t been able to do that.” Travis talks about encouraging Jodi to move on but doesn’t think others are well suited for her. Travis says he has been 100% honest with Jodi about “the Deanna thing.” Travis says that he doesn’t deserve to have his cake and eat it too. He says sometimes he is a dickhead. Dr. Forseca tells Nurmi that he knew he was a sociopath. Dr. Forseca is based on Travis’ own admissions. She does not take Jodi’s account as valid since she has lied and changed her story frequently.
Dr. Forseca moves on to testify about “intimacy deficits” in both Jodi and Travis due to their abusive childhoods. Have we established Jodi had an abusive childhood in this iteration of the weird Arizona sentencing trial? Because this jury is limited to what happens in this round. Nurmi introduces a forward from Travis’ book he was writing that describes his difficult childhood. His mother was very verbally abused to him. He suffered from neglect and went to school in dirty clothes every day. His father was violent. He eventually ran away and never went back. He recalls his father taking an ax to his mother’s belongings and his father unloading a revolver in his father’s car.
Here is the complete text of what was read:
My childhood unfortunately was very much like any child’s that had drug addict parents. My father was never around which left my siblings and I to the fate given by my mother. A good woman, with the intent at an early age to be a loving mom. A few poor decisions changed that. As she progressively got more involved in drugs she progressively got less capable of raising children. Most commonly was a beating for waking her up. It hurt but we got used to it. I learned how to turn so that when she hit me she would strike my back and arms, the pain was less there. If it was just that I think it would have been relatively manageable. It was not it however. You see when you are high on meth for a week when you eventually come down there is a lot of sleep to catch up on. When you sleep, for four days with a house full of kids, there isn’t any food cooked. We would eat what was there but before long what was edible would be eaten or rot and then what was rotten would be eaten too. I don’t remember much of this I can only think of one instance where I found a piece of moldy bread on the side of the fridge which represented the last thing we could eat. I remember being teased by canned food. Knowing full well what was in the can but not knowing how to use a can opener. I remember the filth admittedly caused by us kids that compounded on itself for weeks and months at a time. With that came thousands and thousands of roaches. My sisters and I found some amusement in the fact that an entire colony of albino roaches had broken out so that house looked like a bunch of moving salt and pepper crawling on everything. To this day I only have one phobia, roaches. There was nothing more disgusting to me than to wake up to feel roaches crawling on my body. The good news is that we finally lost that house. The bad news is our next option was to live in a camper shell in my Aunts back yard. We kept it next to the Garage where the washer and dryer were. The washer wasn’t hooked up to plumbing so the dirty water would drain into the back yard and stagnate there. We were there for more than a year four feet tall, five feet wide and six feet long, my mother, my three sisters and I. We didn’t have the convenience of bathing every day so we tended to stink. I didn’t mind going with out a bath that much really. I was a boy like most and didn’t have a problem being dirty. But I was scared of bathing because if I once got the bathroom floor wet and my mother accused of me of urinating on the floor and threw me half way through a wall.
School wasn’t much better, when your clothes are as dirty as the rest of you and you stink and have lice you don’t make a ton of friends. Sadly as you could imagine I was mocked for my appearance. Nothing too harsh, no where close to what was said at home. I will not give much detail on that as I feel it is inappropriate to state. I will say though I have never heard in any movie, on any street corner, or amongst the vilest of men any string of words so offensive and hateful, said with such disgust as was the words that my mother said to my sisters and I. I remember my mother emptying a revolver on the car my father was driving and my father subsequently taking an axe to my mother’s belongings and destroying them. I remember being on the other side of the front door when my father kicked it down. The police were called that time along with many others, but I knew what had to be said and knew they would leave us to more of the same. I remember the day I came to the conclusion there was a God. I was 6. I screamed as loud as I could all day long for my near by grand mother to get me and take me for the weekend. I screamed so long and loud that I actually woke up my comatose mother long enough to beat me for waking her up. When she went back to bed I went back to screaming to God. Sure enough that evening she came and picked me up, while my mother slept. I could go on and tell you more of mine and worse stories of my siblings but I think enough has been said. I will say that this is nothing, nothing at all compared to the whole of it. This continued until I was ten, when I ran away and I never came back.
During this time I could think of two fond memories of my childhood. The first was Sesame street. My Sisters and I watched it everyday and it took our minds to Sesame street where kids were happy and learning. It took our minds away from Allwood Dr. where we got the Hell beat out of us.
The other was visiting the home of my Great-Grandfather Vic. My Mother didn’t have very much family and even less that she got along with, but she adored my Grandfather. He only lived about an hour away from our family in southern California, but it was rare that she was in any condition that she’d let Vic see her in. About twice a year my Mother would fix herself and us up enough for a visit with my Grandfather. For the most part our visits would be stereotypical. He’d take us out for pizza, to walk his dogs, play checkers and with other toys he kept for us, and taught me how to write the alphabet. However there was one thing that was out of the ordinary about our visits. Every time before my Mother, siblings and I would leave I would go to hug my Grandfather goodbye. Without exception before I received my coveted hug the cheery casual countenance of my Grandfather would change to something very serious. He would then grab me by my shoulders and shake me, then would follow those words, those words that alter every aspect of my life, “Travis, you need to know that you are special, that there is not anything that you can’t do. There is something great inside you. You’re special Travis, don’t you ever forget it.” That was quickly followed by a rigid hug that would squeeze the breath out of me.
Now there is an easy explanation for why my life has been in my opinion, amazing. It is the same reason I have had success financially and otherwise. It is the same reason I feel that every facet of my life has been blessed and continues to be more and more everyday. The reason is that the words my Grandfather said were spoken with such conviction that I believed him. You see what I wasn’t aware of then, that I have since figured out was my Grandfather was savvy to the way Mother was raising her children. She would often make remarks while coming down from drugs about how miserable we all were, that we ruined her life, that we were worthless. Although those words hurt very deeply as you could imagine; every time she would scream those words I would hear his words instead, every time I would feel her fist sink into my back, I could feel my Grandfather’s hands on my shoulders, and I knew she couldn’t reach what was great inside of me. And again I’d hear the words “You’re special Travis, don’t ever forget it.” Then in my mind I would think, “This woman has no idea what she is talking about, she doesn’t know that I am special.” No matter how loud she’d yell those colorful words, she could never top the conviction of my Great-Grandfather Vic. Since then I have come to realize two things. First my Great-Grandfather was right, I am special. I took his advice; I never forgot it and I never will. Second I have learned I am no better than anyone else. So as you read this book I hope that you will let these pages grab you by the shoulders and shake you and tell you that you are special. That there is something great inside you. I pray that you will allow the words you read stare deep into your eyes and instill into you that there isn’t anything that you can not do. My desire is that this book will do for you what Grandpa Vic did for me. Help me believe what is already true. That you are special. www.travisalexander.net
One of the older female jurors cried during the reading of this introduction. I’m not sure it is having the desired effect for the defense. It seems to endear the jury to Travis. Dr. Forseca says this passage shows that Travis did not think he was abusive because he was not as bad as his father. He considered himself “rough around the edges.”
Dr. Forseca moves on to discuss Jodi’s previous relationships. She talks about Bobby Juarez and says he was abusive to her. She talks about how her father slapped her for being late getting home and several incidents where her mother would hit her with a wooden spoon. For the record, I’ve had an abusive childhood. I’ve been in abusive relationships. My mother his me with wooden spoons, fly swatters, switches ( I picked myself), ping pong paddles, belts and beaten me over the head with hairbrushes when I would not sit still while she brushed my hair. I have yet to stab anyone 29 times, slit their throat from ear to ear and shoot them in the face. I’m just saying.
Bobby used to choke her and “twisted her arm until is almost broke.” The next guy Matt M cheated on her. Cry me a river.
Next up, several pictures of Jodi and Travis in happier times traveling and looking like a happy couple. Juan objects to Nurmi describing the pictures and giving information about the locations. For the record Juan is not objecting much at all. Juan then starts objecting to each picture. Witness is a bit annoyed. Sidebar called and it’s lengthy. A couple of the male jurors are restless and appear bored. One lets out a heavy sigh during side bar.
Nurmi prepares to play testimony from Travis’ friends Dan and Desiree Freedman. A brother and sister who took a trip with Travis and Jodi. There is a technical difficulty. Jury sent to lunch and video of direct testimony only (no cross by Juan) will be show. I’ll have part two at the end of the evening tonight. Sometime before 7 Pm.
Everyday during the 1st trial I was glued to the computer watching live stream & reading every bit of info I could find. Now in the penalty retrial, with no footage, your the next best thing. Instead of scouring Twitter & reading an assortment of tweets from various trial watchers it’s been a pleasure to come here & read your updates. Thanks for all your hard work. It’s greatly appreciated.
Thanks Sarah. I was starting to wonder since there aren’t that many comments if anyone was still interested. 🙂
On Thu, Nov 13, 2014 at 5:05 PM, Tamara Tattles wrote:
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Perhaps people are still interested but are just left speechless by the …wow I don’t think there is a word to effectively describe this trial…circus or shit show or whatever this trial has turned into! I do thank you for recapping the sentencing trial. It’s like a car wreck you don’t want to look at but somehow you must.
I agree with Sarah …. thank you!! Your coverage of the Jodi Arias proceedings is amazing. Please continue!
I’m reading…but yes, speechless. Please keep ’em comin’!
Please keep recapping! You’re all I’ve got!!!! ❤️
Really. Please don’t interpret our stunned silence as lack of interest. We just can’t fathom the depth of this fuckery. Without you, our ignorance would be complete.
Muchas gracias, señorita
Sr. Beady
“I was starting to wonder since there aren’t that many comments if anyone was still interested.” This is my first time commenting, I love your blog and especially the Jodi trial coverage. I read every word you write.
Pat
Thanks so much for sticking with me Pat! Stick around and join the conversation!
I have a busy life. I work full time as a pediatric nurse, I have a family, and I am in school full time for my graduate degree in nursing.
Tamera, I always make time for your recaps of this trial.
You are the highlight of my day!
Thanks so much.
THanks for taking time out of your busy life for us! And for commenting to let me know you are out there!
Hi Tamara, I discovered your site over a year ago and have read here religiously since, but I’m more a lurker than commenter. I do want to thank you for your excellent coverage of the Arias trial.and other topics as well. I appreciate the research you have obviously done on the legal end of things concerning this trial and the Giudices clusterf*#k.Gotta love all the housewives!! Just wanted you to know your hard work is not in vain and is much appreciated along with your snark and sense of humor. Thanks again!
Thank you Kathy! I hope you comment more often! 🙂
I too have been hit with a spoon, switch, and a hair brush (that one hurts), slapped, and thrown into a wall. I don’t considered myself to have been abused. Therefore, I am comfortable saying Jodi should not be classified as abused by her parents. Geez what is being hit by a spoon once or twice or being slapped for coming in late once. Usually when someone is considered to have been abused it is intense and prolonged in my opinion. Travis on the other hand was abused, physically, emotionally, starved, and neglected. Did Travis turn out to be a murderer? I agree that this testimony will work against Jodi.
I agree. And I should have been more clear. When I mentioned my abuse it was not my parents and none of the things I mentioned. I think most people with southern parents of a certain age have picked a switch, or gotten clobbered for squirming gotten smacked by whatever was handy, spoon, shoe, belt flyswatter, that paddle ball toy I thought was a good idea. lol. And Look how good I turned out!
Okay well, plenty of people turned out just fine.
On Thu, Nov 13, 2014 at 6:02 PM, Tamara Tattles wrote:
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Not just Southern parents, but also many older generations. I was spanked with a wooden spoon and haven’t (yet) stabbed anyone, and I even choked down all the canned vegetables I was served but haven’t turned to a life of crime like Apollo/RHOA. *shrug* You know, YET.
TT, you do a great job, and it’s nice to know you do your research. I can always count on you to tell it like it is, no hyperbole. Thank you for all you do. My parents grew up in the south, and moved north. So I can relate to the switch and being smacked. My mom used to say I’m going to go cut a switch and stripe those legs up. One of my favorite memories is mom getting a switch, and hitting our bare legs (oh, that hurt like hell), but what I enjoyed is she got poison ivy. We were the only kids in the neighborhood that had parents from the south so, it was embarrassing to have the other kids sometimes see us get screamed at, and hit. I don’t consider myself as abused and I love my mama and daddy.
Thanks guys. I was just checking to make sure people were still interested. Back when it was on TV we’d have over 500 comments per post. Those were the days…. lol.
On Thu, Nov 13, 2014 at 7:02 PM, Tamara Tattles wrote:
> I agree. And I should have been more clear. When I mentioned my abuse it > was not my parents and none of the things I mentioned. I think most people > with southern parents of a certain age have picked a switch, or gotten > clobbered for squirming gotten smacked by whatever was handy, spoon, shoe, > belt flyswatter, that paddle ball toy I thought was a good idea. lol. And > Look how good I turned out! > > Okay well, plenty of people turned out just fine. > > On Thu, Nov 13, 2014 at 6:02 PM, Tamara Tattles [email protected]> wrote: > >>
I’m extremely interested in the excellent coverage you are doing on the trial. Tamara, you do it so well. Thank you for all the hard work you do. You are much appreciated, even though we don’t tell you that nearly often enough. Fuck! Did I just write that? Looks weird, but its true.
you can count on me being here for every post. the arias trial was where I found Tamara. I haven’t posted much simply because it makes me so damn mad how this shit show crawls along, i’m just very frustrated. but miss a post…..NEVER!
Yes. Typically, I’m laughing and making jokes. I’m stunned. I can’t believe the mess that is going on. I’m kind of holding my breath, hoping the Prosecution, did not delete the evidence. Praying, that somehow, the monster that is Jodi, will never be released.
All I can think of when I reread Jodi Arias trial reports is “Gee Officer Krupke” from Westside story. I understand about the abusive parents, hideous boyfriends, but there comes a time when a person has to choose to get help and not let the past take over their life. My theory is some people have birth defects of the soul. They are lacking the essential kindness and empathy necessary to be a full human being. Jodi lacks the human factor.
I agree…it’s nature over nurture in some people. They have a normal childhood, normal parents, normal siblings and just are somehow different. I don’t even think Jodi comprehens the pure insanity of her actions. Something in her soul is missing.
There’s snapping and there’s snapping. In my opinion, Travis was pretty much a scumbag (yeah, I said it), BUT Jodi richly deserves what’s coming to her whether it’s the death penalty or life in prison. She had no right to do what she did. None.
Just wanted to add myself to the list of folks who are still obsessed with this trial but just don’t know what to say anymore. I discovered your blog because of the trial in the first place!
Why, when I see Jodi looking at a computer screen with a photo of Travis, does that song enter my head? “Memories…picture perfect memories…of the way we were.” Sick
What a shit show! Give her the DP and be done.
What they ^ all said!
TT you are the best! I too had to learn the hard way when cutting a switch, not to go with the smallest branch…the whippier and thinner the branch, the worse the whippin! I have to say, growing up in Mesa, two blocks from the LDS chapel and gardens, all my neighbors and friends where LDS. they were constantly trying to get us to go to church with them and to “convert”. Now just a few years before I was born and raised in a commune in the desert, I didn’t get clothes until I started school. It was shortly after I started school, my parents left the commune and bought a house in Mesa. Life would change dramatically as my parents started denying they had lived in a commune, denying that they had ever been swingers, drug users and all the things that came with living in a commune. I know all too well the mask’s that people wear. Sometimes they wear the mask long enough, it starts to become the truth. This is what I see in both Travis and Jodi. They both have worn masks for so long (his mask is religion and her mask is “normal”, yet under each of those masks, you will find depravity, self hatred and sex all mingled together) that the mask is now the truth to them.
Tamara, Please, Please continue doing what you’re doing. I discovered your website last year and follow it almost daily, You are one of the best, without your daily updates I and many others would be lost and terribly misinformed. You, along with Jen of the Trial Diaries and Cathy of Court Chatter are the best sites to visit on the Arias Death Penalty phase. When this is over why not write a book about the Arias trial??
Ditto! Ditto! Ditto! To all kudos for TT!
Your Jodi posts are the first thing I read.
Please keep them coming.
Tamara I come to your site everyday. Your recaps of the trial are THE BEST out there and so much easier than reading tweets. I appreciate all of your hard work. BTW…I grew up and still live in South TX and my mom spanked me with whatever was within reach. I too did not stab anyone 29 times. So many people have gone through horrific traumas and they don’t slaughter people….and I’m just sayin…
Wow! These comments are good for the ego in the morning! Thanks y’all.
On Fri, Nov 14, 2014 at 9:06 AM, Tamara Tattles wrote:
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I mean I wouldn’t want my self esteem to drop because then I could get all stabby. 🙂
On Fri, Nov 14, 2014 at 9:34 AM, Tamara Tattles wrote:
> Wow! These comments are good for the ego in the morning! Thanks y’all. > > On Fri, Nov 14, 2014 at 9:06 AM, Tamara Tattles [email protected]> wrote: > >>
Happy that you realize how much we love your posts, but I think I kinda like you all stabby …
Praise and enabling? It don’t get no better than that!
On Fri, Nov 14, 2014 at 9:44 AM, Tamara Tattles wrote:
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Although, this is probably what happened to Lindsey Lohan….
On Fri, Nov 14, 2014 at 10:14 AM, Tamara Tattles wrote:
> Praise and enabling? It don’t get no better than that! > > On Fri, Nov 14, 2014 at 9:44 AM, Tamara Tattles [email protected]> wrote: > >>
I bet Lindsey’s Momma never took a wooden spoon to her, so you’ll be fine…
I read you every day for your excellent coverage. I don’t usually comment but I bet that there are many like me that depend on your thorough reporting but rarely comment. You are doing good work!
Just to let you know I am reading from Australia 🙂 I’ve been following this story for a while and there is NO coverage of this in Oz. Thanks for covering it!
Yay! I love my Aussie readers!
On Sun, Nov 16, 2014 at 10:50 PM, Tamara Tattles wrote:
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