Jodi Arias Trial Recap For Tuesday January, 27th: Don’t Mention the Magic Underpants

Nurmi is stalling already. One of the jurors said that she was asked what time court started and she replied she could not talk and walked away. Nurmi wants to question her in chambers. WHY? Also Juan is going to call Deanna, the bishop dude and Abe who was the official recipient of the email Jodi CC:ed Travis on. Abe will testify he never received the email. Nurmi wants Abe precluded because he just found out and has not been able to interview him.

Judge Stephens asks Jodi is she is going to continue her testimony. She says she would like to but is unable to do so for reasons she stated in chambers. WOW! They are going to let Jodi’s prior testimony stand, even though Juan was unable to cross examine. That can’t possibly be legal. Nurmi says he doesn’t want anything said to the jury about the fact that Jodi will not continue her testimony. Judge Stephens is all, “Okey Dokey” about that too. Juan is not objecting to this. It seems he wants it to stay in as well. Not sure why. The state could have moved to strike testimony but did not. Jodi will do an allocution later in the proceedings.

The jury still has not entered the courtroom. First, the judge gives Nurmi an hour to interview Abe. Then Nurmi will interview juror in chambers. In other words, I doubt anything will happen this morning. Apparently, everyone met with the poor juror in chambers. Jodi wants to be in on the interview with Abe. Judge Stephens will close the courtroom and allow Nurmi to interview Abe with Jodi present.  Nurmi doesn’t want the family present. Judge says the family can observe from the jury room. Juan is okay with that.

Around 1:30 PM Arizona time, the parties return to the courtroom and the media is back in. Still no jury today. Nurmi is arguing that Abe should not be allowed to testify because he will make Jodi look promiscuous. WTF? The defense has been painting the victim as a pedophile, but some dude can’t testify he shoved his hands in Jodi’s pants and pulled her thong and her response was something like “there is magic in my underpants?” Really?

Juan argues that the makeout session and the thong discussion between Jodi and Abe and the fact that she asked Abe to lie to Travis about them making out goes to her credibility and must be heard. Juan also says that omissions of these activities from her journal also speaks to credibility. Nurmi counters that credibility of the defendant is not relevant in the penalty phase.

Judge Stephens says Abe can testify but the magic underwear stuff will be precluded as too prejudicial. Seriously? She also says that the defense can recall Abe in surrebuttal after he has had a chance to read all of Abe’s only stories and other interviews about the case to show that he is prejudiced against Arias.

Now it appears that Juan has another witness, a Detective Smith. Nurmi is going to pop a vein. He has not had time to interview him either. The judge says he can do it after court. Nurmi says he can’t do it after court because it’s two for one burgers night at the burger barn or something. Oh wait, that is not his excuse. His excuse is that Smith will be giving technical testimony and he needs to have a technical expert present with him to advise him. In fairness to Nurmi, Juan just sprang this witness on him.  Time marches on but the jury has yet to see the inside of the courtroom today.

Ah!  After a sidebar, the jury comes in and the defense rests on the record.  Juan is up and he calls Abe first. heh. Abe worked at Prepaid  Legal and met Jodi in 2006 at an event. Juan puts the email up on the screen and asks if he is the Abe from the email. He says that he is.

Sidenote: There is a new observer tweeting from courtroom for the first time. She comments that she was shocked that the jury as a whole is much younger than she expected. This pleases me.

Abe talks about his first few dates with Jodi. Jodi told him she “dabbled in Mormonism.” This may have come up because he was drinking Maker’s Mark and she did not drink with him. The defense has objected a ton since he hit the stand. Every four words there is an objection. After that date the went to the bookstore and then he walked her to her car. They made out for about 15 minutes. Juan asked if he stuck his hand down her pants. He said yes. Defense is having a conniption. After that, Jodi called Abe to tell him she was getting back together with her ex and they should not see each other again. They continued to talk on the phone as friends. Jodi was concerned that Travis was just not that into her. OBJECTION. Sustained. Jodi was frustrated by Travis’ lack of commitment.

A year later, Jodi calls and says she told Travis about their date and Travis was pissed. Abe was pissed too. He had not told anyone about their date and she was making a big deal out of it. Abe ended the friendship with Jodi at this point.

Abe says he did not receive the email displayed on the overhead. He doesn’t believe it was ever sent to him. He always read whatever emails she sent. The letter does not mention Abe’s hand down her pants, the magic underwear or making out. In the letter she says they just hugged.

Juan is done and Willmott is up and immediately we go to  sidebar. Jury is sent to the hall for five minutes so Abe can be told he can’t mention the magic in Jodi’s underpants. I’m not kidding. That really happened. He also can’t mention Mormon religion or  Jodi “manipulating” Travis.  I don’t understand why the defense can say that Travis was manipulative but the state can’t say the same about Jodi.

The jury returns and Willmott asks Abe about all of his HLN and Dateline interviews. She implies he was using the case to get clients for Pre Paid Legal.  She is trying to imply that Abe was drunk and mauled Jodi. She points out that he is 17 years older than Jodi.

Willmott asked if he knew Travis at some point wanted to hunt him down and beat his ass. He says yes. Abe says that he never received the email. Willmott reads it anyway. Abe says the whole thing is silly and she’s making mountains out of molehills. They had one date. It was no big deal. Juan on redirect points out that Abe’s email address is not on the email. Abe is excused and told not to speak about the case because he is subject to recall by the defense.

Deanna Reid takes the stand. She gives the dates of her mission. She testifies that Travis told her by letter he was seeing other people while she was gone. She was in Costa Rica for 18 months. When she returned, Travis was no longer living with the bishop. She is basically discrediting everything Marc McGee aka Witness #1 swore to in his affidavit. She does not know Marc McGee she has never met him. The situation he describes never happened. Travis was never physical with her in any way. No one consoled her or put cool rags on her wrists because none of it ever happened. Juan is done with her.

Willmott is trying to show that Deanna is not always honest when it comes to Marc. Willmott says Deanna has been misleading. Deanna says the only person who has been misleading is Willmott. Willmott freaks out. Sidebar. The judge tells Deanna not to say things like that and instructs the jury to unhear that comment. SCORE!

Willmott is trying to show that Deanna was not forthcoming in a prior interview with counsel. Deanna says she doesn’t know what she is talking about. Willmott gets the transcript. Deanna says there is an audio of the interview and requests it. Willmott has a fit and pulls a Juan saying, “Did I ask you a question?” The judge reprimands Deanna again. But again Deanna asks for the audio. Things are getting heated between Deanna and Willmott. No love lost between these two. The transcript says that Deanna didn’t know Travis was having sex with others. Deanna says she doesn’t feel comfortable answering from the transcript and AGAIN asks for the audio. #SASSY  Willmott says just to read the transcript. She asks Deanna if she can read. Deanna says that she can indeed read.  Deanna says the transcript is not of her it is someone relating what she said. Deanna refuses to read the transcript. Deanna refused to acknowledge that the transcript as Willmott reads it is accurate. Deanna continues to request the audio. Willmott is pissed. She says she had no problem answering Juan’s questions. Juan objects and says he did not question her about an audio.

Court comes to an abrupt end for the day. They will return at 1:30 tomorrow ( I suppose that is Arizona time) then nothing until Monday. Because, Arizona.