Jodi Arias was the last to arrive to trial today. It seemed to start later than I thought, but I must have gotten the times wrong. It looks like it going to start after 10 am MST.
Nurmi is loaded for bear. The defense hates DeMarte with a purple passion. Nurmi greets her with a “Good Morning” when she doesn’t answer he says, “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you.” And with that we are off to the races. Nurmi’s first questions are about her resume. He is going to desperately try to discredit the witness. That is a tall order as she has great credentials. DeMarte holds a Ph.D and is in private practice for therapy and evaluations services. Nurmi says the bulk of her work is in therapy. She says no, she is 50/50 between therapy and evaluations.
Nurmi moves on to her death penalty cases. He says she works part time as sort of a “Dr. Death” for the prosecution. DeMarte makes $300 and hour for expert testimony. She has worked more than fifty but less than 100 hours on Jodi Arias case since 2011. She has testified for the prosecution in four death penalty cases.
Nurmi moves on to the definition of “trauma” briefly and then asks her about “the Law of Attraction.” She says this isn’t psychologist practicum. It’s not a “law” she finds beneficial. There needs to be a balance of reality and desires. I am WAY putting words in her mouth here…people said this several different ways, but that seemed to be her gist.
Nurmi moves on to physical and emotional abuse. There is back and forth disagreement between the two about things like patterns of abuse. Observers state that a few jurors shook their heads in agreement with DeMarte. Nurmi has taken an aggressive stance with DeMarte. Not sure this will play well to the jurors who were hanging on her every word yesterday and taking copious notes unlike their bored expressions during the defense examination of their own witnesses.
Nurmi moves on to discussing personality disorders. Personality disorders begin very early in life and are enduring. Nurmi refers to BPD as a “mental illness.” Demarte says she prefers “psychological disorder.” Nurmi in his Juan Martinez voices says, “You understand, I don’t care about your preferences.” Martinez objects. Stephens sustains. DeMarte eventually agrees that BPD is a mental illness. Which is a point for Nurmi as that is his mitigating factor.
Nurmi tries to imply that in her original diagnosis Demarte did not include adjustment disorder. It was in her notes. Nurmi tries to imply that her notes don’t mean a diagnosis. Or something. He’s grasping at straws.
He asks Demarte to explain BPD and she does. She says there is usually a trigger early in life, a pattern emerges from that point and persists throughout adulthood. People with BPD are sensitive and overly emotion. DeMarte says that BPD could develop in those who are genetically predisposed if the person’s feelings are continuously invalidated. Nurmi asks if Jodi grew up in an environment that did not validate her feelings. DeMarte says yes and talks about her parents not acknowledging her feelings. Jodi reported that she was assaulted by a family member at age five or six. Demarte explains fear of abandonment. More repetitive testimony from yesterday with numerous examples of Jodi clinging to relationships.
LUNCH
After lunch there was a long sidebar. Juan left shaking his head. Still no jury. Jodi also did not return to the court room on time. There is some speculation that she is “sick.” If she is, that could stop testimony today. This happened a lot in the first trial.
Eventually Jodi and the jury are brought back in.
DeMarte retakes the stand. Nurmi has implied he plans to question her for “a few days.” Question resumes with Demarte talking about inappropriate and intense anger in Jodi Arias. She had a history of punching and kicking walls. Nurmi wants to go through all the breakups of Jodi’s relationships. She was asked if the breakups were “nasty” she says no. Nurmi says that Jodi broke up with Daryl not the other way around so this “blows her theory.” Whatever that means.
He moves on and asks, “So this mentally ill woman then met Travis.” She replies, “Yes.” Score another point for Nurmi. Though, again, it seemed obvious on her direct testimony that she agreed Jodi is mentally ill. Like I said that seemed to be a good day for the defense with regard to their mental illness mitigater. Nurmi says that he knows that Demarte is “not aware of much, ” but Jodi remained friendly with many of her exes. Hmm, I’m not aware of that and I’ve been listening to testimony for years. I don’t think showing up at their employee dorm when they are not their and confronting the new girlfriend and sleeping in his bed is friendly. Or showing up uninvited at an ex’s home where his son lives is friendly. Or hiding behind the Christmas tree of an ex is friendly.
Lots of talk about Jodi being whatever her partners wanted including being a slow. A humorous moment occurs when Nurmi asks what Jodi ‘s intent was when asking for a facial, and she remakes that she takes the meaning of that at face value. /giggles
Over the course of this trial Nurmi’s trial style has changed to mimic Juan Martinez’s aggressive, all over the place, confuse the witness style. I suppose he is trying to fight fire with fire, but DeMarte is remaining cool, calm and collected.
Nurmi moves on to PTSD. He is trying discredit DeMarte’s opinion that she does not suffer from PTSD. He says that it is possible to have several traumas that cause PTSD. DeMarte is not being allowed to elaborate. Again we go through all the alleged abuse that Jodi suffered and there is much back and forth over whether are not it could trigger PTSD and also if it did in fact trigger PTSD. Nurmi says Travis was physically abusive on four separate occasions. DeMarte says that the bottom line is that Jodi does not display PTSD symptoms despite the potential triggers.
Dr DeMarte says a page is missing from her paperwork. A recess is called to look for it. It is found.
Nurmi tries to say that she did her diagnosis with only 9 months experience. No. It was a year after licensure but there are years of experience required to be licensed in the first place. Nurmi says both of the defense witnesses have over 30 years of experience. He points out it has been years since she published or presented to peers. Nurmi accuses her of bias. She denies. Nurmi has been testifying without questions. DeMarte has continually asked if he has a question. Juan has now objected to Nurmi testifying. Sustained. DeMarte was testifying about changes in behavior when a patient has intrusive thoughts. Nurmi accuses her of being a mind reader. DeMarte tries to clarify and he asks her again if she is aware that she is here to answer his questions. Nurmi belittles DeMartes’ year of practice as a doctoral intern. He mocks this as “student work” and suggests it is not experience. I really hope there is a psychologist on this jury. DeMarte says she has been practicing since 2004. Nurmi continues to be dismissive and asks if she also includes her high school studies. Do you include talking with your friends as experience? No, she only includes treatment of patients under a licensed psychologist. She is #unbothered by his insults. 🙂
Nurmi wants to know why she did not diagnose Travis. She replies she was not hired to diagnosis Travis. The jury has been lost. They are tired and checking out. I am too.
Demarte says that she thinks Travis loved Jodi early in their relationship. The jury stopped taking notes a long time ago. Nurmi says that Travis took advantage of her BPD to have sex with her. DeMarte, “No.” Travis used Jodi for sex. DeMarte, “No” (sidenote, I think he most certainly did use Jodi for sex. JMO). Nurmi gleefully goes through a bunch of Travis’ sexting again. Nurmi wants to ask DeMarte about specific sex acts with Travis and other partners. DeMarte is only familiar with the ones she interviewed. She did not watch any previous testimony.
We come to a merciful end with DeMarte repeating that Travis enjoyed sex with Jodi but not the intrusive behaviors.
Isnt the core of an mental illness defense the inability to tell right from wrong? Her actions before and after the murder shows she knew the difference. The def may score a point with the BPD diagnosis but hopefully the sleazy way they question the witnesses will backfire on them. They seem to enjoy trying to make them uncomfortable asking un-needed sexual questions
Having a mental illness does not in anyway mean you do not know right from wrong. Nurmi will not even argue such a ridiculous point. He will try to argue that she had a severe over reaction due to mental illness which mitigates her responsibility in the moments where the murder occurred. He will also point out that it is not normal to murder someone, leave, wash yourself off and head into another man’s bed. He will also argue that she dissociated the event and has no actual memory of it.
I believe all those things to be true. I would consider them in my deliberations. I would not be a hold out in either direction. I would most likely side with the majority unless the minority had a more compelling argument. I would listen with close interest to what the psychologist on the jury said.
On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 7:04 PM, Tamara Tattles wrote:
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Me too.
You believe that she has no memory of it?
I do, yes.
On Fri, Feb 6, 2015 at 7:10 PM, Tamara Tattles wrote:
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JA is mentally competent. There is a big difference between being diagnosed with a mental illness and being mentally incompetent. In other words, mental illnesses vary in severity. Only the most severe, the psychoses, would make one mentally incompetent and thus not qualified for the death penalty.
I think this is a completely false mitigator — KN will argue that she is mentally ill and should be spared the death penalty. Having borderline personality disorder does not spare you from the death penalty! By itself it does not, unless she was also psychotic at the time. (there is tons of evidence proving she was not) No expert witnesses have claimed that Jodi was at any time psychotic
Every time I read about the jury’s reaction to Nurmi I can’t help but wonder how he doesn’t notice that he’s lost them. He had to have seen how they were reacting to Juan yesterday… I understand that he has his cross planned but if he sees that he’s lost the jury he has to be able to pivot to another topic and get them back instead of just launching into another hour of salacious text messages. I’m Certainly not rooting for Jodi to get off here… But I am someone who loves good lawyering. And he just ain’t got it….
Nurmi always looks like he is on the verge of a hear attack or something. This photo compared to one TT posted in one of her posts earlier in this trial phase makes it look like the poor guy is gaining is lost weight back. I feel for him. I know he has wanted off of this case for a long while now. I am sure the trial affects his sleep, eating habits and even social habits. I often wonder why the Judge wouldn’t let him off the trial, especially when he asked early on. Both of her attorneys asked early on to be dismissed.
I think Nurmi fell victim to Jodi’s manipulation. I think she threatened to hurt herself if Nurmi left her before the trial even started.
I bet you that man will NEVER fall for anyone’s threats again.
Nurmi could care less if Jodi kills herself. In fact, he’d be relieved. Nurmi is working very hard to save her life with her sabotaging him at every turn. At the end of the guilt phase Jodi did a bunch of interviews in which she said, “Nurmi says I have no mitigating factors.” and that she would prefer the death penalty. Not helpful. Juan may use that in his closing.
On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 7:55 PM, Tamara Tattles wrote:
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The reason was it would unfairly delay the trial for another team to get up to speed on the case.
Ironic. Because, Arizona.
On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 7:42 PM, Tamara Tattles wrote:
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He made a few points for him side today. He got DeMarte to say Jodi has a mental illness. That’s good. However, she is a witness who, unlike his witnesses, resonates with the jury. The Juan Martinez technique does not serve him well here. She is poised and does not rattle. The jury appears to like her. They won’t like him if he is mean to her.
On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 7:06 PM, Tamara Tattles wrote:
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I don’t think he cares
Or course Travis used Jodi for sex, she was a booty call, friends with benefits, call it what you may. With the other women he had to put in an effort, Jodi gave it up easily. Jodi used sex to keep Travis around, she knew that’s all she had to work with, he clearly didn’t want a relationship with her.
I hope whatever the verdict is, that Arias never sees the light of day again. This penalty retrial is just regurgitating the same stuff over and over again as nauseum, hoping to convince another jury that her vicious butchering of Travis was simply due the poor thing’s “mental illness.” I am so happy that all of the networks, including HLN, are not carrying it, so that she doesn’t get the publicity she so desperately craves.
I’m really very sorry we can’t watch live trials anymore. I wish HLN had kept doing it. I watched many trials on that station and I miss it terribly. I think this is a really big hole in TV broadcasting. Even though Jodi may have enjoyed the attention, most of the people being tried certainly did not and I think it is a benefit to our system to have some of the trials public.
Well, we are here now due to Juan Martinez’s overly zealous badgering. Good Layering means they know when to press and when to back off. Going balls to the wall, will turn off some peoples ability to listen to the information that is supposed to be conveyed. How many of us listen to someone hollaring at us? A typical response is to react to the hostility, such as shutting down or tuning out or being disgusted or walking away. That’s why Mr. Martinez didn’t seal the win. He was overly aggressive, in my opinion.
Many of us would heartily disagree with your characterization of Juan. We watched the trial together and came here to TT’s place to discuss it, sometimes minute by minute. In the end, JA got to one of the male jurors and he is why we are here today. I have always been a strong proponent of the death penalty, but with this trial I learned that LWOP would work just as well. I have to agree with TT. This is all happening b/c Arizona. I’m still team Juan.
Ugh, give her LWOP and be done with it. No chance to appeal and be done with this horrible human being. So much Money has been wasted on this troglodyte! Finish it already!
I agree. It has dragged on for so long giving her the publicity she desperately feeds on. All that results is that Travis’s name and reputation are again dragged through the mud she brought into his life.
Was today Margarita Friday in Arizona? 🙁
yup
On Fri, Feb 6, 2015 at 6:03 PM, Tamara Tattles wrote:
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Son of a bitch. I knew it but had to ask on the off chance. 🙂