The Seduction and Slaying of Travis Alexander | The Jodi Arias Case
50:09 Share

On February 4th, 2013, attorney Kirk Nurmi shocked those at the Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix, Arizona. When he unexpectedly called his client to the witness stand, the gallery exploded with hushed murmurs as the media and members of the public whispered in anticipation of what would surely be sensational testimony.

The woman rose from her council table and quietly approached the stand. Some jurors leaned forward in their seats, their eyes darting between her and the notes they were furiously scribbling. Others remained fixated on her, straining to catch any hints of guilt as she swayed past. The woman turned to Judge Sherry Stevens, raised her right hand, and promised to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

A deafening silence filled the courtroom the moment she sat down. The command the woman had over the crowd was palpable. "Did you kill Travis Alexander on June 4th, 2008?" asked Nurmi. "Yes, I did," she responded. The woman who took the stand in her own defense and captivated the nation was Jodi Arias, a 32-year-old waitress and aspiring photographer. This was particularly unusual for a murder suspect facing the death penalty.

However, the blonde turned brunette had a story to tell, one that involved prolonged abuse and ended in a desperate act of self-defense. Jodi told this story over 37 days, during which she described the late Travis Alexander as a possessive sexual deviant with an insatiable appetite for rough sex. The pair had been embroiled in an on-again off-again relationship since 2007, but according to Jodi,

Everything changed in January 2008, after she caught him masturbating to pictures of half-naked little boys. Unable to explain it away, Travis came clean about the pedophilic urges that plagued him. He followed his sickening confession up with a similarly repulsive proposal. He suggested that she sleep with him to cure him of his perverse desires. Of course, Jodi refused and fled to her home instead, where she promptly emptied the contents of her stomach.

Jodi replayed the disturbing scene over and over again in her mind, before eventually deciding to give Travis a chance to explain himself. She instantly regretted it. Jodi claimed that he simply reaffirmed his sexual attraction to little boys. Worse, Travis then presented her with boys Spider-Man undies that he wanted her to wear while they had anal sex. His behavior seemed to spiral out of control from then onwards.

Worse, Jodi claimed that he raped her on at least two separate occasions. She continued to relay the humiliation she endured at his hands, ignoring his family's bitter glares. Her story came to a dramatic conclusion when she recounted the events of June 4th, 2008.

the day she slaughtered Travis Alexander and butchered his body. When Kirk Nermy asked Jodi why she committed such a violent act, she looked down for a moment before responding in a meek voice. The simple answer is that he attacked me and I defended myself. Jodi's shocking story had one singular goal, to elicit sympathy within the jury and support her argument of self-defense. It failed spectacularly.

The jurors were unmoved, their stares cold and unforgiving. I'm sure you're feeling confused at this point, perhaps even outraged. Considering the nature of her story, one would think that her motive was justifiable. However, as we wade through the ocean of evidence against Jodi Arias, you'll see that it was nothing more than that, a story. Part 1, Pretty Little Liar. On July 9th, 1980.

William and Sandra Arias welcomed a beautiful baby girl into the world at a hospital in Salinas, California. They named her Jodi Ann Arias. Her birth was the first of three and marked the beginning of a normal, loving family. The Ariases were a Christian household. Their religion was never forced upon their children, nor was it used to control them. All William and Sandra wanted was to bring them up with good hearts and strong morals.

Friends and neighbors recall the family as being happy and well-adjusted, with no obvious problems simmering beneath the surface. Jodi would later tell a very different story. She claimed that she was abused by her father from the age of seven. He allegedly spanked her very hard, hit her with wooden spoons, and pushed her around. Sandra and William denied their daughter's accusations and have since criticized her for dramatizing her upbringing to paint herself as a victim in court.

Of course, it's their word against hers, but you'll later see that the latter means nothing. Jodi went on to become a good student who excelled in school and expressed herself through photography. However, her teenage years were certainly not without drama. When she was in the eighth grade, her parents caught her growing weed and called the sheriff's department as punishment. Considering her age and the fact that cannabis cultivation was a criminal offense back then, their reaction was understandable.

Jodie definitely didn't see it that way. Her relationship with her parents began to deteriorate as they became stricter with her, and she eventually abandoned her schooling in 11th grade. Now, there's no denying that Jodie was intelligent. She worked hard to earn her GED, despite dropping out and has been described as exceedingly well-read. Even so, her focus never seemed to be on her future. For Jodie Arias, her ultimate distraction was always boys.

She had grown into a gorgeous woman with long blonde hair, a white toothy smile, a full figure, and the plump lips and bone structure of Scarlett Johansson. Jodi had no trouble finding love and always seemed to have a boyfriend. Although there's nothing wrong with that, she was never single, which often points to unhealthy dependency issues. Jodi bounced from relationship to relationship, but one thing never changed: her love for photography.

She photographed her lovers and worked a few freelance gigs in the hopes of making a career out of it. However, she ended up in the service industry to make ends meet. In 2001, Jodi was waitressing at a luxury resort in Big Sur, California, when she met and fell for her manager, Darryl Brewer. The pair kept their relationship professional until management changes saw the divorced dad stepping down and becoming a server himself.

Daryl and Jody dated for several years but started to drift apart in 2006. The couple was struggling financially, which dampened their spark and resulted in Jody picking up extra work. She began working for a multi-level marketing company called Prepaid Legal Services and started making friends within the Mormon community. During this time, Daryl sensed a change in Jody's personality. The pair eventually went from sleeping in separate bedrooms to going their separate ways.

They broke up on good terms, but unbeknownst to Daryl, he had just dodged a bullet. Part two, against all odds. That same year, Travis Alexander was the happiest he had ever been. He was deeply ingrained within Mesa's Mormon community and had risen through the ranks of prepaid legal services as one of their top performing sales reps. It was a humble existence, but he had come a long way from where he started out in life.

You see, unlike Jody, Travis survived a childhood that truly was riddled with abuse. Travis Victor Alexander came into this world unwanted and unloved. He was born in Riverside, California on July 28th, 1977, and was forced to look after himself from a young age. His drug-addled parents were too lost in addiction to care for their eight children, and Travis and his siblings were often left alone without food for days.

The Alexanders were constantly teetering on the edge of the poverty line, sometimes falling well below it and living in tents to survive. Travis's father never cared enough to be around, leaving him and his siblings at the mercy of his viciously abusive mother. The Alexander children were abused daily until their grandparents took them in and saved them from their own parents, who eventually died some years later. For the first time in his life, Travis was living in a loving home

His grandparents were devout Mormons, and he associated their way of life with safety and stability. He joined them at church and quickly found sanctuary in the sense of community and family it offered. This was a turning point in Tyler's life. He converted to Mormonism, became increasingly involved in the church, and even embarked on a two-year-long mission trip to Denver.

Eventually, he got a job with prepaid legal services as a salesman and motivational speaker. He flourished in his career and worked tirelessly to recruit others, which earned him a steady salary.

Travis soon grew restless in California, where like-minded believers were few and far between. So, in 2004, he decided to relocate to Mesa, Arizona, to put down roots in a city with a larger, more prevalent Mormon community. The charismatic salesman had no trouble fitting in. People were drawn to him. His authentic warm nature put them at ease, and his zest for life was simply magnetic.

Those who knew Travis remember him as being quite the character and a happy-go-lucky extrovert who often left his friends in stitches. Nothing was ever boring with him around, and he quickly made several lifelong friends. Against all odds, Travis had broken free from the cycle of poverty, drug addiction, and abuse. Life was good, until he went on a blind date, that is.

In September 2006, Travis was busy preparing himself for a prepaid legal services conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. The 30-year-old was eager for more networking opportunities and had everything he needed to make a potent impression. However, there was one thing he was missing: a date. Travis was considered quite the ladies' man, but his faith often made dating complicated. Little did he know, his friends were already one step ahead.

They set him up with a plus one for the conference and surprised him with the news when he arrived in Vegas. They had only recently met the woman, but thought she was the perfect fit for Travis. She was lively, ambitious, and worked for the same company as him. Even better, she was drop-dead gorgeous. Travis was taken off guard by the news. However, any uncertainty vanished the moment he laid eyes on the stunning blonde.

She was anything but shy and walked up to him without hesitation before introducing herself as Jody Arias. Part 3: Picture Perfect Travis and Jody hit it off immediately. The bubbly 28-year-old matched the salesman's energy effortlessly and, on the first night they met, the pair stayed up talking until 4 am. The following morning, Travis gushed to his friends about Jody.

He was absolutely smitten with the freelance photographer and felt like he had finally found his wife. He didn't tell his friends everything though. The pair had a lot of fun together at the conference. Too much fun, perhaps. Travis had always maintained that he was a virgin. We have no way of knowing whether this was true. Maybe it was, or maybe he just told people that to build a reputation as a model Mormon.

Whatever the case, his self-confessed chastity was certainly no match for Jody's allure. The sexual tension between the pair was unmistakable. Travis tried his best to ignore it, but eventually gave in to temptation. They hooked up over the weekend and decided to continue seeing each other once the conference ended. Jody lived in Palm Desert, California at the time, but distance didn't matter to them. The pair simply couldn't stay away from each other.

Travis and Jody's relationship blossomed over the phone. They spoke to each other daily through 82,000 emails and countless calls, which often resulted in particularly steamy phone sex. When the distance became too much to bear, they would make plans to meet up and travel the Southwest together. Their love affair was picture perfect, for Jody at least. Travis's feelings for Jody were tainted with guilt.

He was torn between her and his religion, which explicitly forbade premarital sex, something they indulged in frequently and with great fervor. Jodi, on the other hand, relished every second of it. She had become obsessed with Travis, so much so that she decided to convert to Mormonism just after two months of knowing him.

She said it would bring them closer together but, in truth, it was a rather desperate attempt at molding herself into what Travis wanted: a pure, devout Mormon wife. Jodi's baptism was held on November 26th, 2006, at a Mormon church in Southern California. The pair donned pure white garb and waded into the holy water together, where she would be cleansed of her sins and find salvation.

Travis dipped Jodi in the waist-deep water and baptized her, praying over her. Perhaps he thought he would be cleansed of his guilt, too. Of course, he wasn't. The pair officially became a couple three months later, and their sex life only got steamier. Pictures from their trips were plastered across Jodi's social media, where she openly professed her love for her new boyfriend. Travis, however, seemed far less enthused.

He truly cared for Jodie, but could no longer ignore that they were sinning in the eyes of his church. More so, he had always dreamt of marrying a virginal Mormon girl. Although Jodie had tried to become one, the reality is that she lost her chance at being wife material the moment they first had sex. It's hypocritical, misogynistic, and archaic, but it's simply the way things are for more conservative religions.

That said, the sex wasn't the only thing that bothered Travis. Jody's unhealthy obsession with him continued to intensify and his friends became concerned. She moved to Mesa, Arizona early on in their relationship and her behavior quickly turned toxic. According to several of Travis's friends, Jody would eavesdrop on his conversations, follow him to the bathroom and wait outside the door, and forward his private emails to herself.

Her possessiveness became so extreme that one couple, Skye and Chris Hughes, started to fear for Travis' safety. Chris tried to convince Travis that she was dangerous, telling the salesmen that they worried they would find him chopped up in her freezer. He later told reporters that, when Travis caught Jodi eavesdropping from behind a closed door one night, the fury in her eyes frightened him and his wife. They actually feared she would burn their house down with everyone in it.

Disturbingly, that was just the beginning. Part 4: Jealousy, Jodie, and John Doe Travis grew frustrated with Jodie's behavior and became unhappy in their relationship. However, he struggled to break it off. Jodie had an iron grip on him. She would threaten to kill herself if he tried to end things and often used sex to manipulate him. Travis felt trapped, which pushed him to do the unthinkable.

In June 2007, Travis started messaging other women behind Jodi's back, a feat that was virtually impossible as she kept constant tabs on him. She found out, of course, and broke up with him in a rage. It seems she did this in the hopes that he would come running back to her. He didn't. They had only been dating for five months at that stage, and Travis was happy to keep it that way. But Jodi couldn't let him go.

She continued trying to see him, and quickly became desperate to get him back. She even broke into his home on several occasions. The petite blonde would crawl in through the doggie door, strip naked, sneak into his bed, and wait for him there. Jody's unsettling persistence eventually paid off. Travis seemed to be a slave to his own secret desires. Although he was fully aware of her dangerous obsession with him,

He started sleeping with her again and convinced himself that their arrangement was strictly friends with benefits. Travis continued seeing other women and Jodi couldn't handle it. She wanted to be the only woman in his life and was willing to do anything to guarantee it. Jodi started stalking Travis in December of that year. She watched him in secret, kept track of his movements, and broke into his home to snoop through his things when he wasn't there.

When he had a woman over, she would creep in through the doggy door and cause a scene, before slashing his tires on her way out as punishment. Every time Travis managed to get close to someone, Jody would find out who the women were and harass them until they left him alone. He started seeing one girl more regularly, but any hopes that it would turn into something more were dashed when she received a threatening email.

The sender, who we can only assume was Jody, called themselves John Doe. In hindsight, that pseudonym was gravely ominous. However, Travis was too blinded by his lust to be scared off by Jody's unhinged behavior. The pair continued having sex and started traveling together, even after Jody moved back to California to live with her grandparents in April of 2008. Jody was elated.

She thought she had finally pinned Travis down for good. I can understand why. Not only was he visiting her in California, but in May, he asked her to join him on a work trip to Cancun the following month. However, he abruptly changed his mind.

Travis knew this would only give her the wrong impression, so he decided to go with a friend from work instead, Marie Mimi Hall. Jody didn't take the news well. He thought she was being unreasonable, but chalked it up to the stress caused by a burglary that happened at her grandparents' home shortly after he uninvited her.

Thankfully, no one was hurt, though the thief did make off with some electronics, cash, and a .25 caliber gun. Even so, during the first week of June, it became evident that Travis had made the right decision. He found out that Jodi had hacked into his Facebook account and promptly told her to stay out of his life forever. This time, he meant it. The pair went their separate ways and Travis began preparing for his upcoming flight to Cancun.

Jodi seemed to have a trip of her own on the cards. Part 5: Her Name is Jodi Meanwhile, back in Mesa, Arizona, Mimi Hall was starting to worry. She and Travis were going to Cancun on June 10th, but she hadn't heard from him in days. Finally, the day before they were supposed to leave, she decided to go to his house and speak with him herself. Mimi knocked on Travis's door over and over again, but there was no answer.

He wasn't responding to her calls and texts either. At that stage, she knew something was wrong, so she phoned their mutual friends, Melissa Lowry and Dallin Forres. The pair rushed over to help and noticed that Travis' dog was locked inside, which was very unusual if he was home. But if he wasn't home, then where was he? Their instincts were screaming that Travis was in trouble, so they got his garage code from another friend and entered the house through the laundry room.

An awful smell lingered in the air, as if the garbage had been left to rot in the heat. Travis' bedroom door was locked, but the group heard loud noises coming from another room. They knocked on the door, hoping he was inside, only to find his roommate, Zach Billings. Zach had been in bed watching movies with his girlfriend all evening and didn't hear them trying to get into the house. Strangely, he hadn't noticed the foul smell either.

Zach was surprised by their worried expressions and explained that he hadn't seen Travis for almost a week. He thought the salesman had already left for Cancun. After Mimi explained the situation to Zach, he instantly understood their alarm. He rummaged through the house to find Travis's key and told the women to wait outside. Zach and Dallin then entered the bedroom, where they were confronted with a gruesome scene. A putrid stench filled the room,

Blood was splattered across the walls, behind the door, and strewn throughout the hallway. They couldn't take two steps without walking through large pools of it. The men followed the trail of gore into the bathroom, where they found the naked, decomposing body of Travis Alexander. It was crumpled in a discolored heap in his stand-up shower.

Mimi called 911 in a panic while Zach and Dallin retched and spluttered, trying not to puke. The dispatcher asked her several questions, including whether anyone had recently threatened Travis. Mimi was immediately struck with a sudden realization. She explained that his ex-girlfriend had been following him, breaking into his home and slashing his tires. "Her name is Jody!" Mimi cried. Moments later, the house was teeming with officers.

Detective Esteban Flores inspected Travis's body and was shocked by the sheer brutality of his injuries. He had clearly suffered immensely before eventually succumbing to a vicious, prolonged attack. The salesman's hands were shredded from deep gashes, which told Flores that he had fought desperately to survive. Evidently, he was no match for his attacker's frenzied rampage.

Travis was stabbed at least 27 times and had his throat slit from ear to ear, which ripped open his jugular vein, arteries, and trachea. He was all but decapitated. This alone was more than enough to end his life in seconds, but his killer obviously wasn't taking any chances.

Flores noticed a small bullet hole just above Travis's right eyebrow. His body was so badly decomposed that it had started to mummify, making it nearly impossible to determine whether he was shot pre or post-mortem. Whatever came first, the killer clearly didn't stop until long after his heart had stopped beating. Detective Flores couldn't find any signs of forced entry. Travis clearly knew his killer well, and they clearly wanted him dead.

The salesman's body was taken in for further analysis, and the forensics team got busy collecting DNA evidence. The killer had partially cleaned the crime scene and tried to rinse the blood from Travis's corpse with the showerhead. It was an amateur attempt at best, and the forensic specialists managed to find an abundance of vital clues.

They lifted several fingerprints, bagged a single hair and took multiple blood samples, including one from a bloody palm print found near the bathroom door. A spent shell casing was also discovered and taken in as evidence. It was found on the floor near the sink and came from a .25 caliber bullet. The killer had used Travis's bedding to try and mop up the scene. Investigators found it in the washing machine along with the camera.

Someone had purposefully put it through the wash cycle with the bedding to destroy it. While they succeeded in wrecking the camera, the SD card and all the incriminating photos stored within it were untouched. Part 6. A Thousand Words Just four days after Travis was found slaughtered in his shower, Jodi posted several photos of him to her MySpace page. The caption read, In loving memory of Travis.

She really thought she could play the part of the heartbroken former lover and even approached the police to offer her help. Jodi, who now had brown hair, volunteered her own fingerprints and saliva samples for DNA testing and readily provided the police with an alibi. Apparently, she hadn't seen Travis since April of 2008 and was on a road trip the week he was murdered. She also insisted that their relationship was casual and that they remained close friends after the breakup.

Investigators hadn't yet tied Jody to the crime scene. However, they didn't need lab results to consider her their prime suspect. They had already questioned several of Travis's family and friends, all of whom pointed the finger at her. Speaking of fingers, Jody's were riddled with cuts and scratches. She laughed it off, explaining that she was a clumsy bartender, but investigators weren't convinced.

The pictures recovered from the memory card of the camera were worth more than a thousand words. They were timestamped for June 4th, 2008, and completely obliterated Jody's alibi. Some pictures depicted Travis alive and posing naked in a shower, just minutes before his violent demise. Others captured the aftermath, showing him dead and bleeding profusely on his bathroom floor.

The pictures that the detectives found most interesting, however, were those of Jodi Arias. Six damning photos that were timestamped for the same day showed Jodi lying naked on Travis's bed and posing suggestively. There was no denying it now. The pictures proved that she had lied about not seeing Travis since April and fabricated an alibi to throw the police off her trail. They also proved that Jodi was the last person to see him alive. That's not all.

The police had managed to build a timeline of her movements in the day leading up to and following Travis's death. On June 2, Jody rented a car from Budget Rent-A-Car in Redding and drove south through California. She stopped to visit her ex-boyfriend, Darrell Brewer, the following day. However, she wasn't looking to catch up. She needed a favor.

Jodi borrowed two of Daryl's gas cans, which allowed her to drive straight to Mesa, Arizona, without stopping at any gas stations. In her mind, this would prevent the police from tracing her trip. The amateur photographer truly thought that she was capable of outsmarting seasoned homicide detectives. In the end, her greatest passion became her downfall. According to the time-stamped photos, Jodi arrived at Travis' home on June 4th.

He missed an important conference call that evening and was never heard from again. The police pieced together what happened to him based on the photographs and blood splatter at the crime scene. Once again, it seems that Jody managed to convince Travis to sleep with her. It wasn't hard. After a particularly erotic photo shoot, investigators determined that the pair had sex. Travis jumped into the shower once they had finished and Jody got him to pose for a few nude photographs.

It's not known exactly what set her off, but investigators believe that she attacked him mere minutes after snapping the final shot. A desperate struggle ensued, which spilled over into the bedroom. Travis fought for his life, but Jodi swiftly put an end to it when she stabbed him repeatedly in the chest, slashed his throat open, and shot him in the head.

One particularly horrific picture shows her dragging his bloody, lifeless corpse toward the bathroom, where it was eventually found stuffed inside his shower. There was no doubt in the detectives' minds that Jodi was guilty of premeditated first-degree murder. However, they needed concrete proof to ensure that she couldn't get away with it. Thanks to Jodi graciously supplying her own DNA, that part was easy.

Part 7: Handstands and Hail Marys On June 26th, while Jodi wept at Travis' memorial service, the police received the lab results for the evidence collected at the crime scene. The report proved, without a doubt, that the hair and bloody palm print belonged to her. It was the last piece of the puzzle and the final nail in her coffin. Jodi was indicted for first-degree murder two weeks later while celebrating her 29th birthday.

The police brought her in for questioning on July 15th, hoping to secure a confession. Instead, she put on a show that has since gone viral. Detective Flores took the 29-year-old into an interrogation room and confronted her with the evidence they had against her. Astoundingly, despite being shown the time-stamped pictures, she vehemently denied killing Travis. In fact, she actually insisted that she was never at his house that day.

Jodi refused to believe that she had been caught. She wouldn't acknowledge that it was her posing in the photos and argued that timestamps could be altered. She couldn't explain the bloody palm print, but continued to stand her ground regardless. Not that it mattered. The police had more than enough evidence to confidently take Jodi to court. Flores formally placed her under arrest and left her alone in the interrogation room where her originally grim demeanor changed dramatically.

Jodi was caught on camera laughing, singing "Oh Holy Night" and talking to herself. It only got more bizarre from there. She was seen stuffing paper down her pants, rifling through a small trash can, and preening her hair before giggling that she should have done her makeup. At one point, she suddenly stood and did a handstand against the wall, which she held for 20 seconds. Jodi seemed unfazed by the charges she faced.

Don't be fooled though, her confidence didn't stem from innocence. She truly thought she would get away with it. The 29-year-old was booked into the Siskiyou County Jail, where she fussed over her hair before posing for her now infamous mugshot. She was interrogated again the following day, but this time, the story she told Detective Flores was vastly different from before.

Jodi finally admitted that she was at Travis' house on June 4th. However, she claimed that they weren't alone. Apparently, after they had sex, two masked men dressed in black broke in and murdered Travis. She said that they argued about killing her before one man put the gun to her head and pulled the trigger. Miraculously, the gun didn't go off.

Jodi claimed that she grabbed her purse and ran, vowing never to tell anyone what happened to protect herself from retaliation. This was an obvious lie, but she stuck with it anyway. Her arrogance was staggering. Jodi pleaded not guilty at her arraignment on September 11th and eagerly told several versions of her story in a series of jailhouse interviews with the media. In one exchange, she boldly stated, Mark my words, no jury will convict me.

Part 8: Liar Liar Jodi's much-anticipated trial commenced on January 2nd, 2013. While the world watched with bated breath, her ridiculous behavior and sensational stories had whipped the media into a frenzy, which gave the case a cult-like following. People flew in from different states just to join the crowd outside the courthouse. The gallery was overflowing, and the proceedings were filmed with plans to broadcast after the verdict.

Jodi arrived at her trial demure and dressed like the modest Mormon girl Travis once dreamt of, glasses and all. In the prosecution's opening argument, attorney Juan Martinez accused her of slaughtering Travis in a jealous rage simply because he had chosen to take Mimi to Cancun instead of her. He then turned to the jury and said, this is not a case of whodunit.

The whodunit sits in court today. The prosecutor followed this up with graphic photos of Travis's decaying, bloodied body and Jody posing nude on his bed. He emphasized the unnecessary brutality of the attack and pointed out the gaping wounds Travis had suffered trying to defend himself. Martinez's dramatic presentation had the desired effect. The jurors were pale with disgust.

Shocked gasps and muffled sobbing spilled out of the gallery as those who knew Travis grappled with the horror that would be etched into their minds forever. Martinez introduced the timeline of Jodi's movements in the first week of June 2008, along with the damning timestamped photographs. This discredited the many dubious stories she had told the police, which he cited in great detail.

He also brought up the issue of the .25 caliber shell casing found at the scene and presented the court with a police report made by Jody's grandparents on May 28th, 2008. Martinez explained that a .25 caliber pistol had been stolen from their home that night while the defendant was still living with them. If there were any doubts about Jody's guilt at that stage, they were promptly put to bed. It was quite obviously an open and shut case. However,

Rather than fighting for a plea deal, Jodi chose to attack Travis's character instead. She changed her story once again and admitted to killing him, but claimed it was done in self-defense. Her attorney's opening argument was rife with accusations of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. Just over one month later, Jodi made the decision that stunned the nation.

She took the witness stand in her own defense and began painting herself as a victim who had been vilified by the media. The then 32-year-old spoke of a childhood filled with abuse and a lifetime of violent, toxic relationships. That wasn't enough though. She needed to convince the jury that she was a battered woman. More so, she needed to convince them that she ended Travis's life in a bid to save her own. And she resorted to victim blaming to make that happen.

Travis, who could no longer defend himself, was once again at her mercy. Jodi accused him of being a pedophile, forcing her to participate in degrading sexual acts and raping her repeatedly. Travis's loved ones were forced to listen to Jodi's slanderous testimony for an agonizing 37 days, not to mention an excruciating detail. She testified that he demanded she give him oral sex on her front porch on several occasions.

after which he would ejaculate on her face, throw her some candy, and leave without a word. Jodi also insisted that Travis often physically assaulted her, citing one particular incident when he allegedly beat her senseless over $200. She had already lent him $699 and couldn't afford to give him more. This apparently infuriated Travis, who threw her to the floor and hurled profanities at her while kicking her in the ribs.

She tried to block his kicks with her hand, resulting in a broken finger. This supposedly happened two months before she slaughtered him in self-defense. According to Jodi, she visited Travis on June 4th, 2008, because they had plans to hook up. The pair took explicit photos of each other and had sex, just as the police had said. However, when she got to the shower scene, she twisted her story in her favor.

Jody claimed that she'd dropped Travis' new camera, which sent him into a blind rage. He supposedly called her a stupid idiot, got out of the shower, and body slammed her against the tiled bathroom floor. She rolled over, ran down the hallway, and hid in the closet. Jody then stated that she grabbed Travis' gun, which didn't exist, might I add, and ran into the bathroom.

She turned to face Travis and pointed the gun at him, thinking he would stop. Apparently, he didn't. Jodi asserted that he lunged at her, and the gun accidentally went off. Conveniently, she claimed that she had no recollection of stabbing him 27 times and nearly decapitating him. Part 9: The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth Jodi's testimony finally concluded in March.

and just over two months later, she was back in court to hear the verdict. The jury deliberated for four days, but not because they couldn't decide whether she was guilty. That part didn't take much deliberation at all. Despite Jodi's callous attempt at painting Travis as the villain of her story, the jury unanimously agreed that she had murdered him in cold blood. What they couldn't agree on, however, was whether it was planned.

Eventually, after considering her actions leading up to the atrocious act, the jurors made their decision. On May 8th, 2013, the 32-year-old was convicted of premeditated first-degree murder. While Jodi wept for selfish reasons, those who loved and stood behind Travis rejoiced.

Crowds of people cheered at the news that his killer had finally been brought to justice. In a criminal justice system where lies so often reign supreme, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth had prevailed. However, the fight wasn't over yet. In the state of Arizona, a conviction of this magnitude has the potential to warrant the death penalty. Now that Jodi had been found guilty, it was up to the jurors to decide her fate.

She seemed to prefer the idea of a quick and painless punishment over living with the consequences of her actions. The 32-year-old did an interview with a local TV station in Phoenix and said, "The worst outcome for me would be natural life. Longevity runs in my family, and I don't want to spend the rest of my natural life in one place." However, the decision wasn't up to her. Travis wasn't given the luxury of choosing his fate.

and Jodi wouldn't be given it either. On May 15th, the same jury that convicted her determined that the murder was especially cruel and heinous and decided that she was eligible for the death penalty. Unsurprisingly, Jodi quickly changed her tune and stated in court that she wanted to get life to avoid putting her family through any more pain. How selfless of her. When the time came for Jodi's sentencing,

the jury understandably struggled with the weight of their decision. Once again, they were unable to come to an agreement. After two separate attempts at deliberation, Judge Sherry Stevens eventually declared a mistrial. The hearing was postponed to February of 2014, during which Jody's fate was deliberated for six long days. Frustratingly, it ended in a hung jury for the third time, and another mistrial was declared.

It pains me to think of the trauma that Travis' loved ones were forced to endure as the proceedings dragged on for what seemed like a lifetime. Thankfully, Arizona state law dictates that the sentence will be decided by the judge in cases such as these. It was the smallest of mercies, but the relief was palpable. On April 13th, 2015,

Almost seven years since Travis Alexander was savagely murdered, the final chapter in his tragic story came to an end. Moments before Judge Stevens handed down Jody's sentence, Steven Alexander made a particularly poignant victim impact statement. It was taken from a blog post written by his big brother in April of 2008, less than two months before his gruesome death. "This year will be the best year of my life

I will earn more, learn more, travel more, serve more, love more, give more, and be more than all the other years of my life combined." It read. Of course, thanks to Jodi, this would never come true. Forget her cunningly crafted lies. The truth is that she robbed Travis of his future simply because he saw one without her. Now, it was her turn to lose everything.

34-year-old Jodi Ann Arias was sentenced to life behind bars with no possibility of parole. She was eventually sent to the maximum security unit of the Perryville Prison for Women in Goodyear, Arizona, where she will spend the rest of her natural life in one place, an 84-square-foot cell.