Jurors show disbelief of Jodi Arias stories

PHOENIX (AP) — Jodi Arias insists she killed lover Travis Alexander in 2008 at his suburban Phoenix home in self-defense during a violent fight. She then took pictures of his body, cleaned the scene, drove to Utah and proceeded to tell a series of lies to cover her tracks. She now says it was such a traumatic experience that she remembers little of the actual killing.

Jurors asking questions of her this week during her murder trial, however, obviously don't believe all of her testimony.

Here are a few questions posed to Arias by jurors through the judge on Thursday, along with the defendant's responses and the backstory:

LIES

Jury: "After all the lies you have told, why should we believe you now?"

Arias: "Lying isn't typically something I just do ... The lies I've told in this case can be tied directly back to either protecting Travis' reputation or my involvement in his death in any way because I was very ashamed."

Jury: "Would you decide to tell the truth if you never got arrested?"

Arias: "I honestly don't know the answer to that question."

The backstory: Arias vehemently denied having anything to do with the killing, and even sent sympathy flowers to Alexander's family. She later said masked intruders did it before settling on self-defense two years after her arrest.

___

SELF-DEFENSE

Jury: "Why were you afraid of the consequences if you killed Travis in self-defense?"

Arias: "I believed it was not OK ... to take someone's life even if you were defending yourself."

Jury: "Why didn't you call 911 to help Travis?"

Arias: "I was scared to call anyone."

The backstory: Arias contends that Alexander lost his temper during a fight over a dropped camera and slammed her to the floor in anger. The fight escalated, she says, until she had no other choice but to shoot him in the head. She says she has no recollection of stabbing and slashing him nearly 30 times and slitting his throat. She also testified about other fights with Alexander during their relationship in which she became fearful for her safety, but no evidence at trial has indicated that Alexander ever displayed violent behavior.

___

THE GUN

Jury: "Have you ever had any firearms training or fired a .25-caliber pistol prior to this event?"

Arias: "I have never fired a gun but am relatively familiar with them."

Jury: "Why didn't you just run out of the house instead of grabbing the gun from the closet?"

Arias: "Again, it happened so fast."

The backstory: Arias contends that Alexander kept a .25-caliber pistol in his closet that she retrieved during their fight, despite no evidence presented at trial that he even owned a gun. She says she dumped it in the desert after she shot him, and no knife used in the killing has been found by authorities. Arias' grandparents reported a .25-caliber handgun stolen from their house before the shooting. She claims she didn't take it.

___

MEMORY

Jury: "Is there anyone else who knows about your memory issues?"

Arias: "I think I have a really excellent memory."

Jury: "How can you say that you don't have memory issues when you can't remember how you stabbed him so many times and slashed his throat?"

Arias: "I think that I have a good memory. June 4 is an anomaly for me."

Jury: "Several times while testifying about the abuse by Travis, you have made comments like, 'As I understand it now,' and 'I've come to realize.' How has this realization come about?"

Arias: "Just the farther away I get from the situation the more perspective I have."

The backstory: Arias says she has "huge gaps" in her memory of the actual killing. But she also displayed impeccable recollections about other aspects of her life, describing keys events from her youth and past relationships down to exact dates and days of the week during earlier testimony.

___

THE RELATIONSHIP

Jury: "Would you agree that you came away from the June 4 incident rather unscathed while Travis suffered a gunshot and multiple stab wounds?"

Arias: "That's a relatively accurate assessment."

The backstory: Arias testified on several occasions how much she loved Alexander. But she said he had a darker side that caused him to become violent and carry out perverted sexual acts.

View the original article here

Parents of Violent Mental Disorder Patients Share Their Stories to Lawmakers

The father of a young man whose battle with mental illness ended in suicide told a bipartisan group of Congress members today about the sometimes nightmarish struggles he faced trying to help his son.

"I can't tell you the horror it is to have a child, behind you, going down an interstate highway, trying to get him to the place to save him and he tells you, 'If you stop the car, I'll jump out and kill myself with these trucks behind us,'" Pat Milam said, recounting the trauma of care for his young adult son, who had swallowed a bottle of pills in one of several attempts to commit suicide.

That attempt was ultimately unsuccessful. But at the age of 24, Matthew Milam would take his own life, a mere eight days after being discharged from a psychiatric ward where he was treated for bipolar disorder and paranoid schizophrenia.

He used a makeshift explosive device on that final attempt. Police had previously told his father they could not charge Matthew with a crime after he had alerted them to finding materials to construct pipe bombs in his room at home.

Milam was one of three parents who appeared at a mental health and violence forum discussion today on Capitol Hill that was hosted by the oversight subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The body called the meeting due to its bearing over the private health industry.

The event today is latest such panel to be formed as the nation calls for investigations into the causes of a series of mass shootings in recent years.

RELATED: Newtown Shooter Adam Lanza had Sensory Processing Disorder

The guests blamed what they perceived as a failed American mental health system for their family's ordeals, and in the case of Milam, death.

Pete Earley, whose own adult son had been successfully treated for illness, said vigorous and constant outpatient service was required.

"We need to change the commitment process," he said. "But we can't just change that if you don't back it up with services. Because there's no place to go."

According to the Child Mind Institute, 15 million Americans under the age of 24 suffer from a mental disability, but there are only approximately 7,500 certified child psychiatrists.

A national stigma surrounding mental illness, combined with costs, weak health insurance coverage, and a bureaucratic maze of state and local guidelines have resulted in the average patient requiring two years to be identified and seek treatment according to the institute.

RELATED: Medical Bills Bankrupt Families of Mentally Ill Children

Earley, a former Washington Post reporter, documented his son's case in his book, "Crazy." He told the panel a turning point came when the family found a dedicated case worker, who helped the young man adjust into independent living with two roommates also undergoing treatment.

"That took a tremendous job off of me," Earley said. "I could be the parent."

Earley's son is now employed in the state of Virginia as a "peer-to-peer" support specialist, helping incarcerated individuals with mental illness overcome their disability.

"Most people with mental illnesses can get better. You got to give them hope. You've got to give them the tools to do it," he said.

The panel was also joined by Liza Long, whose blog about her own trials with a violently mentally ill 13-year-old went viral after the December shooting deaths of 20 Connecticut first graders and six adults. was named for the gunman.

Long, who said her son is currently taking a "cornucopia of drugs" to control his rage, says sometimes parents' only safe option is to have their children charged with a crime.

"We live in fear of the future," she said. "What will happen when my son turns 18? Will my son harm himself or others? How will I pay for all the services I need to keep my child functioning?"

The mother asked for increased funding for the school counselors, research, and consistent community resources. In addition she asked the lawmakers to consider an expanded budget for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Representative Timothy Murphy, D-Pa., led the forum. In his closing remarks he told the assembled experts and lawmakers that while the discussion helped members "understand the fears, the worries, the love, the frustration," of the issue at hand, the general welfare of the country demanded a thoughtful and deliberate way forward.

"I want to make sure we don't do some knee-jerk reactions and think because we did something, we did the right thing," he said. "The worst thing we can do is lull ourselves into some state of sleep, and say 'Well, we took care of mental illness so we're done for the next decade.'"

Also Read

View the original article here