Jurors find Jodi Arias eligible for death penalty

PHOENIX (AP) — The same jury that convicted Jodi Arias of murder one week ago took less than three hours Wednesday to determine that the former waitress is eligible for the death penalty in the stabbing death of her one-time lover.

The swift verdict sets the stage for the final phase of the trial to determine whether the 32-year-old Arias should be sentenced to life in prison or the death penalty for the 2008 murder of Travis Alexander in a Phoenix suburb.

Prosecutors will call Alexander's family and other witnesses in an effort to convince the panel Arias should face the ultimate punishment. Her defense lawyers will call family members in an attempt to gain sympathy from jurors to save her life. It's not yet known if Arias will testify.

Arias showed no emotion Wednesday after the jury returned a decision that was widely expected given the violent nature of the killing. Investigators say she slashed the victim's throat, stabbed him in the heart and shot him in the face in what they say was a jealous rage after Alexander wanted to date other women and take a trip to Mexico with his latest love interest.

The jury simply had to determine the killing was committed in an especially cruel and heinous manner to complete the "aggravation phase" of the trial and move on to the penalty portion. The jury got the case around noon, took a lunch break and returned the verdict around 3 p.m.

Family members of Alexander sobbed in the front row as prosecutor Juan Martinez took the jury through the killing one more time earlier in the day. He described how blood gushed from Alexander's chest, hands and neck as the 30-year-old motivational speaker and businessman stood at the sink in his master bathroom and looked into the mirror with Arias behind him.

"The last thing he saw before he lapsed into unconsciousness ... was that blade coming to his throat," Martinez said. "And the last thing he felt before he left this earth was pain."

Wednesday's proceedings played out quickly, with only one prosecution witness and none for the defense. The most dramatic moments occurred when Martinez displayed photos of the bloody crime scene for the jury and paused in silence for two minutes to describe how long he said it took for Alexander to die at Arias' hands.

Arias, wearing a silky, cream-colored blouse, appeared to fight back tears most of the morning, but didn't seem fazed by the verdict. Afterward she chatted with her attorneys. Arias spent the weekend on suicide watch before being transferred back to an all-female jail where she will remain until sentencing.

Arias' attorneys didn't put on much of a case during the aggravation phase, offering no witnesses and giving brief opening statements and closing arguments. They said Alexander would have had so much adrenaline rushing through his body that he might not have felt much pain.

The only witness was the medical examiner who performed the autopsy and explained to jurors how Alexander did not die calmly and fought for his life as evidenced by the numerous defensive wounds on his body.

Minutes after her first-degree murder conviction last Wednesday, Arias granted an interview to Fox affiliate KSAZ, only adding to the circus-like environment surrounding the trial that has become a cable TV sensation with its graphic tales of sex, lies and violence.

"Longevity runs in my family, and I don't want to spend the rest of my natural life in one place," a tearful Arias said. "I believe death is the ultimate freedom, and I'd rather have my freedom as soon as I can get it."

However, Arias cannot choose the death penalty. It's up to the jury to recommend a sentence.

Arias acknowledged killing Alexander, saying it was self-defense. She initially denied any involvement in the killing, even proclaiming to a detective after her arrest in 2008: "I'm not guilty. I didn't hurt Travis. If I hurt Travis, I would beg for the death penalty."

View the original article here

Arizona jury finds Arias eligible for death penalty in ex-boyfriend's slaying

By Brad Poole

(Reuters) - An Arizona jury on Wednesday declared Jodi Arias eligible to receive the death penalty for the fatal shooting and stabbing of her ex-boyfriend in 2008, saying that she had acted with extreme cruelty.

The jury was due to return to court on Thursday to weigh additional evidence in deciding whether to actually sentence Arias to death or to life in prison for killing Travis Alexander, 30.

The same jury rejected Arias' claims of self-defense to convict her last week of the first-degree murder of Alexander, whose body was found slumped in the shower of his Phoenix-area home five years ago. He had been stabbed 27 time, had his throat slashed and been shot in the face.

The penalty phase of the proceedings moved swiftly on its first day on Wednesday. After prosecution and defense presentations, the jury deliberated for about three hours before deciding Arias was eligible for the death penalty and then recessed for the day.

Arias appeared agitated and tearful at times during the proceedings, wiping her eyes and nose with a tissue and mostly keeping her gaze downward. But she kept her composure during the reading of the jury's verdict finding that she had committed the murder in an "especially cruel" manner.

She had been placed on suicide watch in a psychiatric ward following her conviction a week ago after saying in a television interview that she would prefer the death penalty to life in prison, but she was returned to her jail cell on Monday.

The petite, 32-year-old former waitress from California had sought unsuccessfully to convince the jury during her trial that she acted in self-defense.

She admitted shooting Alexander, with whom she was having an on-again, off-again affair, but said she opened fire on him with his own pistol after he attacked her in a rage because she dropped his camera while taking snapshots of him in the shower. She said she did not remember stabbing him.

The lurid circumstances of the case, which went to trial in January and featured graphic testimony, photographs of the blood-sprayed crime scene and a sex tape, became a sensation on cable television news and unfolded in live Internet telecasts of the proceedings.

On Wednesday, prosecutors focused on the grisly details of Alexander's slaying in their bid to cast the crime as especially cruel - a legal standard for aggravating factors that would qualify Arias for the death sentence.

FIERCE ATTACK

Prosecutor Juan Martinez recounted how Arias attacked Alexander in his own shower, repeatedly stabbing him for two minutes as he tried to escape from the bathroom. She then followed the bleeding victim down a hallway and slashed his throat when he was too weak to get away.

Alexander knew he was going to die and was unable to resist his attacker at that point, Martinez said.

"Each and every time that blade went into his body, it hurt," Martinez told the jury. "It was only death that relieved that pain. It was only death that relieved that anguish, and that is especially cruel."

The defense argued that adrenaline would have prevented Alexander from feeling the pain of the knife blows, thus reducing his suffering. If the bullet wound to his forehead came first, rendering him unconscious in seconds, then Alexander would not have suffered, defense attorney Kirk Nurmi said.

During the trial, Martinez cast Arias as manipulative and prone to jealousy in previous relationships. He said she had meticulously planned to kill Alexander, a businessman and motivational speaker.

In making his case for premeditated murder, Martinez had accused Arias of bringing the pistol used in the killing, which has not been recovered, with her from California home to the scene of the crime. He said she also rented a car, removed its license plate and bought gasoline cans and fuel to conceal her journey to the Phoenix suburbs to kill Alexander.

Martinez said Arias also lied after the killing to deflect any suspicion that she had been involved in his death, leaving a voicemail on Alexander's cellphone, sending flowers to his grandmother and telling detectives she was not at the crime scene before changing her story.

Nurmi, meanwhile, argued that Arias had snapped in the "sudden heat of passion" in the moments between a photograph she took showing Alexander alive and taking a shower, and a subsequent picture of his apparently dead body covered in blood.

(Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Tim Dobbyn and Bill Trott)

View the original article here