Arias murder case heads to jury
Manslaughter charge possible, judge says in high-profile case
PHOENIX— An Arizona judge has sent the murder case of Jodi Arias to a jury for deliberations to decide whether the California woman committed murder in killing her ex-boyfriend in a case that has grabbed headlines since it began in January.
Arias, 32, could face the death penalty if convicted of murdering 30year-old Travis Alexander, whose body was found in the shower of his Phoenix suburb home in June 2008. He had been shot in the face and stabbed 27 times and his throat was slashed.
Arias has admitted shooting Alexander, but said it was in self-defence after he attacked her in a rage because she dropped his camera while taking snapshots of him in the shower.
Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens told jurors Friday they could consider the charges of first- and second-degree murder or the lesser charge of manslaughter. First-degree murder requires proof of premeditation.
Defence counsel for Jodi Arias denied in closing arguments on Friday in her high-profile murder trial that she went on a meticulously planned “covert mission” to Arizona expressly to kill her ex-boyfriend and then hide her tracks.
Arias has admitted killing Alexander, whom she dated for several months and with whom she contin- ued having intimate relations after their breakup. Defence lawyer Kirk Nurmi told the jury Friday that Arias left a clear “paper trail” of receipts for a car she rented at the airport in Redding, Calif., countering the prosecution’s argument that she had gone on a mission to his home in the Phoenix suburbs intending to kill him. “You don’t go to Budget rent-acar, plop down a couple of hundred dollars and drive off with their car . . . you have a driver’s licence and credit car information. There’s a clear paper trail,” Nurmi told the court. “An airport with security cameras, and security all around . . . It doesn’t make any sense if you are on a covert mission.” In an appeal to counter the prosecution’s charges that Arias had bought gas cans and filled them up in California to mask her trip to the Phoenix suburbs to kill Alexander, Nurmi said she had kept the receipts for the items. “Why would this smart woman not . . . take this receipt and throw it right in the garbage can?” In closing arguments on Thursday, prosecutor Juan Martinez said Arias took the first steps in planning the murder when she stole a .25-calibre handgun — the same calibre weapon used in the slaying — that was reported missing in a burglary at her grandparents’ California home. Arias was never charged with the theft. She previously testified she shot Alexander, 30, with his own pistol and that she only became aware of the theft at her grandparents later. The weapon used in the killing has never been recovered.