Travis Victor Alexander was born on July 28, 1977, in Riverside, California. After his father’s death, Alexander, then aged 11 and his seven siblings were taken in by their paternal grandmother, who eventually introduced them to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Alexander was a salesman for the multilevel marketing company Prepaid Legal Services; he also worked as a motivational speaker.
In September, 2006, 30 year old Travis Alexander met 28 year old Jodi Arias at a conference in Las Vegas. At the time, Arias was living in Palm Desert, California, working as a saleswoman. The two had an instant connection and spoke on the phone every day. They started exchanging thousands of emails.
Due to Alexander’s faith, he and Arias could not date formally until she had been batipsed into the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints. She undertook her baptism on the November 26, 2006 and the two officially became a couple in the following February.
In June 2007, Alexander and Arias broke up. Although they were no longer dating, the couple maintained a physical relationship. Throughout the next year, they continued a sexual relationship but were not an official couple. They travelled together but it was very much known their relationship was not very healthy and they even hid it between their friends. Alexander told friends on many occasions that Arias was obsessed with him and believed she had done things such as slash his tires and hack into his Facebook account. After the couple broke up Arias moved to Mesa, Arizona, but on April 2008 she then moved back to California and lived with her grandparents.
At the beginning of June, Alexander had scheduled a trip to Cancun, Mexico. But having missed an important conference call on the night of June 4 and his colleagues being unable to reach him thereafter, they went to his home address on June 9. His roommates said he was out of town and his bedroom door was locked. After some searching, they found a key to Alexander’s master bedroom. When they entered it, they were met with a grisley scene. Large pools of blood in the hallway leading to the master bathroom, where Alexander’s body was discovered in the shower. His throat had been cut and he had been shot in the head and stabbed multiple times.
Alexander’s friends immediately point to Arias as a suspect to the Police. The Police contact Arias for questioning and she claims she had not seen Alexander is since April.
It was discovered during the investigation it was discovered that on May 28, a week or so before the murder, a burglary occurred at the residence of Arias’ grandparents, with whom she was living in Yreka, California. A .25-caliber gun and other objects were taken. The grandparents’ gun was never recovered. A spent .25 caliber round was located near one of the sinks in the master bathroom where Alexander’s body was found.
On June 2, Arias rented a white Ford Focus in Redding, California, about 100 miles south of her residence. Several days before the trip, on June 2nd, Arias repeatedly contacted her ex-boyfriend, Darryl Brewer, asking to borrow two 5-gallon gas cans for a trip to Arizona. The cans were not returned to Brewer. Receipts found showed that Arias had purchased a third 5-gallon gas can, sunblock, and facial cleanser from Walmart in Salinas, California, on June 3, 2008.
Alexander’s damaged digital camera was also located in the downstairs washing machine. The camera was new and it seemed odd that the camera was attempted to be destroyed. Detective Flores, via phone interview with Arias, asked her if she knew a possible motive for why someone would want to damage Alexander’s camera. Although images had been deleted, Mesa Police were able to recover the images. The recovered images included Arias and Alexander, both in sexually suggestive poses, at approximately 1:40 pm on June 4, 2008. The last photo of Alexander alive, and in the shower, was taken at 5:29:20 pm on June 4. Moments later, images appear of an individual, believed to be Alexander, “profusely bleeding” on the floor.
A bloody palm print was located in the bathroom hallway, which DNA revealed to be a mixture of Arias’ and Alexander’s DNA.
After the murder, Arias then drove to meet a former work colleague and love interest of hers, Ryan Burns in Utah on June 5. Burns and others who met Arias in Utah after the killing indicated she had bandages on her hands and she wore long sleeves on days when it was very hot. She told different stories about how she received the cuts to her hands. Burns was told they were from an injury while working at “Margaritaville” restaurant. At the trial, it was revealed by Siskiyou County, California, authorities that no such restaurant exists, nor ever existed in the area. At the time of the killing, she worked at a Mexican restaurant called Casa Ramos in Yreka.
On June 7, Arias returned the rental car. She had previously told the Budget Rent a Car staff that she would only be driving the car locally, it had been driven about 2,800 miles. It was also missing all of its floor mats, and there were what looked like Kool-Aid stains on the front and rear seats. The car was cleaned before police were able to examine it.
Even after all the evidence was uncovered, Arias continued to insist that she had last seen Alexander in April 2008 despite being presented with DNA and photographic evidence by Detective Esteban Flores.
Arias was indicted by a grand jury on a first-degree murder charge on July 9, 2008, and arrested at her grandparents’ home on July 15, 2008. She was extradited to Arizona where she pled not guilty.
Arias gave three different accounts of her whereabouts. She originally told police that she had not been in the home at the time of Alexander’s death. She later told police that two intruders had broken into Alexander’s home and that they murdered him and attacked her. Finally, she stated that she killed Alexander in self-defence and she was a victim of domestic violence.
The trial commenced on December 12 2012. In opening arguments on January 2 2013, prosecutor Juan Martinez sought the death penalty. Arias was represented by appointed counsel L. Kirk Nurmi and Jennifer Willmott, who argued that Alexander’s death was a justifiable homicide committed in self-defence.
The trial went on for 5 months, Arias’ 18-day testimony added to a very long defence portion of the guilt phase of the trial, which led to problems with retention of jury members. On April 3, a member of the jury was dismissed for “misconduct”. The defence team asked for a mistrial, which the judge denied. On April 12, another juror was excused for health reasons. A third juror was dismissed on April 25 after being arrested for a DUI offense.
On May 8, after 15 hours of deliberation, Arias was found guilty of first-degree murder. Out of twelve jurors, five jurors found her guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, and seven jurors found her guilty of both first-degree premeditated murder and felony murder. As the guilty verdict was read, Arias struggled to repress tears as Alexander’s family smiled and hugged each other. Several people who had gathered outside the courtroom began celebrating by cheering and chanting.
Arias was sentenced with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole and is serving her life sentence in Arizona.
Sources
Huffington Post – https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/jodi-arias-timeline_n_2387245?ri18n=true&guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmluZy5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALANxx3oyCUoYGx4DxrelO9EMkgru-jWkPNLhvWp_n2InWXqesEmYYHnrd2omHp8j_avdK9SMnQ5bw-Pot6BMwrblOy0beqXukVYtMXVpy1mTzZzpf-Pstm5wJbvzK_bL1c3hfqtqTglYaro3OmH3o-25OXqkZ0hzR23uaIKA5tW
Muderpedia – https://murderpedia.org/female.A/a/arias-jodi.htm
