Jodi Arias Trial: Prosecution Rests After Showing Morbid Diary Entries
Prosecutors in the Jodi Arias trial have rested their case but not before presenting pages from her personal diary to the jury. The pages show an obsession with Arias' ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander, who was murdered on June 4, and the prosecution hopes the diary could shed light on the thinking of the woman suspected of killing him.
"Last night was so hard… I wanted so badly to call Travis, but knowing he wouldn't answer was just too much to bear. And knowing he wasn't calling me anytime soon was just killing me. I broke down and just cried and cried and cried until I fell asleep," Arias wrote on June 11, one week after Alexander's death.
His body was not found until 24 hours before Arias' diary entry, fueling speculation that she knew he was already dead. Alexander had been shot in the face, stabbed 27 times and had his throat slit from ear to ear a week earlier; his body was not discovered until several days later.
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Arias did, in fact, call Alexander's cell phone at least 10 times right before his death and four times afterwards, a Verizon Wireless representative told the jury. One call lasted 16 minutes, and it was suggested that Arias attempted to delete the messages she had left him previously.
"It just feels like he hasn't called me in too long. I hear him singing. I hear him laugh," Arias later wrote in her journal.
"Travis always told me he liked the name Iris for a girl… If I ever have a son I'll name him Alexander," Arias wrote in a final entry.
The prosecution has posited that Arias planned the murder and then fled to another state with another boyfriend. Part of their case has rested on the fact that Arias gave three separate accounts of what happened the day Alexander was killed: first denying she was there; then saying that two masked men broke into the home; now claiming self-defense.
"I'm not the brightest person, but I don't think I could stab him. I think I would have to shoot him continuously until he was dead. If, IF I had it in me… [I would] make it as humane as possible… make it quick," Arias told Detected Esteban Flores during interrogation.
As the prosecution rests, the defense will prepare to argue that Alexander was controlling and possibly abusive to Arias, who had no choice but to kill him after he "lunged" at her. The trial will continue on Jan. 29.
