Given the many interviews she had done in her long career, Amy noticed she did not get an uneasy physical sensation from being in Jodi’s presence. She was even looking for an evil vibe, but said she didn’t get one from Jodi. “The vibe I got was a non-vibe,” she said, “no emotion, a vacancy of any emotion whatsoever. It didn’t matter what the questions were, she was going to stay calm and have an answer for it.” Amy found it extremely odd, but not innately insidious.
Other reporters had similar opinions. Another female reporter said she hadn’t been creeped out at all. In fact, she had wanted to get up and give Jodi a hug after the interview. A male reporter told Amy that he found something very captivating about Jodi and her soft-spoken manner. Amy summed it up by saying, “She’s like one of those pretty fish deep down in the ocean that you are somehow drawn to, but when you get close to them, you realize ‘Oh my god, they’re poisonous.’ ” She acknowledged Jodi’s looks were striking, even though she had made herself as unattractive as possible for court. She looked tiny and harmless, and it was easy to see how Travis would have been attracted to her. Jodi even seemed to flirt with her favorite reporter, the handsome Troy Hayden.
Amy came away from her own interview with Jodi convinced that the woman was out of her mind. That being said, she thought Jodi clearly could distinguish right from wrong, based on her extraordinary attempts to cover up her crime and create a phony alibi.
“I interpreted Jodi Arias as being much more seriously mentally ill than the defense ever let on,” said Amy after the session.
Friends of Travis’s were outraged by Jodi’s postconviction media tour, and many questioned her sincerity. Chris Hughes, in particular, didn’t believe her death wish for a moment. “I think Jodi’s request for the death penalty is Jodi doing what she does; lying and manipulating,” he stated. He said Jodi was too scared to die, and that she had been threatening suicide for years, even in high school. “If Jodi wanted to be dead, she would be,” he concluded. Travis’s friend Dave Hall agreed with Chris, but he thought Jodi’s vanity factored in. “I think Jodi Arias loves herself too much to actually want that,” he commented.
Jodi Arias herself changed her mind within a day, saying she realized her family didn’t deserve the additional pain that would come if she were put to death. She said even her lawyers felt “a little betrayed” and blindsided by her interview. During her allocution, her plea to the jury, she asked the panel of twelve jurors to reject the death penalty outright for the sake of her family.
“I’m asking you to please, please don’t do that to them. I’ve already hurt them so badly, along with so many other people,” she said. “I want everyone’s healing to begin, and I want everyone’s pain to stop.” Again, there were very few people in the court of public opinion who bought into anything she said. Even her closing seemed laced with self-pity. “To this day, I can hardly believe I was capable of such violence. But I know that I was, and for that, I’m going to be sorry for the rest of my life.” That was as far as her regret seemed to take her.
Dr. Drew weighed in on Jodi’s seeming lack of remorse. “It evokes in the public a sense of rage, that we can’t have this woman amongst us because we don’t see her remorseful; we don’t see her falling on her sword, we don’t see her really empathizing with this family, we don’t see her taking responsibility, which is a borderline thing. But we do see her as very cunning.”
As of this writing, Travis has been gone for more than five years, but with the very high likelihood of another penalty phase in Jodi Arias’s future, this case could go on interminably. Another unbiased jury has to be selected, which could take a long time, especially in light of the massive media coverage to date. The legally necessary act of bringing another set of jurors up to speed on the facts of the case is absolutely daunting.
So what will ultimately become of Jodi Arias? If the new jury in the penalty phase of the case decides on a death sentence, Judge Stephens is legally bound by that decision. But if the new jury votes for life in prison instead, Judge Stephens would have two options: one would be sentencing Jodi to life in prison with no possibility of release; the other would be sentencing her to life in prison with the possibility of release after twenty-five years. If that happens, and with time already served, she would be over fifty years of age before her first chance of release. Travis’s family hopes that day never comes.
A lot of the fascination with this case has to do with the wild, forbidden sex. We are mesmerized by the infidelity, the hypocrisy, and the sexual abandon, the obsession, the games, especially in light of God’s Law, the Law of Chastity. In a certain way, we are the voyeurs of a unique sexual descent into a kind of hell. Why the extreme allure of the sex lives of two strangers, beyond the fatal attraction? Maybe Nurmi hit a homerun with his observation about “dirty little secret.” Secrets, sex, lies, an audiotape . . . and the obsession of a woman scorned who took a good man, by many accounts a great man, down. It may be awful, but—still—we like to watch.
The new jury that will decide the ultimate punishment is not yet seated. The court of public opinion is loud and excoriating, but fundamentally irrelevant as far as the law is concerned. Still, justice for Travis is the battle cry for most every spectator. This new death penalty phase gives room for new speculation and analysis. Only time will tell what new tactic the defense might employ to save the life of Jodi. No matter what, there will continue to be speculation about the mystery of Jodi Arias, as people pore over the evidence and try to understand what bizarre combination of chemistry and personality drove her to kill a man she professed to love.
When asked if Jodi was mentally ill, Dr. Drew concluded, “She has significant mental health issues for sure. The interesting conundrum is, it doesn’t justify or mitigate what she’s done, it’s just a way of understanding how things like this can happen.” Of critical importance, says Dr. Drew, is that Jodi be held accountable.
There are plenty of people with borderline personality disorder who do not murder, who keep themselves in check, who get help for what ails them. If there’s no cure for borderlines, there are ways to contain it. Jodi had studied spiritual and philosophical movements as esoteric as transcendentalism. She must have had some awareness of basic psychology. It’s hard to know why she did not seek help. People told her she had a problem, and yet she made the decision to ignore those who were undoubtedly telling her to get help. Dr. Drew’s point cannot be stressed enough. “I can have compassion for an alcoholic, but when the alcoholic drives drunk and kills someone, my compassion ends.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank my dear friend of many years, HarperCollins senior vice president Lisa Sharkey, for asking me to undertake this fascinating assignment.
This book would not have come into being without the brilliant work of Lisa Pulitzer, who has a gift for seamlessly weaving facts together to form a tapestry that tells a compelling story. Matt Harper, our editor at HarperCollins, expertly steered this project through the tricky shoals of a very tight deadline and the constant storm of lies that Jodi Arias unleashed with almost every sentence. His assistant, Dani Valladares, was right there with him. Beth Karas offered invaluable assistance in keeping us factual and precise in the sea of minutia that this very long trial generated. Martha Smith was gracious and patient as she helped shape the rougher edges into a smooth narrative.
I would also like to thank those who knew Travis and Jodi and had the courage to offer their observations despite the heated passions surrounding this case. Jodi’s friend Patti was one such observer. A very special thanks goes out to Sky Hughes, who really provided some of the most essential insights into Jodi’s character and how she operated in Travis’s world. Taylor Searle, Deanna Reid, Dave Hall, Shaun Alexander, Josh Denne, Clancy Talbot, Elisha Schabel, and Linda Ballard Boss also spoke honestly and openly, helping us paint a three-dimensional portrait of the complex yet compassionate man Travis was.
Finally, I would like to thank my amazing colleagu
es. I so appreciate the support I’ve received from HLN’s top executives, Scot Safon and Katherine Green, and my fabulous executive producer Philippa Cooper Holland as well as In Session executive producer Scott Tufts and Nancy Grace executive producer Dean Sicoli. My producer in the field and the courtroom, Selin Darkalstanian, offered piercing analysis of the key players in the case. Other coworkers also helped me gather information and conduct interviews in the hot Phoenix sun and deserve my thanks, particularly Jackie Taurianen, Mary Cella, Josey Crews, Bill Hinkle, Grace Wong, and Nancy Leung. Nancy Grace, whom I consider my mentor and friend, gave freely of her time and wisdom as a former prosecutor and astute student of human nature. Dr. Drew, as well, shared the benefit of his professional experience with the deeply troubled. The accomplished photographer Joe Conrad generously shared his portraits, as did journalist Chris Hrubesh. Finally, I thank my girlfriend, Donna Dennison, for her kindness and understanding during this challenging project.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL is an award-winning television journalist, a bestselling author, and the host of her own show on HLN, Jane Velez-Mitchell, which airs weeknights at 7 P.M. EST. She is frequently in the media as an expert commentator on high-profle court cases, appearing on CNN, HLN, omg! Insider, TRU TV, E!, and other national television programs. She has also served as a guest host for Nancy Grace on her HLN show. In 2010, her HLN show garnered a Genesis Award from the Humane Society of the United States, her third. Velez-Mitchell has won two others for Celebrity Justice, as well as a Los Angeles Emmy Award and a New York Emmy Award.
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ADVANCE PRAISE FOR EXPOSED: THE SECRET LIFE OF JODI ARIAS
“Jane Velez-Mitchell has been deep inside the Jodi Arias trial, covering it from every angle. Now readers can follow Jane through the sordid, twisted tale as it unfolded and get at the truth of the Arias saga.”
—DR. DREW PINSKY, host of HLN’s Dr. Drew on Call, Loveline, and Celebrity Rehab
“You can’t help but be enthralled when you watch Jane’s reporting on this case. She intuitively homes in on some of the most intriguing aspects, and gets answers the viewers passionately want. Take her zeal for information and add in her experience reporting on trials and dramas, and what you get is a riveting guide through one of the most salacious and gripping cases in recent history.”
—ROBIN MEADE, host of HLN’s Morning Express with Robin Meade
“Jane Velez-Mitchell has a deeper understanding of this case than anyone. She reveals Jodi’s sexual secrets and takes us inside her twisted mind to get to the root cause of why she butchered Travis Alexander. A true-crime must-read!”
—LISA BLOOM, attorney and New York Times bestselling author of Think and Swagger
“Jane Velez-Mitchell cracks the Jodi Arias code—peeling away the lies to reveal the disturbing truth behind this horrific crime of betrayal, deceit, and revenge.”
—JIM MORET, chief correspondent, Inside Edition
ALSO BY JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL
iWant: My Journey from Addiction and
Overconsumption to a Simpler, Honest Life
Secrets Can Be Murder: The Killer Next Door
Addict Nation: An Intervention for America
(with Sandra Mohr)
CREDITS
Cover photographs: © by Brian Bierwiler/Splash News/
Corbis (top); © by Matt York / AP Images (bottom)
Author photograph by Mark Hill/CNN
COPYRIGHT
EXPOSED. Copyright © 2013 by Eastwind Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
ISBN 978-0-06-230399-8
EPub Edition SEPTEMBER 2013 ISBN 9780062304001
13 14 15 16 17 DIX/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Exposed: The Secret Life of Jodi Arias Page 36
