Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Sicko Jodi Arias Stabs Naked Lover Dead In Shower, Now She's Showered With Cash & Love Letters Behind Bars

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Sicko Jodi Arias Stabs Naked Lover Dead In Shower, Now She's Showered With Cash & Love Letters Behind Bars · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, stabbed twenty eight times, capped
0:15
Speaker 1: off with a gunshot wound to the head, left to die,
0:19
Speaker 1: naked and decomposing in his shower stall, ringing a bell
0:24
Speaker 1: That was Travis Alexander, Young, handsome, educated, the world before him?
0:31
Speaker 1: How did he end up there? Two words, Jody Arius, I,
0:37
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories, thank you for being
0:39
Speaker 1: with us. Jody Arius goes in front of a jury
0:42
Speaker 1: for not one, but two trials as part of death
0:45
Speaker 1: penalty proceedings against her there in Arizona. But what are
0:51
Speaker 1: we learning about Jody Arius's life behind bars? Well a lot.
0:56
Speaker 1: I hope you're sitting down joining me right now along
1:00
Speaker 1: with Ashley Wilcott, jeevenile judge, lawyer, founder child crimewatch dot com,
1:05
Speaker 1: doctor Brian Russell, host of investigation discoveries hit series Fatal Vows,
1:10
Speaker 1: renowned New York psychologist Karin Stark. Alexis terres Chuck joining
1:14
Speaker 1: me from rdar online dot com. Alexis, why won't she
1:18
Speaker 1: go away? Because she can't? She craves the attention of everybody.
1:23
Speaker 1: She says that she wants to just do good behind bars,
1:25
Speaker 1: but she doesn't. She still runs a Twitter account, she
1:28
Speaker 1: still writes to her fan she cannot live outside of
1:32
Speaker 1: the spotlight. Let's go back in the courtroom. What happened Alexis?
1:36
Speaker 1: Jodi Arius created a circus in the courtroom when she
1:39
Speaker 1: took the stand. Everybody was stunned. I was, I know
1:43
Speaker 1: you were. And she was on there for days spinning
1:47
Speaker 1: her lies about Travis Alexander. Alexis, what can you tell
1:50
Speaker 1: me about Travis Alexander in life? What was he like?
1:55
Speaker 1: Travis was the nicest guy. He was a warman. The
2:01
Speaker 1: religion that he had committed himself too. If he was older,
2:04
Speaker 1: and he was full of life. He had so many friends.
2:08
Speaker 1: He was a respected business guy. He was the one
2:11
Speaker 1: who had the whole house and had all the roommates.
2:13
Speaker 1: So everybody depended on Travis take care and then, and
2:15
Speaker 1: that's what he did. He took care of everybody. He
2:18
Speaker 1: was funny, he was adventurous. He was always going on
2:20
Speaker 1: trips and in fact, when he and Jodie started to
2:22
Speaker 1: he evenly went on a lot of trips together, fun
2:24
Speaker 1: trips to waterfalls and to San Diego, lots of places.
2:29
Speaker 1: He was an up and coming entrepreneur. He had his
2:32
Speaker 1: own he was running his own business through the organization,
2:35
Speaker 1: and he was really climbing up in the company because
2:38
Speaker 1: people liked him. He had a quick smile. His sister
2:41
Speaker 1: just said he was the nicest guy you would ever meet.
2:43
Speaker 1: Everybody that met him said he was so nice. And
2:46
Speaker 1: he was also struggling with his religion. He wanted to
2:49
Speaker 1: follow the tenants so strictly, but he also liked any
2:53
Speaker 1: other young person in their late twenties early thirties. You know,
2:56
Speaker 1: he wanted to have sex with his girlfriend. It's interesting
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Speaker 1: and I'm gonna go to care and start on this
3:00
Speaker 1: in a moment. But all of his friends and family
3:04
Speaker 1: that knew her did not want him to be with her.
3:07
Speaker 1: And I've questioned them about that repeatedly, saying what was
3:11
Speaker 1: it about her? And they all said, I don't know.
3:14
Speaker 1: It was just a freaky, hinky feeling. She was just
3:17
Speaker 1: we just thought she was weird and crazy and there
3:21
Speaker 1: was just something about her. Doctor Brian Russell. She's many
3:25
Speaker 1: people believe beautiful. She got a beautiful face. Many people
3:28
Speaker 1: think she's got a beautiful body. I don't find her beautiful,
3:31
Speaker 1: but many people do. She's got tons of people writing
3:34
Speaker 1: her and sending her money behind bars. The thing is
3:38
Speaker 1: when Travis Alexander, who I understand at the time was
3:42
Speaker 1: a devout Mormon, got tangled up with Jodi Arius. At
3:45
Speaker 1: some point he wanted to break it off. He said
3:50
Speaker 1: things like he did not think they would ever get married,
3:52
Speaker 1: he wanted to start dating other people. She would have
3:56
Speaker 1: none of it. So she finds out he's going on
3:59
Speaker 1: a trip to Cosumel with another woman, and that just
4:03
Speaker 1: throws her into a fit. Drives literally across the desert.
4:07
Speaker 1: She's moved away with all the gas cans in her
4:10
Speaker 1: trunk so she doesn't have to stop to use her
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Speaker 1: credit card or be on a surveillance video at a
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Speaker 1: seven to eleven, gets to his home. They have crazy
4:19
Speaker 1: fetish sex all day, complete with photos which were played
4:23
Speaker 1: over and over and over at trial. And then he
4:26
Speaker 1: still refuses to cancel the Cosumel date, and when that happens,
4:31
Speaker 1: she stabs him twenty nine times and shoots him in
4:35
Speaker 1: the head, leaving his body to decompose in the shower.
4:39
Speaker 1: Help me out, doctor, Brian Russell. I'm glad you just
4:41
Speaker 1: gave that rundown, Nancy, because you know, if she said
4:43
Speaker 1: she'd killed him while he was beating her there'd be
4:46
Speaker 1: a self defense argument, but physical evidence from the scene
4:49
Speaker 1: clearly suggested that didn't happen that way. I never saw
4:52
Speaker 1: solid evidence that he'd ever beaten her. Let's just look
4:55
Speaker 1: at the facts, as you accurately point out, doctor Brian Russell,
4:58
Speaker 1: there were many ways if it indeed true, which no
5:01
Speaker 1: one but Arias says, it's true. They were broken up.
5:05
Speaker 1: She had moved away, hours away. They were not living together.
5:10
Speaker 1: They were never married, they never had children, nothing. They
5:13
Speaker 1: had a fling. He broke up, she moved away, scorned,
5:18
Speaker 1: she left. She was living somewhere else, had a brandy
5:21
Speaker 1: place to live, had a car, a job, the works,
5:25
Speaker 1: and they'd been apart for a while. As a matter
5:27
Speaker 1: of fact, I'm reading directly from the autopsy report. Travis
5:32
Speaker 1: Alexander's juggular vein, his throat was slit the common karnid artery,
5:39
Speaker 1: the trachea had been slashed. He had defensive wounds on
5:43
Speaker 1: his hand. He may have even been dead at the
5:46
Speaker 1: time she shot him in the head. Also, the crime
5:50
Speaker 1: scene revealed that when he first was stabbed, he realized
5:55
Speaker 1: he was dying. He stumbled to the bathroom mirror and
5:59
Speaker 1: actually looked in the mirror as he was dying. And
6:03
Speaker 1: we know this because of the blood evidence. There were drops,
6:08
Speaker 1: not spatter, not throwback, not transfer, drops of blood that
6:15
Speaker 1: dropped down from his neck and his nose and his
6:20
Speaker 1: face onto the sink as he looked into the mirror
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Speaker 1: as he died, and he was left naked and bloody,
6:31
Speaker 1: bleeding out in the shower. As a matter of fact,
6:34
Speaker 1: it's really not even contested how he died. Listen to
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Speaker 1: Jodi Arius at trial admitting she slit his throat. Would
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Speaker 1: you agree that you're the person who actually slit mister
6:48
Speaker 1: Alexander's throat From here to here, Yes, to Ashley Willcott,
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Speaker 1: veteran trial lawyer and judge, it gives me no pleasure
7:04
Speaker 1: to replay the rendition of how Travis Alexander was murdered.
7:10
Speaker 1: He didn't see it coming, He had no idea what
7:13
Speaker 1: was about to happen. But we also know Ashley that
7:17
Speaker 1: at the beginning she claimed that she wasn't there, she
7:21
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with it at all. Then when
7:24
Speaker 1: evidence turned up that she had been there, she actually
7:28
Speaker 1: claimed that ninjas showed up all dressed in black and
7:34
Speaker 1: for no reason, burst into the home, stole nothing, She
7:38
Speaker 1: ran and saved her own life. But they killed Travis
7:40
Speaker 1: and left like shadows in the night. I mean, Ashley,
7:44
Speaker 1: really right, really so she was lying from the get go,
7:48
Speaker 1: obviously with the story that she initially told with the ninjas.
7:52
Speaker 1: But here's what I love about our justice system. During
7:55
Speaker 1: this trial, it went from story to story to story
7:58
Speaker 1: to story. But as you just played, finally on the
8:01
Speaker 1: stand under oath, she admits she slit his throat period. Yeah,
8:07
Speaker 1: and just like this and just like that, and then
8:11
Speaker 1: shot him. Cleaned up the scene as best she could,
8:14
Speaker 1: put a lot of clothes in the washer, including her
8:18
Speaker 1: digital camera. Hello, and on the camera to Karen Stark
8:24
Speaker 1: were actual photos. They had been She had been taking
8:28
Speaker 1: sex photos the whole day, Okay, but forget about that.
8:33
Speaker 1: On the digital camera that she left in the washing machine,
8:37
Speaker 1: our photos, as we think, accidentally taken during Travis's murder.
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Speaker 1: Karen Stark, New York psychologist, what about that This is
8:47
Speaker 1: a person who really is not only a pathological liar,
8:53
Speaker 1: but has absolutely no guilt about anything that happened and
8:57
Speaker 1: documented it as do it as it was happening. Now,
9:01
Speaker 1: even if it was accidental. Somehow she knew that she
9:04
Speaker 1: should wash things up, clean them up, despite the ninjas
9:08
Speaker 1: or whatever she was saying, And she very clearly is
9:12
Speaker 1: a psychopath who committed this murder. There is no doubt
9:15
Speaker 1: in my mind that she knew exactly what she was
9:18
Speaker 1: doing and that it had to do with rage and
9:21
Speaker 1: jealousy and her inability to let go of this man.
9:24
Speaker 1: Alexis Urez Chuck writer online dot com. You also covered
9:27
Speaker 1: the case every single day. I was in the courtroom
9:31
Speaker 1: almost every day and was broadcasting from a couple of
9:35
Speaker 1: blocks away from the courthouse. The digital camera evidence, to me,
9:39
Speaker 1: is overwhelming. It places her there at the time of
9:42
Speaker 1: the murder, in the room with Travis. It does it's
9:46
Speaker 1: right up to and after she murders him. There there
9:49
Speaker 1: are pictures of him naked in the shower, got the
9:52
Speaker 1: water running over him, He's looking directly at the camera.
9:54
Speaker 1: These were not secret photos that he didn't know were
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Speaker 1: being taken. Then there's the picture of his foot in
10:01
Speaker 1: the shower, and there's another picture of the blood on
10:03
Speaker 1: the floor, and they're taking there's a time stamp, so
10:05
Speaker 1: you can tell that they were taken just moments, literally
10:09
Speaker 1: less than two minutes after he was alive in the shower.
10:12
Speaker 1: She's taking pictures and then he's dead when she went
10:15
Speaker 1: into her frenzy, her spree killing spree, and stabbed him repeatedly.
10:20
Speaker 1: And the thing was she also shot him, but the
10:23
Speaker 1: bullet casing was found on top of the blood. So
10:27
Speaker 1: what the evidence was presented in court is that there's
10:30
Speaker 1: no way she shot him first, otherwise that would be
10:32
Speaker 1: on the bottom and be covered with blood. It happened
10:34
Speaker 1: afterwards and it wasn't disturbed. And this is everything that
10:37
Speaker 1: was shown on her camera. She didn't even take the
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Speaker 1: camera with her. She stuck it in the washing machine.
10:41
Speaker 1: She left it there. It was so easy for everybody
10:43
Speaker 1: to find her crime stories. With Nancy Grace, I'm talking
11:05
Speaker 1: about none other than Jody Arius too. Alexis tres Chuck.
11:12
Speaker 1: Alexis exactly where is Jodi Arius housed? Has she been moved?
11:18
Speaker 1: What's the name of her correctional facility? And what do
11:22
Speaker 1: we know specifically about security? There? Is that a pod?
11:26
Speaker 1: Does she have a roommate? Can she decorate hersell like
11:29
Speaker 1: a dorm room? So she is in the Perryville Prison.
11:33
Speaker 1: She has not been moved. She entered there in twenty fifteen.
11:36
Speaker 1: April thirteenth, twenty fifteen, so she has been there just
11:39
Speaker 1: over four years. It is a very standard twelve by
11:43
Speaker 1: seven cell I believe, with a bed and a sink.
11:47
Speaker 1: She does not have a roommate because it is a
11:49
Speaker 1: maximum security she was convicted of murder in the first degree.
11:54
Speaker 1: She is classified. She can not have any movement, and
11:58
Speaker 1: she's had a review every year since she's been there
12:00
Speaker 1: to maybe lower down the classification level of her risk assessment.
12:06
Speaker 1: Never been lowered. It's gone from a five to a four,
12:08
Speaker 1: which is nothing at all. She doesn't she's still in
12:11
Speaker 1: a maximum security prison. She does not have a lot
12:13
Speaker 1: of freedom or free free will to walk around to
12:17
Speaker 1: see other people. She should one of those off. But
12:19
Speaker 1: she can decorate her cell, and she also has a
12:22
Speaker 1: television and she is able to watch TV and she
12:24
Speaker 1: watches it NonStop. And she spends most of her time
12:27
Speaker 1: in soliditary confinement. That's the way this prison is designed
12:29
Speaker 1: in Arizona. It's a pretty harsh prison for the worst
12:32
Speaker 1: of the killers in the state. And but she also
12:36
Speaker 1: has a job behind bars. She has been working in
12:39
Speaker 1: the library for almost a year now and she works
12:44
Speaker 1: over forty hours a week, but she makes a whopping
12:47
Speaker 1: forty cents an hour, alex says, what can you tell
12:50
Speaker 1: me about jodi Arius's life behind bars? Is it true
12:54
Speaker 1: she has dozens of love letters a day? Did nobody
12:59
Speaker 1: see Travis Alexander's decomposing body in the shower? No matter
13:02
Speaker 1: how many times I played it on HLN? What men
13:06
Speaker 1: is right? Mine would seek out jodi Arius? What do
13:09
Speaker 1: they want to be with a killer? Or do they
13:11
Speaker 1: think she's innocent? These people out there, these men are
13:15
Speaker 1: just bamboozled by her hair. Used to be she used
13:18
Speaker 1: to be this bleached lawn, really bucksome girl. Now behind bars,
13:22
Speaker 1: she has her natural brown hair, it's probably gray at
13:24
Speaker 1: this point, and they write her obsessively. She even has said,
13:29
Speaker 1: I cannot even respond to everybody who writes to me
13:32
Speaker 1: because I get so many fan letters a day, dozens
13:34
Speaker 1: of them. She has all the things that she buys
13:36
Speaker 1: from the commentary in there, so she buys tons and
13:39
Speaker 1: tons of paper and envelopes so she can write to
13:41
Speaker 1: all of her fans. And the people tell her they
13:43
Speaker 1: love her, and they believe that she's innocent and that
13:46
Speaker 1: she's going to get out, and then when she gets
13:47
Speaker 1: out that they're going to maybe even get together with
13:49
Speaker 1: her they are just fans Alexa's How do you know
13:53
Speaker 1: she's getting all these love letters? The prison has confirmed
13:56
Speaker 1: to us that she receives multiple letters, and then she
13:59
Speaker 1: runs a Twitter account through a friend, and that friend
14:02
Speaker 1: posts that people write to her all the time. Alexis
14:06
Speaker 1: to reschuck writer online dot com. Are these men sending
14:08
Speaker 1: her money? Are they insane? Yes, people send her so
14:13
Speaker 1: much money they send her They have to send it
14:16
Speaker 1: through the prison system, but they have it because she
14:18
Speaker 1: has a huge fat account in the jail commissary. Okay,
14:23
Speaker 1: so if they're sending her money, Alexis to Reschu, what
14:26
Speaker 1: is she doing with it? I mean, what's there to
14:27
Speaker 1: spend it on? Behind bars? She is spending all of
14:31
Speaker 1: her money at the commissary on a variety of things.
14:35
Speaker 1: But the thing that struck me the most is that
14:37
Speaker 1: she's buying toothbrushes, which Terisa Judace told us that she
14:43
Speaker 1: learned when she was in prison that that can be
14:45
Speaker 1: used as a sex choy. Behind bars, she shops relentlessly
14:49
Speaker 1: at the canteen. She buys him startings, she buys doritos,
14:54
Speaker 1: she buys putting, she buys deserves, she buys cookies, so
14:58
Speaker 1: alsu buys eno, which you know can treat her stomach problem.
15:03
Speaker 1: She buys pretzels, cookies, crackers, any sort of junk food
15:09
Speaker 1: goes on there. Jody is buying Alexis I understand that
15:12
Speaker 1: she's treated like a celebrity behind bars. What does that entail?
15:16
Speaker 1: She is quite popular behind bars. She is the one
15:20
Speaker 1: that everybody goes to. She well, she claims that she
15:23
Speaker 1: gives other people. She buys things from the commentary to
15:25
Speaker 1: give to other people, because people behind bars are not
15:28
Speaker 1: as lucky as she is. But there has been other
15:30
Speaker 1: inmates who are also lust of the same prison. Who
15:33
Speaker 1: Ever reveals that people get in fights with Jody and
15:36
Speaker 1: that she's often mouthing off in the shared courtyard. Is
15:41
Speaker 1: it true that she has privileges to get on the internet?
15:46
Speaker 1: And if so, right the love lorn men that are
15:49
Speaker 1: contacting her. She does go the library. She actually works
15:52
Speaker 1: in the library. She is a library aid and she
15:55
Speaker 1: has said that the library books in this prison are
15:58
Speaker 1: just terrible. So she's asked people. She started book drives
16:01
Speaker 1: behind bars to ask people to send things that people
16:03
Speaker 1: would want to read. But the prison is very strict
16:06
Speaker 1: about what you can get, and so there are many
16:08
Speaker 1: mostly religious books and probably what you would call smut books,
16:12
Speaker 1: you know, romance books. She does not have access to
16:16
Speaker 1: the Internet, but she speaks with folks on the outside
16:19
Speaker 1: that do have access to the Internet, so that's how
16:21
Speaker 1: she keeps in touch with everybody through her Twitter account
16:25
Speaker 1: and the love letters. She can write as many as
16:28
Speaker 1: she wants, and she just has to buy stamps. But
16:30
Speaker 1: she has basically unlimited funds in her account, so she
16:33
Speaker 1: is able to buy the stamps to send letters back
16:37
Speaker 1: to everybody that writes to her, but she has often
16:39
Speaker 1: sent I can't write to everybody, as if she has
16:41
Speaker 1: anything else to do. Unless Terrez Chuck, what can you
16:44
Speaker 1: tell me about claims that she gets privileges behind bars.
16:48
Speaker 1: Jodiarius does not get any special privileges behind bars, but
16:52
Speaker 1: because she cannot behave. In fact, she was disciplined within
16:55
Speaker 1: her first couple of months of being there. She yelled
16:58
Speaker 1: at a guard and called the guards a blocker because
17:01
Speaker 1: he wouldn't let her get a haircut that she wanted,
17:03
Speaker 1: even though she had no privileges to get a haircut.
17:05
Speaker 1: And then when she was disciplined, she said, oh, I
17:08
Speaker 1: didn't know that that word was a bad word. I
17:10
Speaker 1: just looked it up in the Urban Dictionary. So she
17:12
Speaker 1: was disciplined for months on end. She lost her visitation privileges.
17:15
Speaker 1: I understand that Jody Arius perceives herself to be quite
17:18
Speaker 1: the artiste, okay, and she could be selling her artwork online.
17:24
Speaker 1: Is that true? Let me say, is that still true?
17:27
Speaker 1: Because I've seen some of it. To me, it's like
17:30
Speaker 1: she's just tracing pictures out of magazines. But that I'm
17:33
Speaker 1: no art credit Alexis you tell me Jody Arius was
17:38
Speaker 1: drawing so many pieces of art, and you are right,
17:41
Speaker 1: they did look like she traced things because it was
17:43
Speaker 1: such an exact copy of things for magazines, ads, and
17:47
Speaker 1: even in one picture everybody thought it was just like
17:49
Speaker 1: Travis Alexander's sister, which was so disrespectful. But then she
17:53
Speaker 1: has been in this prison. She's not allowed to sell
17:56
Speaker 1: it or profit all of this, but she is sending
17:59
Speaker 1: people her art work and it's on her website from
18:02
Speaker 1: before or so if people wanted to go check that out.
18:05
Speaker 1: Jodiarias dot com has her art disgusting to doctor Bethany
18:10
Speaker 1: Marshall psychoanalanst joining me out of La Doctor Bethany behind bar.
18:15
Speaker 1: She's somewhat of a celebrity. She gets hundreds of love letters,
18:19
Speaker 1: people put money in her commissary account. She quote draws
18:24
Speaker 1: in quote in other words, traces other drawings and then
18:28
Speaker 1: sells them. It's quite the life, Quite the life. Doctor
18:34
Speaker 1: Bethany explained, how is she still manipulated? People from bar
18:37
Speaker 1: highly manipulative? You know, I was thinking about borderline personality
18:41
Speaker 1: disorder as you were talking to an Alexis. She definitely
18:44
Speaker 1: has borderline personality disorder and I actually was looking it
18:48
Speaker 1: up in the DSM five, which is the diagnostic and
18:51
Speaker 1: Statistical Manual of mental disorders, and one of the characteristics
18:56
Speaker 1: is intense, unstable and conflicted close relationship marked by mistrust, neediness,
19:02
Speaker 1: and anxious preoccupation with real or imagined abandonment. Close relationships
19:08
Speaker 1: often viewed in extremes of idealization and devaluation, alternating between
19:15
Speaker 1: overinvolvement and withdrawal. And I can see that in her
19:18
Speaker 1: relationship with Travis Alexander, that it started with the idealization
19:23
Speaker 1: and then it went through to the devaluation. The idealization
19:28
Speaker 1: is when he was dating her, right when they were together,
19:31
Speaker 1: when they were going out, and then do you remember
19:33
Speaker 1: that she found out that he was planning a vacation
19:36
Speaker 1: with another woman. Then it went from the idealization to
19:40
Speaker 1: the devaluation, and that's when she started to plot her revenge.
19:44
Speaker 1: Not only was she preoccupied with killing him, but she
19:49
Speaker 1: was absolutely obsessed with him. Crime stories with Nancy Grace,
20:13
Speaker 1: I guarantee you that Jodi Arius to this day thinks
20:17
Speaker 1: that she's the victim behind bars. Joining me right now,
20:21
Speaker 1: Alexis terres Chuck, investigative reporter and journalists for Radar online
20:25
Speaker 1: dot Com. Alexis, you and I covered the Arias murder
20:29
Speaker 1: trial together as well as the death penalty phase. For
20:32
Speaker 1: those who don't know about Jodi Arius and her murder conviction,
20:37
Speaker 1: please explain what happened to Travis Alexander When he tried
20:41
Speaker 1: to break up with her, She plotted his murder. True
20:47
Speaker 1: lured him in, you know, went down to his house
20:49
Speaker 1: in Arizona, but he took her four days to get there.
20:52
Speaker 1: She stopped along the way to buy a bunch of
20:55
Speaker 1: things she was going to use where she ended up
20:57
Speaker 1: slaughtering him. She attacked him while he was in Wait
21:00
Speaker 1: a minute, though, Alexis, hold on, hold on, you're skipping
21:04
Speaker 1: some good stuff because when she travels. You know, I
21:09
Speaker 1: don't know how many hundreds of miles to go murder him.
21:12
Speaker 1: She did not want to leave a trail describe it Alexis,
21:15
Speaker 1: So she rented a car in northern California, about sixty
21:19
Speaker 1: miles away from her house, so nobody would recognize her.
21:21
Speaker 1: She first they gave her a red car. She said,
21:23
Speaker 1: I don't want a red car. That's too noticeable. I
21:26
Speaker 1: want something different, because she didn't want the cops to
21:28
Speaker 1: see her. She then hit out with a boyfriend in
21:32
Speaker 1: another town. She dyed her hair back to its natural
21:35
Speaker 1: brunette from the bleach blonde she's been sporting. She then
21:39
Speaker 1: bought a gas can, had multiple gas cans in her car,
21:42
Speaker 1: filled them up with gas, not using a credit card,
21:45
Speaker 1: so that she couldn't be traced, and then trekked across
21:48
Speaker 1: the desert, hiding when she was so she couldn't be
21:52
Speaker 1: stopped anywhere and had no record of her being near Travis. Now,
21:55
Speaker 1: I don't recall that he knew she was coming. They've
21:59
Speaker 1: had a full of phone calls. She had called him repeatedly,
22:04
Speaker 1: but once she entered the area near his house, she
22:09
Speaker 1: turned off her phone and did not turn it back
22:12
Speaker 1: on until hours after she murdered him to hide the
22:16
Speaker 1: fact that she was even at his house. She was
22:20
Speaker 1: very devious. She knew exactly what to do to try
22:23
Speaker 1: to cover her trap. What do you think was the
22:25
Speaker 1: motive Alexis and why? Jody Arius was jealous that Travis
22:28
Speaker 1: Alexander had moved on. He didn't want to date her anymore,
22:31
Speaker 1: He did not want to be her boyfriend. And he
22:33
Speaker 1: was actually even going on a trip down to Camcoon
22:35
Speaker 1: with another girl, and it was a company trip and
22:37
Speaker 1: she had worked for this company, so she was humiliated.
22:40
Speaker 1: But she was filled with rage because he wouldn't be
22:43
Speaker 1: her boyfriend and he didn't love her, and he traded
22:45
Speaker 1: her like she felt like trash. They had sex, he
22:49
Speaker 1: didn't care, he lied about it because he was a Mormon,
22:52
Speaker 1: and he moved on and she could never move on.
22:55
Speaker 1: And she thought, if I can't have him, no one
22:56
Speaker 1: else will. She literally left Travis Alexander home with blood
23:01
Speaker 1: on her hands. Okay, blood on her hands, drives for
23:06
Speaker 1: hours to get to her next boyfriend and literally hops
23:08
Speaker 1: on top of him and straddles him. Wow, she didn't
23:12
Speaker 1: waste any time. She did not at all. Twenty seven
23:16
Speaker 1: hours in the car, whatever it was with her gun
23:20
Speaker 1: that she had brought the police. Her parents, her grandparents
23:23
Speaker 1: who she lived with, had had a break in, and survisally,
23:26
Speaker 1: the only thing stolen was the gun, which is the
23:28
Speaker 1: same caliber of gun that was used to shoo Travis
23:31
Speaker 1: alexis the fact that they were part of the Mormon
23:34
Speaker 1: religion same too. It was like a curiosity to so
23:39
Speaker 1: many people. Why is that. I think it's because the
23:43
Speaker 1: Mormon religion is not as familiar to people across the
23:46
Speaker 1: country as other religion, the Christianity, and so people tend
23:52
Speaker 1: to have thought of it as a cult. And so
23:54
Speaker 1: they saw that this there was this what many people called,
23:57
Speaker 1: you know, ritualistic murder, which it wasn't. It was just
23:59
Speaker 1: Joe going crazy and murdering somebody. And they tied it
24:02
Speaker 1: into this church. But also because there were visual images
24:05
Speaker 1: of it. When Jody met Travis, he was a very
24:08
Speaker 1: well respected member of the church, and he brought her
24:11
Speaker 1: into the church and she was baptized and became a
24:14
Speaker 1: member of the church. So there was a photograph of
24:15
Speaker 1: her baptism. And so when people have visual images of
24:18
Speaker 1: things they can see, it makes it so much more compelling.
24:21
Speaker 1: And then she dragged in the fact that after she
24:24
Speaker 1: got baptized, I think she said that she and Travis
24:29
Speaker 1: had sex. And I'm not sure what kind of sex
24:30
Speaker 1: I'm allowed to say on your show, So let's just
24:32
Speaker 1: say not the regular sex. And in some states are
24:35
Speaker 1: still considered sodomy. Go ahead, So so it just made
24:40
Speaker 1: it so much more salacious. And Travis was such an
24:42
Speaker 1: upstanding member of this church, and people loved him, and
24:45
Speaker 1: he was such a good person, and so she joined
24:48
Speaker 1: the church only because of him. And in fact, after
24:51
Speaker 1: she was convicted, church kicked her out, excommunicated her, and
24:54
Speaker 1: said they did not want her in. Alexis Durez Chuck,
24:57
Speaker 1: investigator reporter with writer online dot Com. I understand that
25:01
Speaker 1: jodi Arius the murderer is mounting an appeal. What's that
25:07
Speaker 1: all about? So, yes, she has filed an appeal, She
25:10
Speaker 1: has her attorneys, and she has a slew of complaints.
25:15
Speaker 1: She says she blames her first attorney, Kirk Nurmi, for
25:21
Speaker 1: inappropriate actions with her, saying that the way that he
25:26
Speaker 1: spoke to the jury about her, saying at the closing
25:29
Speaker 1: arguments nine out of ten days, I hate jodi Arius too,
25:31
Speaker 1: but just because she hater doesn't mean she's guilty, and
25:34
Speaker 1: she said that the fact that he wrote a book
25:36
Speaker 1: compromised her legal advice, and she wants the appeals court
25:41
Speaker 1: to overturn her conviction because she has a bad lawyer.
25:44
Speaker 1: She had a bad lawyer. She also says that the
25:47
Speaker 1: prosecutor acted inappropriately, which I believe he's been investigated to
25:52
Speaker 1: no charges or actions have been taken against him, and
25:56
Speaker 1: she just wants every season the books to get out
25:58
Speaker 1: of the fact that she not murdered her boyfriend but
26:02
Speaker 1: confess to it on the stand. Take a listen to
26:05
Speaker 1: what the jury heard. Would you agree that you're the
26:09
Speaker 1: person who actually slid mister Alexander's throat from ear to ear? Yes?
26:21
Speaker 1: Would you also agree that you're the individual that stabbed
26:25
Speaker 1: him in the upper torso yes. And you're doing all
26:36
Speaker 1: of this too, according to your version of events, you're
26:40
Speaker 1: doing to this as individual after you have already shot
26:45
Speaker 1: it right, Yes, correct? I believe so. Well. No, do
26:56
Speaker 1: you remember previously talking to us about how he was
26:59
Speaker 1: coming out you and he was this horrible man with
27:01
Speaker 1: his mean face. Do you remember telling me that, yes,
27:05
Speaker 1: I didn't say he was cold? Okay, thank you? For
27:09
Speaker 1: correcting me. But do you remember telling us that he
27:11
Speaker 1: was a mean man. Not today, well, previously, previously you
27:18
Speaker 1: did say that he was a meaning correct. I think
27:20
Speaker 1: I did, yes. And on this particular occasion you told
27:24
Speaker 1: us that he was cursing at you, right, yes, and
27:28
Speaker 1: that he threw you down right, yes, that he chased
27:33
Speaker 1: you down right. Yes. And this is the individual that
27:40
Speaker 1: you shot first, right, He didn't know if I shot him.
27:43
Speaker 1: It just clearly righted it off. The gun went off, right.
27:49
Speaker 1: You could at least say knowledge, Yes, that's something that
27:52
Speaker 1: you did here. Correct. Yes, you know what scary alexis
27:56
Speaker 1: is like Charles Manson, whose descendance was commuted to life.
28:00
Speaker 1: Manson went before a parole board over and overboard. He
28:03
Speaker 1: finally died basically of old age. I fear one day
28:08
Speaker 1: jodi Arius is going to walk free. What do you think?
28:12
Speaker 1: I hope not. I hope that jodi Arius serves her
28:16
Speaker 1: natural life in prison behind bars. I do not think,
28:21
Speaker 1: after attending the trial and living that trial for so
28:25
Speaker 1: many years, I do not think that the appeals court
28:28
Speaker 1: will overturn him. Five stories with Nancy Grace. Jodi Arius
28:48
Speaker 1: is convicted of murdering her lover, stabbing him twenty six times,
28:55
Speaker 1: leaving his dead body slumped over in the shower, shooting
28:59
Speaker 1: him in the head. I remember the shocking scenario that
29:03
Speaker 1: was proven by physical evidence unrefuted, that he was standing
29:10
Speaker 1: at his bathroom mirror and blood was dripping down and
29:14
Speaker 1: he saw himself dying. I remember it like it was
29:20
Speaker 1: yesterday for me. It's a memory. For his family, it's
29:25
Speaker 1: never ending pain. Today our thoughts with the family of
29:30
Speaker 1: Travis Alexander and a life cut short. I think about
29:35
Speaker 1: them so often. How are they doing now? They are
29:39
Speaker 1: doing well with their lives. They were devastated when Travis
29:43
Speaker 1: was killed by Jody, and even more crushed by the
29:46
Speaker 1: antics that she pulled in the courtroom and with all
29:49
Speaker 1: of her interviews and trying to say that he was
29:52
Speaker 1: a child molester and really drag him through the mud.
29:56
Speaker 1: But they celebrate his life. However, Jody needles them relentlessly.
30:00
Speaker 1: Whenever she has to send them a check, a restitution check,
30:04
Speaker 1: it just brings back the reminder of how upset they
30:06
Speaker 1: were and how terrible she is. And she has this
30:09
Speaker 1: miserable little job where she makes forty cents an hour,
30:12
Speaker 1: and so she sends them a five hundred dollars check
30:14
Speaker 1: yere and there, and it's just as a reminder of
30:16
Speaker 1: how she is still alive in their beloved Travis is not.
30:19
Speaker 1: We can't go any further without pointing out that it
30:23
Speaker 1: was Jody Arius herself who dragged sex into this trial,
30:27
Speaker 1: not the prosecutor. Speaking of the prosecutor, Alexas, how is Martinez?
30:33
Speaker 1: Why Martires is fine? He became quite a celebrity, is
30:38
Speaker 1: still prosecuting cases, and he's known as the real bulldog
30:41
Speaker 1: in the legal community. Well, that leads me to the
30:43
Speaker 1: defense attorney, Kirk Nermie, who tried over and over and
30:46
Speaker 1: over to get off this case. How is kurk Nermi
30:49
Speaker 1: doing now? Kirk had a tough time after the trial.
30:53
Speaker 1: He was diagnosed with cancer, and he has said repeatedly
30:55
Speaker 1: he told me, I'm sure he's told you that he
30:58
Speaker 1: believes working with Jody Area exacerbated his cancer, caused him
31:02
Speaker 1: to have cancer. It was so stressful. He hated her.
31:05
Speaker 1: He felt like she was the worst client he'd ever had.
31:08
Speaker 1: He did try to get off the case, repeatedly begged
31:10
Speaker 1: the judges to let them let him go, and he wouldn't.
31:13
Speaker 1: What he has said, I gave her a great defense.
31:17
Speaker 1: She admitted she killed her boyfriend, she murdered him, and
31:21
Speaker 1: I protected her from the death penalty. So she should
31:24
Speaker 1: be very thankful because she would have gotten the death penalty.
31:26
Speaker 1: But it wasn't for me. I was thinking about all
31:28
Speaker 1: those phone six tapes. Take a listen to this. You
31:31
Speaker 1: are in the bath. Oh when we took a bath together,
31:39
Speaker 1: that was that was surreal as honestly, I think, I mean,
31:43
Speaker 1: maybe the candle light and the bubbles of all has
31:46
Speaker 1: something to do with it. But you are amazing. You
31:50
Speaker 1: made me, seriously, you made me feel like a goddess.
31:53
Speaker 1: I I wasn't saying you were like worshiping me, but
31:57
Speaker 1: you were. You made me sure like I was the
32:00
Speaker 1: most freaking beautiful woman on the whole planet. Like I
32:06
Speaker 1: so felt like I was Forgottes and so aside from
32:11
Speaker 1: all those warm, fuzzy feelings, but like it was was
32:14
Speaker 1: so sexy and it was so hot and oh gosh,
32:21
Speaker 1: that's a hard could you weren't freaking you were hot?
32:27
Speaker 1: Interview You are seriously having at right now because I
32:33
Speaker 1: touched yourself. Yeah, I'm already right, I just started. I'm
32:43
Speaker 1: gonna tell you to a tree. You like that, I'm
32:48
Speaker 1: gonna tell you to a tree, and oh my gosh,
32:55
Speaker 1: that is so debasing. I like it. Joining me at
32:59
Speaker 1: the special guest Kirk Nurmi, the Jodi Arius defense lawyer
33:05
Speaker 1: and author of a bestseller Trapped with miss Arius. You
33:10
Speaker 1: can find it on Amazon dot com. You know, Kirk,
33:14
Speaker 1: A side of a calculated attack on you, after you
33:17
Speaker 1: and the rest of your team had sat there and
33:22
Speaker 1: given your blood, sweat and tears during that trial, just
33:25
Speaker 1: taken so much abuse, not from just Arius, but really everyone,
33:30
Speaker 1: the whole public was against you, and to this day
33:35
Speaker 1: you believe it contributed. Do you get in cancer? You know,
33:38
Speaker 1: that's what malignant means, mal worry bad, That's what malignant means.
33:44
Speaker 1: Do you really believe that, Kirk? I do. I mean,
33:48
Speaker 1: obviously there's no way to prove it scientifically, but in
33:50
Speaker 1: my heart, keep in mind, I was just signed miss
33:53
Speaker 1: Arius's case in two thousand and nine. Thus she was
33:58
Speaker 1: a part of my life, against my wishes, from probably
34:02
Speaker 1: twenty ten to twenty fifteen, and everything that went along
34:08
Speaker 1: with defending her, having her attack me and interviews things
34:11
Speaker 1: of that nature caused great concern to me about my
34:17
Speaker 1: safety and that of my wife. Yes, I do. Over
34:20
Speaker 1: those years, I believe that it eventually added up and
34:23
Speaker 1: that's what turned my healthy blood cells into cancers tumors.
34:27
Speaker 1: Her trial turned into an international Barnum and Bailey circus
34:33
Speaker 1: where Nurmi was, against his will, elected ringmaster. I want
34:39
Speaker 1: to hear what it was like. See, I always saw
34:41
Speaker 1: her at a distance, like looking at a tarantula in
34:44
Speaker 1: a glass box. I was at a distance, of course,
34:47
Speaker 1: except for the time she shot a bird at me
34:48
Speaker 1: in court. But needless to say, she wasn't the first
34:52
Speaker 1: and no doubt won't be the last. But Kirk, what
34:55
Speaker 1: was it like being with her? Why was there such
34:59
Speaker 1: a contentio this relationship between you two? Well, obviously a
35:03
Speaker 1: lot of that has privileged but you know, my job,
35:07
Speaker 1: the way I look at it anyway, is a detachment.
35:10
Speaker 1: I'm not there to support what she did. I'm not
35:13
Speaker 1: there to I'm just there to help her, support her story.
35:16
Speaker 1: I'm not there to be her friend. And you know that.
35:21
Speaker 1: Without saying too much, I think that speaks volumes. I'm
35:24
Speaker 1: trying to. I'm trying to interpret that. In your book,
35:28
Speaker 1: Trapped with miss Arius, you touch on so many different topics.
35:35
Speaker 1: What do you think was the biggest bombshell in your book.
35:38
Speaker 1: I think so that probably the biggest bombshell was talking
35:41
Speaker 1: about that attachment she had, And this kind of correlates
35:46
Speaker 1: to what I said earlier about her kind of at
35:48
Speaker 1: some point in time viewing me as her boyfriend. I
35:51
Speaker 1: was the most significant man in her life, and I
35:55
Speaker 1: was there to do a job. I was not there
35:57
Speaker 1: to be her friend or supporter and any way other
36:00
Speaker 1: than to advocate her case in the courtroom. Alexas, what's
36:04
Speaker 1: your take on Jody Arius. Judy Arius is a psychopath.
36:08
Speaker 1: She you know, because she spoke about you all the time.
36:11
Speaker 1: I think she even one time dragged her finger across
36:14
Speaker 1: her throat like she wanted to cut your throat. She
36:17
Speaker 1: has called me personally crazy after I wrote stories, literally
36:23
Speaker 1: sacks from the prison about her, called me obsessed with her.
36:26
Speaker 1: I am not obsessed with her. You are not obsessed
36:28
Speaker 1: with her. We are obsessed with getting the truth and
36:31
Speaker 1: justice for people that were involved in this case, meaning
36:34
Speaker 1: Travis Alexander. She has a huge ego. Even locked up
36:38
Speaker 1: behind bars, the world revolves only around Jody Arias. She
36:42
Speaker 1: was a liar. She was a proven liar. She was
36:45
Speaker 1: very sneaky, and she very methodically planned Travis Alexander's murder. Alexas,
36:49
Speaker 1: do you remember the day she shot a bird at
36:51
Speaker 1: me in the courtroom. That's just something I will never forget.
36:55
Speaker 1: I do remember that she turned around and and pull
36:58
Speaker 1: her middle finger up on her chin. Ever, everybody was done,
37:00
Speaker 1: The whole country was done. It was amazing. She had
37:03
Speaker 1: no sense of what is right or wrong, and she
37:06
Speaker 1: just thought she was wrongly accused of killing her boyfriend.
37:10
Speaker 1: Even though she admitted I'll always have our time in
37:13
Speaker 1: court together when she shot a bird at me. We'll
37:15
Speaker 1: always have Arizona, my happy memories of Jodi Arias. But
37:21
Speaker 1: you know what, I have to say that I've met
37:23
Speaker 1: an American Idol because Jodi Aris did win American Idol.
37:28
Speaker 1: Behind bars, take a listen, Oh holy night, the stars
37:34
Speaker 1: are Bradley shine. It is a nighte of our dear
37:40
Speaker 1: sy Fancy Grace Crime Stories. Signing off, goodbye friend,