Jodi Arias was convicted Wednesday of first degree murder for killing her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander, in 2008.
The four month long trial gripped the nation with testimony filled with lurid details of the couple's sex life, Mormon religious beliefs and practices, and the gruesome details of the day Arias stabbed, shot, and slashed Alexander.
Take a look back at the nine most shocking moments of the Jodi Arias trial.
Jodi and Travis' Phone Sex Conversation is Played in Court |
A raunchy 40-minute phone call between Arias and Alexander that was filled with references to rape, porn, and Alexander's crude fantasies was played in court in front of both Arias' and Alexander's families.
Arias giggled and cooed at Alexander as he described his sexual fantasies to her, showing less resistance to his sexual requests than she described to the jury during her testimony.
"I'm going to tie you to a tree and put it in your a**," Alexander can be heard saying.
"Oh my gosh, that is so debasing, I like it," Arias responded.
| Jodi Arias Claims Travis Alexander Was a Pedophile |
Arias said that in January 2008, she walked in on Alexander masturbating to pictures of young boys and that he confessed to being attracted to children. He then convinced her to sleep with him to cure him of his "deviant urges," she said.
"When I walked in, Travis was on the bed masturbating," she said. "He started grabbing at something on the bed,and I realized they were papers, and one kind of went sailing off the bed in the chaotic way paper falls, and it fell at my feet, and it was a photograph. It was a picture of a little boy... in underwear or briefs."
She also said that he once sent her a package in the mail containing items of clothing: a t-shirt and pair of underwear emblazoned with the words "Travis's" and a pair of Spiderman-themed children's underwear. She claimed to have thrown away the Spiderman underwear.
| Jodi Arias Says Travis Alexander Had "Bill Clinton" View of Sex |
On her second day on the stand, Arias testified that Alexander had a "Bill Clinton view of sex" because Alexander was eager for oral and anal sex, which to him was a to get around Mormon church rules against premarital sex, she said.
Arias said that Alexander, a Mormon elder, skirted his church's teachings on chastity by engaging Arias in oral and anal sex, which she said he told her were technically not against Mormon rules.
"It seemed like Travis kind of had a Bill Clinton version of sex, where oral and anal sex were also sex to me, but not for him," Arias told the court today.
Her comment refers to former president Bill Clinton's famous denial that he had sex with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, claiming they only had oral sex and not intercourse.
| Jodi Arias is Shown Standing on Her Head in Police Interrogation |
Arias' behavior just before her arrest has also caused a stir. Footage from the police precinct where Arias was being questioned shows her do a headstand in the interrogation room.
She's on her head for almost 30 seconds while she waits for the detective. While waiting, she also snoops through the trash and sings the song "Here With Me" by pop star Dido.
When the detective returns and tells her that she's about to be arrested, Arias asks whether she can have her purse to do a little primping before her now-infamous smiling mug shot was taken.
"This is a really trivial question, and it's going to reveal how shallow I am, but before they book me can I clean myself up a little bit?" Arias is heard saying on the footage.
The footage was not shown to the jury.
| Jodi Gives Her Story of The Killing: Says Travis Attacked Her |
Arias said that she killed Alexander accidentally during a fight. On Feb. 20, she described the afternoon of June 4, 2008, when she claims she accidentally dropped Alexander's new camera while taking nude photos of him in the bathroom, causing Alexander to lose his temper. Enraged, he picked her up and body slammed her onto the tile floor, screaming at her, she told the jury.
Arias said she ran to his closet to get away from him, but could hear Alexander's footsteps coming after her. She claims she grabbed a gun from his shelf and tried to keep running, but Alexander came after her, she said.
| Jodi Says She Felt Like a Prostitute |
Arias said that some of her sexual exploits with Alexander left her feeling like a prostitute, including a time when she played out a fantasy for Alexander that involved performing oral sex for him on her front porch without speaking. She testified that he drove up to her house, got out of his car and walked up to the porch for oral sex, and then left a few pieces of candy behind and walked away without a word after it was over.
Prosecutor Juan Martinez argued with her about how responsible she was for the couple's sex life.
"You introduced KY Jelly into the relationship to make it more sexually enjoyable, right? When we're talking about the level of experimentation, it looks like both of you were experimenting together sexually. So when we hear things like, 'I felt like a prostitute,' that's not exactly true, is it?" Martinez said.
"It was often mutual," Arias said. "I didn't feel like a prostitute during, just after."
| Jodi's First Words to the Jury Include Killing, Suicide |
On Feb. 4, Arias took the stand for the first time in her murder trial, and immediately confessed to killing her ex-boyfriend and said that she planned to commit suicide shortly after.
"Did you kill Travis Alexander?" defense attorney Kirk Nurmi asked as his first question to Arias.
"Yes," Arias said softly, turning to look at the jury.
"Why?"
"The simple answer is that he attacked me and I defended myself," she said.
Arias would later testify that she tried to kill herself in prison by taking painkillers to thin her blood and then running a razor over her skin, but stopped short of cutting herself.
| Defense Claims Ripped Diary Pages Show Suicidal Tendencies |
Arias showed the court the torn pages of her journal and read the full excerpts to the jury, just a week after prosecutor Juan Martinez used her partial diary entries to show that she never wrote about the alleged abuse he inflicted on her.
"I just wish I could die. I wish that suicide was a way out but it is no escape. I wouldn't feel any more pain," she wrote.
| Jodi Arias and Prosecutor Juan Martinez Trade Barbs in Court |
Tempers flared between Arias and prosecutor Juan Martinez as Martinez aggressively cross-examined Arias. She complained that his style of questioning made her "brain scramble," inciting an arguing match between the two from the witness stand.
"Are you having trouble understanding me?" Martinez yelled.
"Yes because sometimes cause you go in circles," Arias answered.
"You said you were offended by Mr. Alexander's behavior, do you remember that? This just happened. How is that you are not remembering?" he asked.
"Because you are making my brain scramble," she said.
Martinez, becoming agitated, barked back, "I'm again making your brain scramble. The problem is not you, it's the prosecutor, right?"
Martinez paced the courtroom in front of Arias asking her whether she had trouble with her memory or trouble answering truthfully.
"You don't know? You don't know what you just said? Didn't it just happen? You can't even remember what you just said?"
"I think I'm more focused on your posture, your tone, and your anger," Arias said, causing Martinez to become even angrier