Jodi Arias Trial: Jurors Grill Defendant on Repeated Lies, Memory Loss in Killing

As Jodi Arias sat through a second day of jury questioning Thursday, jurors challenged the alleged murderer's numerous admitted lies in the case and claims of memory loss in her ex-boyfriend's killing, clearly skeptical of her testimony in the trial. 

A photographer from California, Arias is charged with the the grisly first-degree murder of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander in June 2008, in which she allegedly stabbed the then 27-year-old man 27 times, shot him in the face twice, slit his throat and left his bloodied corpse crumpled over in the bathroom shower of his apartment. Arias' fate depends on whether the jury believes she killed Alexander in self-defense, as she contends, or was actually a jilted lover exacting jealous revenge, as the prosecution argues. 

"After all the lies you have told, why should we believe you now?" one juror prodded Arias, The Huffington Post reported.

"Lying isn't typically something I just do," Arias claimed.  "The lies I've told in this case can be tied directly back to either protecting Travis' reputation or my involvement in his death ... because I was very ashamed."

"Would you decide to tell the truth if you never got arrested?" another juror asked.

"I honestly don't know the answer to that question," Arias answered.

Jurors submitted a wealth of questions earlier in the week to be asked to Arias by Judge Sherry Stephens. Arizona is one of three states that allow jurors to ask witnesses questions once prosecuting and defense attorneys have completed their questioning, according to Fox News. 

Almost all of the 220 questions centered on Arias' varying versions of events and supposed inability to remember the most important aspects of the trial, such as killing Alexander, a focus that came as little surprise. Over four increasingly heated days of cross examination, prosecuting attorney Juan Martinez consistently pointed out the numerous inconsistencies, contradictions and outright lies in Arias' stories seeking to underline her utter lack of credibility. Martinez repeatedly noted that none of Arias' accusations of Alexander's allegedly abusive behavior or pedophilia have been backed up by the numerous emails, photographs, diary entries, text messages or recorded phone calls between the two already shown in court. 

Arias' supposedly "spotty" memory of the day she killed Alexander was again a prevailing theme of much of the jury's questioning.

"How can you say you don't have memory issues when you can't remember how you stabbed him so many times and slashed his throat?" a juror asked, according to The Associated Press.

"I think that I have a good memory and June 4 is an anomaly for me," Arias said. "Like I said yesterday, it's in a class of its own and I can't explain what kind of state of mind I was in. Most of the day was an entire blank and little pieces have come back, but not very many."

Arias has tried to explain away many of the inconsistencies in her stories by claiming her memory was foggy the day Alexander died. Arias has wavered back-and-forth between providing surprisingly acute details surrounding the murder to claiming she has little to no memory of certain pieces of the case, such as the actual act of killing Alexander, saying her memory of the fateful day has "huge gaps," according to The Tri-City Herald.

Arias has already admitted to lying about Alexander's death to just about everyone. She first claimed she was never at Alexander's home the day he was killed, then when DNA evidence proved she was lying she said masked intruders killed him, and finally, years later she backtracked to admit she killed the victim, but claimed it was in self-defense, saying he attacked her in the shower, forcing her to fight for her life. She claims she lied so often because she was "ashamed" she killed Alexander in self-defense and because she was afraid of revealing the details of their sexual relationship. 

"Why were you afraid of the consequences if you killed Travis in self-defense?" asked another juror. 

"I believed it was not OK ... to take someone's life even if you were defending yourself," Arias quietly responded.

At the end of the questioning, defense attorney Kirk Nurmi tried to give Arias a chance to provide a more elaborate explanation to the jury's prodding about her memory issues and lies. 

"Given all these lies ... why should anyone believe you now?" Nurmi said, paraphrasing one juror's question.

"I understand that there will always be questions," Arias said. "If I am convicted, it is because of my bad choices in the beginning."

Arias faces the death penalty if convicted, the Associated Press reported. The trial resumes for the 56th day March 13 at noon EST.