Judge Sherry Stephens sent Jodi Arias' lawyers a firm message Tuesday, denying her defense team's motion for a mistrial, but also throwing out a juror in the process.
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With little else to grasp onto at this point in court, Arias's lawyers had urged Judge Stephens to consider a mistrial in the case, filing a claim Sunday alleging juror misconduct "discovered during closed proceedings" last week. While Judge Stephens refused to call a mistrial, following a meeting in her chambers with the prosecution and defense, she announced the dismissal of Juror Five - a woman in her 30s who had been gossiping about the case, according to CNN. The unidentified juror reportedly wept as she left the court house. An alternate juror was seated in her place.
Judge Stephens didn't elaborate on the juror's removal in court and ordered the rest of the jury not to speculate about why she was dismissed.
Arias' lawyers returned to trying to establish her inherent need for self-defense against Alexander by focussing on her backstory of past relationship abuse with paid "expert witnesses" on domestic abuse, psychotherapist Alyce LaViolette.
LaViolette never met with Alexander, but you wouldn't gather that from hearing her testimony. She's read through numerous text messages, emails and listened to phone conversations Arias recorded between the two. Picking up where the trial left off last week, LaViolette continued to offer her interpretations of emails and journal entries written by Arias.
A 32-year-old photographer from California, Arias is charged with the grisly first-degree murder of her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander, in June 2008, when she stabbed the 30-year-old man 27 times, primarily in the back, shot him in the face, slit his throat from ear to ear with so much force it almost decapitated him, and left his bloodied corpse crumpled over in the bathroom shower of his home - all in the course of 106 seconds. Arias' guilt is not up for debate - but her mental state at the time of the killing is. Arias' future 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.
LaViolette testified that Alexander admitted in a reply to a friend's email that he had not treated a past girlfriend well.
"He treated her badly but he didn't feel badly about it," LaViolette said of an email Alexander sent to a friend.
Last week, LaViollete discussed a previously undisclosed series of email exchanges between Arias, Alexander, and his "longtime friends," Chris and Sky Hughes as evidence of Alexander's allegedly abusive behavior. LaViolette returned to discussing more emails between Sky Hughes and Arias.
"She had serious concerns about Mr. Alexander and Ms. Arias' relationship ... she was concerned about his history and how he treated her," LaViolette said.
LaViolette gave her impression of an email sent Sept. 23, 2007 from Lisa Andrews to Alexander.
"She believes that they have gotten too sexual too soon ... that she feels that he has basically pushed on her -- talked about sex a lot in a way that she does not appreciate. She wants him to stop grabbing her butt, particularly in public ... that she finds that unattractive and doesn't appreciate it," LaViolette testified.
LaViolette claimed there was content in the email that suggested Andrews believed Alexander was a virgin.
"I see deception in a lot of areas," LaViolette said of Alexander's need to make people believe he was a virgin and wasn't financially unstable.
Martinez once again objected to the majority of the defense's questions, arguing LaViolette's testimony was nothing but hearsay.
LaViolette then focussed on instances of Alexander's alleged abuse of Arias, detailing several incidents when Arias felt mistreated romantically by Alexander, describing how hurt Arias was when she searched through his phone and found text messages arranging meet-ups with other women, and how depressed she became when she allegedly saw him making out with another woman. The behavior might make him a jerk, but it doesn't exactly make him the manipulative sociopath that Arias' defense team has portrayed him as, either.
"He makes her sick and he makes her happy ... she's got the best and the worst is what it sounds like," LaViolette said of an entry from Arias' journal.
"[Chronic infidelity] is considered a form of psychological abuse," said LaViolette.
LaViolette said she saw evidence in the emails that Alexander was deceiving 10 women at once.
"He's able to manage not being truthful to several women at a time," LaViolette said of Alexander.
Arias faces the death penalty if convicted. The trial resumes with more testimony from LaViolette Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. EST.
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