Nearly eight years after Travis Alexander's death, and two years after she was initially found guilty of her ex-boyfriend's murder, Jodi Arias was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The death penalty couldn't be considered because of an earlier mistrial. Arizona judge Sherry Stephens on Monday decided against giving Arias a more lenient sentence; early release after 25 years.
Arias expressed remorse shortly before her sentence was read.
"To this day I can't believe that I was capable of doing something that terrible. I'm truly disgusted and repulsed with myself. I'm horrified because of what I did, and I wish there was some way I could take it back," she said.
Earlier in the day, Alexander's relatives tearfully urged Stephens for the strongest possible sentence.
"It hurts too much to remember him alive because if I remember him, I remember too much about how he was brutally taken from us and I can't handle it," Alexander's sister, Hillary Wilcox, said in the Maricopa County Court courtroom Monday morning. "This is what I've had to do so I can cope."
On June 9, 2008 Alexander's body was found in a shower of his Mesa, Arizona home having sustained between 27 to 29 stab wounds. A gunshot to the head may have happened after his death, according to testimony from medical examiner Kevin Horn.
A bloody palm print along the bathroom hallway had both Arias and Alexander's DNA, prompting official to issue an arrest warrant for Arias.
All but one juror wanted to give Arias the death penalty in the initial trial. Because a unanimous decision was not reached it was left to Stephens to determine a sentence.
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