Jodi Arias trial: Murder suspect can't remember most of killing

Jodi Arias trial


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Posted: 02/20/2013

PHOENIX - Accused murderer Jodi Arias describes the day she killed her former boyfriend Travis Alexander as "mortal terror."

After eight days of testimony where she recalled detail after detail about her life, Arias told jurors she can't remember stabbing Alexander 27 times, slitting his throat or shooting him in the head.

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Arias began her testimony Wednesday with Alexander in the shower posing as she took photos, but said his demeanor changed when she dropped his new camera.

"Travis flipped out again, he stood up and he stepped out of the shower and he picked me up. I was crouching, but he lifted me up as he was screamed I was a stupid idiot and then he body slammed me on the tile," she said.

Arias then testified that she and Alexander wrestled on the ground and claimed he tried to get her in a wrestling hold, but she managed to escape.

"I began to run. I remembered where he kept a gun," said Arias as she continued with what happened next, "I pointed it (the gun) at him with both of my hands, I thought that would stop him. If someone were pointing a gun at me, I would stop," she said.

But Arias testified Alexander didn't stop and described him rushing at her like a football linebacker.

"As he was lunging at me, the gun went off. I didn't mean to shoot him, or anything. I didn't even think I was holding the trigger. I was just pointing it at him and  I didn't even know that I shot him," cried Arias

Arias told jurors she hit a wall with the gunfire and claimed, " I had really, really pissed him off. He was angry at me and he wasn't going to stop."

When Arias' defense team showed her a picture of Alexander on the shower floor with blood running down his leg, Arias drew a blank.

"I have a few memories, but nothing is clear," she said.

She told jurors she can't remember stabbing Alexander, dragging his body down the hallway back to the shower or even nearly decapitating him when his throat was slit.

Arias can only recall it all when needed, "I was in the bathroom, I remember dropping the knife and it clanged on the tile floor and it made a big noise. I just remember screaming," she said.

Arias' Attorney Kirk Nurmi then asked where Alexander was, and Arias said he was beside her.

She assumed she got the knife from the bedroom where Alexander had allegedly cut through rope they were using during sex.

"I have a vague memory of putting the knife in the dishwasher," said Arias.

Arias then told jurors she drove home to California, hoping that Alexander was alive, though she assumed he was not.

“When I came too, I saw that there was blood on my hands," said Arias, "I knew it was really bad and my life was probably done now."

Arias testified she threw the gun used to shoot Alexander in the desert and the rope used during sex was dumped in a gas station dumpster.

"I wished it was a nightmare I could wake up from and find out that everything was the same way it was before," said Arias.

When asked why she didn't call 911, Arias said "I didn't want anyone to know that it had happened or that I had done it."

Arias then went on to detail how she began to cover up the killing.

She said she knew police would listen to Alexander's voice mail, so she called up and left a message, "to throw off the scent."

Arias said she recorded the message several times until it sounded cheery and right.

She said she traveled to Utah because she was expected by friends. In Utah, less than a day after Alexander was killed, she met up with Ryan Burns and the two made out.

Arias spent the rest of the day telling jurors why she lied about the killing and why she made up the second story of two masked intruders.

"I just have always heard don't admit to anything," said Arias.

Arias also told jurors she still loves Travis Alexander, but in a different way.

Copyright Associated Press

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