Arias jury to hear more sordid testimony of photographs of young males
By Michael Kiefer
The Republic | azcentral.com
Fri Feb 8, 2013 10:07 PM
After this week?s testimony in the Jodi Arias case, it was hard to imagine that the case could get any more sordid.
In three days on the witness stand in Maricopa County Superior Court, Arias, 32, described how the man she has admitted killing, Travis Alexander, made her submit to sodomy and then treated her as if she didn?t exist outside of the bedroom.
Court observers are also expecting that a phone-sex recording between the two will be played for the jury.
But in a closed hearing Thursday, lawyers for the defense and the prosecution argued over whether Arias, who was in attendance, should be allowed to testify that she walked in on Alexander while he was masturbating to photographs of young boys.
Judge Sherry Stephens unsealed the transcript of the hearing after she determined that the evidence was admissible.
But the jury will be listening carefully: Prosecutor Juan Martinez has already established that Arias lied prolifically in some of her videotaped interviews with detectives. What will they think of this event that no one else witnessed?
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According to the transcript of Thursday?s hearing, Arias told psychological counselors and a domestic-violence expert that in January 2008, six months before she killed him, Arias walked in on Alexander in his bedroom when he had photos of young males spread out on his bed.
The abuse expert testified by telephone during Thursday?s hearing that at least two unspecified instances of domestic violence by Alexander occurred after that. She posited that Arias, knowing such a troubling secret about Alexander, would heighten the level of fear she had for Alexander and his need to exert control over her.
Martinez claimed that Arias had alternately said that Alexander was viewing pictures on a computer and viewing printed photographs. Furthermore, he brought two Mesa police investigators to the witness stand to say that they had found no pornographic images of any kind on Alexander?s computer, nor had they found photographs in his house.
Martinez had sought to block the testimony, but Stephens ruled that it was admissible and that Martinez would have ample opportunity to cross-examine Arias on the witness stand.
Trial resumes Monday, and Arias is expected to continue her testimony.