1. If Jodi shoots and kills Travis right off--Not Especially Cruel, Heinous or Depraved, = no Death Penalty.
2. If Jodi shoots and kills Travis right off and then stabs him 27 times and cuts his throat= no Death Penalty,(see No. 1.)
3. If Jodi shoots Travis and he regains/maintains consciousness and sees and feels her stabbing and cutting him= Yes Death Penalty.
According the Superior Court ruling of Aug. 18, 2009, scenario No. 3. is
Especially Cruel, (not Heinous or Depraved)and Jodi is eligible for the Death Penalty on the Charge of Aggravated Felony Murder (with Aggravating Circumstances). That's what the Court ruled. Now, Det. Flores was the only witness for the state at that hearing on Aug. 18, 2009. He testified that No. 3, is how it happened. Then at trial, the Medical Examiner contradicted him and said No. 3 was
not how it happened: ME said Travis was cut first and shot last. Now Nurmi is saying that Flores committed perjury back in 2009 and wants to get the Aggravated Circumstances ruling reversed so that Jodi is no longer facing the Death Penalty.
The State, (Juan Martinez) and the courts so far are saying the sequence doesn't make any difference--Travis was alive when Jodi started to stab and cut and Travis saw and felt it. Therefore Travis's murder met the test of being Especially Cruel no matter the 'mistake' (Nurmi is calling it Perjury) that Det. Flores made in his testimony in the hearing back in Aug. 2009.
Jodi's only hope was to either have shot and killed Travis right off, or to have stabbed him in the heart/or cut his throat so that he died right away. That didn't happen so now Nurmi is trying to find a way out by saying Det. Flores committed Perjury or by trying to get the Jury to believe that Jodi shot Travis first and he was either unconscious or dead when she did the stabbing and cutting so that Travis couldn't have known or felt the pain of what she was doing to him so, therefore, it wasn't an
Especially Cruel murder according to the definitions in the law. Go figure!!!
http://www.courtminutes.maricopa.gov...9/m3846408.pdf