Murder of Travis Alexander

As of 2023, Arias is housed at the Arizona Department of Corrections #281129, which is located at Arizona State Prison Complex - Perryville. She started her sentence in the complex's maximum security Lumley Unit, but has since been downgraded to the medium security level.

The site of the homicide was featured on Season 2, Episode 1 of Murder House Flip which aired on 12 August 2022 on The Roku Channel. The house received a remodeled bathroom, bedroom and hallway, switching out fixtures that were unchanged from the time of the homicide. During the renovations, the cast of the show found blood residue in the flooring.

ABC broadcast a story of the murder on 14 February 2020 in an episode of 20/20.

On October 17, 2019, Arias' attorneys argued to the Court of Appeals that her sentence should be overturned on the basis that Martinez acted inappropriately throughout the trial, resulting in a media frenzy and affecting the outcome of the trial. On March 24, 2020, the court held that notwithstanding "egregious" and "self-promoting" misconduct by the prosecutor, Arias had been convicted "based upon the overwhelming evidence of her guilt," and upheld the conviction.

NBC broadcast a story of the murder on 6 October 2019 in an episode of Dateline titled "Along Came Jodi."

On July 6, 2018, Arias' current attorneys, Margaret M. Green (a.k.a. Peg Green) and Corey Engle, filed a 324-page appeal seeking her murder conviction be overturned to the Court of Appeals.

Investigation Discovery aired in January 2018 a short television series titled "Jodi Arias: An American Murder Mystery." The special explores the death of Alexander and the subsequent legal circus as Arias was tried.

Arias' case was discussed in the July 19, 2018, episode of Stuff You Should Know as an example of the violation of attorney-client privilege. The episode discussed former attorney Kirk Nurmi's tell-all book, which contained information Nurmi acquired during his representation of Arias.

Sentencing was scheduled for April 7, 2015, with Stephens having the option to sentence Arias to either life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, or with the possibility of parole after 25 years. On April 13, Stephens sentenced Arias to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. By March 5, 2015, Arias' trials cost an estimated $3 million.

In an interview on April 8, 2015, Arias' attorney Jennifer Willmott discussed the social media furor, death threats she received, Arias' statements at the sentencing, the holdout juror, and stated that she believed that Arias testified truthfully.

In June 2015, following a restitution hearing, Arias was ordered to pay more than $32,000 to Alexander's siblings. Her attorney stated this was about one third of the amount requested.

The pilot episode of Murder Made Me Famous, which aired August 15, 2015, chronicled the case.

On March 6, 2015, after the retrial of the penalty phase concluded, it was reported that juror #17, the sole holdout, received death threats and police were posted at her house. Dennis Elias, a jury consultant, said "The very fact that people are making death threats and trying to out her, it is not a proud day for any single one of those people and they should be ashamed."

On October 21, 2014, Arias' sentencing retrial began. Opening statements were given, and a hearing on evidence was held. Prosecution witness Amanda Webb, called in the first trial to rebut Arias' testimony that she returned a gas can to Walmart on May 8, 2007, admitted she did not know if all records were transferred after the store relocated. After a holiday break, the retrial resumed in January, 2015. Mesa police experts admitted that Alexander's laptop had viruses and pornography, contrary to testimony in the first trial in 2013. Jury deliberations began on February 12, 2015. On March 2, 2015, the jury informed Judge Stephens that they were deadlocked. Arias' attorneys requested a mistrial. Stephens denied the request, read additional instructions to the jury, and ordered them to resume deliberations. On March 5, 2015, Stephens declared a mistrial because the jurors, who deliberated for about 26 hours over five days, deadlocked at 11–1 vote in favor of the death penalty. The 11 jurors in favor of the death penalty indicated that the sole holdout juror was sympathetic to Arias and had an agenda.

In opening arguments on January 2, 2013, Martinez sought the death penalty. Arias was represented by appointed counsel L. Kirk Nurmi and Jennifer Willmott, who argued that Alexander's death was a justifiable homicide committed in self-defense.

Arias took the stand in her own defense on February 4, 2013, testifying for a total of 18 days, a duration described by criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos as "unprecedented." On the first day of her testimony, Arias told of being violently abused by her parents from the age of seven. She testified that she had rented a car in Redding because Budget's website provided two options, one to the north and one to the south, and her brother lived in Redding. On her second day on the stand, Arias said that her relationship with Alexander included oral sex and sodomy; she said that the sodomy was painful the first time she experienced it and that Alexander believed that such activities would not contravene Mormon rules concerning vaginal intercourse. Arias said that she and Alexander eventually had intercourse, but less often. A phone sex tape was played in court that Arias had recorded without Alexander's knowledge, apparently hoping to use it to embarrass him to his Mormon peers. Arias also testified that Alexander secretly harbored pedophilic desires for both male and female children, and that she tried to help him with these urges. Forensic experts testified that an examination of Alexander's computer found no evidence of pornographic material.

On May 7, 2013, after 15 hours of deliberation, Arias was found guilty of first-degree murder. All twelve jurors found her guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, of which seven additionally found her guilty of felony murder. As the verdict was read, Alexander's family smiled and hugged one another. Crowds outside the courtroom began cheering and chanting.

Following the conviction, the prosecution was required to convince the jury that the murder was "cruel, heinous, or depraved" for them to determine that Arias was eligible for the death penalty. The aggravation phase of the trial started on May 15, 2013. The only witness was the medical examiner who had performed Alexander's autopsy. Arias' attorneys, who had repeatedly asked to step down from the case, provided only brief opening statements and closing arguments in which they said that the adrenaline rushing through Alexander's body may have prevented him from feeling much pain during his death. Prosecutor Martinez showed photos of the corpse and crime scene to the jury, then paused for two minutes of silence to illustrate how long he claimed that it took for Alexander to die. After less than three hours of consideration, the jury determined that Arias was eligible for the death penalty.

The penalty phase began on May 16, 2013, when prosecutors called Alexander's family members to offer victim impact statements in an effort to convince the jury that Arias' crime merited a death sentence.

During the trial, defense attorneys filed for mistrial in January, April and May 2013. Arias' lawyers argued in January that Esteban Flores, the lead Mesa police detective on the case, perjured himself during a 2009 pretrial hearing aimed at determining whether the death penalty should be considered an option for jurors. Flores testified at the 2009 hearing that based on his own review of the scene and a discussion with the medical examiner, it was apparent that Alexander had been shot in the forehead first. Contrary to Flores' testimony at the 2009 hearing, the medical examiner told jurors the gunshot probably would have incapacitated Alexander. Given his extensive defense wounds, including stab marks and slashes to his hands, arms and legs, it was not likely the shot came first. Flores denied perjury and said during his trial testimony that he just misunderstood what the medical examiner told him.

On May 20, 2013, defense attorneys filed motion which alleged that a defense witness who had been due to testify the preceding Friday, the 17th, began receiving death threats for her scheduled testimony on Arias' behalf. The day before the filing, the witness contacted counsel for Arias, stating that she was no longer willing to testify because of the threats. The motion continued, "It should also be noted that these threats follow those made to Alyce LaViolette, a record of which was made ex-parte and under seal." The motion was denied, as was a motion for a stay in the proceedings that had been sought to give time to appeal the decisions to the Arizona Supreme Court.

On May 29, 2013, the Arizona Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal filed three months earlier, which was also refused by the mid-level Arizona Court of Appeals. Nurmi had asked the high court to throw out the aggravating factor of cruelty because the judge had allowed it to go forward based on a different theory of how the murder occurred. The lead detective originally claimed that the gunshot occurred first, followed by the stabbing and slitting of the throat. Based on that theory, Stephens ruled there was probable cause to find the crime had been committed in an especially cruel manner, an aggravating factor under state law. Subsequent to this initial hearing, the medical examiner testified that the gunshot occurred postmortem.

Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret, a made-for-television movie, stars Lost actress Tania Raymonde as Arias and Jesse Lee Soffer, of The Mob Doctor and Chicago P.D., as Alexander. Prosecutor Juan Martinez was played by Ugly Betty actor Tony Plana and David Zayas, of Dexter, portrays detective Esteban Flores. Created for and distributed by the Lifetime Network, the film premiered June 22, 2013.

In late January 2013, artwork drawn by Arias began selling on eBay. The seller was her brother; he claimed that the profits went towards covering the family's travel expenses to the trial and "better food" for Arias while she was in jail.

The trial commenced in Maricopa County Superior Court before judge Sherry K. Stephens. The voir dire proceedings began on December 10, 2012. On December 20, Arias' attorneys argued that the prosecution was "systematically excluding" women and Black people; prosecutor Juan Martinez said that race and sex were irrelevant to his decisions to strike certain jurors. Stephens ruled that the prosecution had shown no bias in the jury selection.

On May 24, Victoria Washington, who was one of Arias' attorneys until she had to resign in 2011 because of a conflict, said "Arias' lead attorney, Nurmi, was pilloried in social media. At one point, an Internet denizen digitally superimposed his face onto a crime-scene photo of Alexander dead in the shower of his Mesa home. I know people were aggravated with him constantly filing for mistrial, but you have to make and preserve the record for federal review (on appeal). If you don't file for mistrial, the appeals courts will say you waived it."

On April 6, 2009, a motion to reconsider the defendant's motion to disqualify the Maricopa County District Attorney's office was denied. On May 18, the court ordered Arias to submit to IQ and competency testing. In January 2011, a defense filing detailed Arias' attorneys' efforts to obtain text messages and emails. The prosecution initially told defense attorneys that no text messages that had been sent or received by Alexander were available, but the prosecution was then ordered to turn over several hundred such messages. Mesa police detective Esteban Flores told defense attorneys that there was nothing "out of the ordinary" among Alexander's emails; about 8,000 were turned over to the defense in June 2009.

Alexander was murdered on Wednesday, June 4, 2008. He suffered 27 stab wounds, a slit throat, and a gunshot wound to the head. Medical examiner Kevin Horn would later testify that Alexander's jugular vein, common carotid artery, and trachea had been slashed and that he had defensive wounds on his hands. Horn further testified that Alexander may have been dead at the time the gunshot was inflicted, and that the back wounds were shallow. Alexander's death was ruled a homicide. He was buried at Riverside's Olivewood Memorial Park cemetery.

In early 2008, Alexander told acquaintances that Arias would join him for a work-related trip to Cancún, Mexico scheduled for June 15. In April, Alexander asked to change his travel companion to another female friend, Marie Hall. On May 28, a burglary occurred at the residence of Arias' grandparents, with whom Arias was living. Among the missing objects was a handgun chambered in .25 caliber, which was never recovered. This later became significant as a shell case from a spent .25 caliber round was found near Alexander's body at the murder scene.

On July 9, 2008, Arias was indicted by a grand jury in Maricopa County, Arizona for the first-degree murder of Alexander. She was arrested at her home six days later and was extradited to Arizona on September 5. Arias pleaded not guilty on September 11. During this time, she provided several different accounts about her involvement in Alexander's death. She first told police that she had not been in Mesa on the day of the murder and had last seen Alexander in March 2008. Arias later told police that two intruders had broken into Alexander's home, murdering him and attacking her. Two years after her arrest, Arias told police that she killed Alexander in self-defense, claiming that she had been a victim of domestic violence.

During the trial, videotape of a September 2008 Inside Edition interview was played in which Arias had said: "No jury is going to convict me ... because I am innocent. You can mark my words on that." Discussing the statement during her testimony, Arias said, "At the time [of the interview], I had plans to commit suicide. So I was extremely confident that no jury would convict me, because I didn't expect any of you to be here." At the close of his cross-examination of Arias, Martinez replayed the video and prompted Arias to affirm that she had said during the interview that she would not be convicted because she was innocent. When being questioned by Martinez, Arias was initially combative and flippant, but after several days, Martinez highlighted the possible lies and inconsistencies in her testimony, and she admitted to stabbing and shooting Alexander despite her earlier claims of a memory lapse. Jury foreman William Zervakos later expressed an opinion common to jurors and observers when he told ABC's Good Morning America: "I think eighteen days hurt her. I think she was not a good witness."

Responding to Arias' testimony about buying a five-gallon gas can at a Walmart store in Salinas on June 3, 2008 that she returned on the same day, on April 24 the prosecution called Amanda Webb, a Salinas Walmart store employee, to the stand. Webb said that, according to Walmart's records, no one had returned a five-gallon gas can on that date, and that Arias returned the gas can one week after having purchased it. The gas-can evidence was seen as important in establishing premeditation, as the prosecutor argued that Arias was trying to avoid being recorded on gas-station security cameras as she drove to Mesa.

The case, featured on an episode of 48 Hours Mystery: Picture Perfect in 2008, included an interview which, for the first time in the history of 48 Hours, was used as evidence in a death penalty trial. On September 24, 2008, Inside Edition interviewed Arias at the Maricopa County Jail where she stated, "No jury is going to convict me...because I am innocent and you can mark my words on that. No jury is going to convict me."

Jodi Ann Arias was born on July 9, 1980, in Salinas, California, to William and Sandra (née Allen) Arias. Arias and Alexander met in September 2006 at a PPL conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Arias converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which Alexander was a member, and was baptized by him on November 26, 2006 in a ceremony in Southern California. Alexander and Arias began dating in February 2007. Arias moved to Mesa to live closer to Alexander. In April 2008, she moved to Yreka, California, and lived there with her grandparents.

Travis Victor Alexander (July 28, 1977 – June 4, 2008) was an American salesman who was murdered by his ex-girlfriend, Jodi Ann Arias (born July 9, 1980), in his house in Mesa, Arizona. Arias was convicted of first-degree murder on May 8, 2013, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on April 13, 2015.

Travis Victor Alexander was born on July 28, 1977, in Riverside, California, to Gary David Alexander (1948–1997) and Pamela Elizabeth Morgan Alexander (1953–2005). At the age of 11, Travis moved in with his paternal grandparents. After his father's death in July 1997, his seven siblings were also taken in by their paternal grandmother. Alexander was a salesman and motivational speaker for Pre-Paid Legal Services (PPL).