PHOENIX – Jurors on Tuesday heard a phone message that an Arizona woman left for her boyfriend hours after she allegedly killed him at his suburban Phoenix home.
Prosecutors claim Jodi Arias was trying to cover her tracks and left Travis Alexander an unemotional voicemail some six hours after his death in June 2008.
On the message played in a Phoenix courtroom, Arias is heard saying, "My phone died so I wasn't able to get back to anybody" and that she "drove 100 miles in the wrong direction."
Arias, 32, could become the fourth woman on Arizona's death row if she's convicted in the high-profile trial that's now in its third week.
Prosecutors allege Arias shot the 30-year-old Alexander in the head, stabbed him 27 times and slit his throat, then left him in a shower in his Mesa home. They argue the actions were those of a jealous woman who brutally attacked Alexander after he tried to end their relationship.
Arias claims Alexander was abusive and the killing was in self-defense.
The jury on Tuesday also saw a Mesa police videotape of an officer interrogating Arias in 2008.
She cried as police questioned her about Alexander's death, but continued to deny she killed him -- even after police showed her pictures they found the day Alexander died.
On Monday, prosecutors introduced graphic pictures found on Alexander's camera and said to be taken moments before his death.
Mesa police said Arias deleted the photos, then put the camera in a washing machine. Investigators restored the pictures via a memory card in the camera.
"It's your foot, Jodi. These are your pants," a detective told Arias in the interrogation, referring to the photos.
Arias replied: "This is his bathroom. That is not my foot."
She also is heard saying on the tape that "there's no reason I would ever want to hurt him."
Arias told police she really wanted to move on after she and Alexander broke up.
"I haven't found the guy, the man that I want to marry, the person I want to spend my life with," Arias said on the video. "But in my mind, Travis did and I was happy for him and I thought there was also a part of me that felt if I stay, I'm going to jeopardize that for him as well. We both deserve to be happy. We both deserve to have, you know, be married in a temple."
Prosecutors have said Alexander was a businessman, motivational speaker and a devout Mormon. His roommates found his body days after he was killed, and Arias was arrested the following month at her parents' northern California home.
The trial resumes Wednesday and is expected to last until April.
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