Dramatic twist in high-profile murder trial
Murder suspect calls lead detective after ex-boyfriend's body is found
PHOENIX – A woman charged with killing her motivational speaker ex-boyfriend in a jealous rage in Arizona in 2008 calmly denied any involvement in the gruesome slaying in a recorded telephone call with a detective that was played for jurors Thursday.
Jodi Arias, 32, could become the fourth woman on Arizona's death row if she's convicted of killing Travis Alexander. Prosecutors said she shot him in the face, stabbed and slashed him nearly 30 times and slit his throat in a volatile, jealousy-fueled attack.
Jurors heard testimony Thursday from Mesa detective Esteban Flores, the lead investigator on the case, and a recording of a conversation he had with Arias on June 10, 2008, a day after the body was found. On the call, Arias denied being involved in the death and calmly told the detective that she had not seen Alexander, 30, in two months.
"I heard that he passed away, and that, I don't know, I heard all kinds of rumors, I heard there was a lot of blood," Arias told the detective in the phone call.
Arias said she moved back to California in April 2008 after their relationship ended.
"You haven't come back in town since then?" Flores asked her.
"No I haven't," she replied.
She also told Flores that she knew of no enemies that Alexander had and described him as a very fit man who would have been difficult to overpower.
She later changed her story, telling police two intruders killed Alexander and she managed to escape. She eventually admitted to the killing, but claimed self-defense after he became enraged and lunged at her.
The trial began Wednesday.
The two met in Las Vegas in 2007 and quickly entered into a stormy relationship. Court records show that Arias became jealous on several occasions during their romance, as evidenced in the thousands of emails and instant messages the two exchanged.
Prosecutors argue Arias went to Alexander's home around June 4, 2008, intent on killing him after learning he planned to take a trip to Mexico with another woman. She claims she ended their relationship, but the two continued to carry on a sexual affair.
Authorities say Alexander was shot with a .25 caliber gun, the same caliber weapon Arias and her grandparents reported stolen from their Northern California home just days before the killing. Police have not recovered any of the weapons used in the slaying.
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