Jodi Arias Trial Jurors: 2 days, 2 gone PHOENIX — After just the second day of the Jodi Arias sentencing retrial in Maricopa County Superior Court, two jurors have been dismissed. The first was let go Tuesday because of family issues. The second was dismissed Wednesday after she asked a freelance TV journalist if she was CNN superstar Nancy Grace, who has been a vocal crusader against Arias. Arias has already been convicted of the 2008 murder of her lover, Travis Alexander, in his Mesa home. In May 2013, a jury found that Arias had committed the murder in an excessively cruel manner, qualifying her for the death penalty. But that jury was unable to agree whether Arias should be sentenced to death or to life in prison. The sentencing retrial began Tuesday. Wednesday morning, the jury studied grisly photos of Alexanders decomposing body as prosecutor Juan Martinez interrogated Dr. Kevin Horn, the forensic examiner who conducted the autopsy on Alexander. Horn and Martinez chronicled the horror: • Four stab wounds to Alexanders chest and torso, one deeper than five inches. • The slicing wounds on his shoulder, scalp, hands and feet. • The cluster of nine stab wounds between his shoulder blades. • Divots of bone in his skull from a knife point. • A bullet that entered his skull, passed through his nasal cavity and lodged in his cheek. • The gaping slash across his neck that severed his jugular vein, carotid artery and windpipe. Martinez inquired as to whether Alexander felt pain, and as to which wounds would be fatal. In Horns judgment, one of the stab wounds to his chest and the gunshot wound would eventually have proved fatal; the slit throat would cause unconsciousness in seconds and death in minutes. But on cross-examination, defense attorney Jennifer Willmott attacked Horns version of the sequence of wounds. During a 2009 court hearing to determine whether there was enough evidence to go forward with the death penalty based on aggravating circumstances, the case agent, Mesa police Detective Esteban Flores, testified that Alexander was first shot in the head and then struggled with Arias before she killed him. That theory was chronicled in a court ruling. But in November 2012, days before the attorneys began to pick jurors for the first trial, Martinez told the court that Arias had stabbed Alexander first, then slit his throat and fired a bullet into his head as he lay dead or dying, a scenario that could change a jurys impression of cruelty and depravity on Arias part. Horn insisted through the first trial that Alexander was stabbed first and that he never told Flores otherwise. And on Tuesday, Horn stuck to his story despite Willmotts intense questioning. The juror encounter took place during a morning break. Freelance journalist Beth Karas, an attorney who used to be an on-camera reporter and commentator for HLN, was being interviewed by 12 News about the differences between the first and second trials. Karas realized that a juror was standing nearby but assumed she couldnt hear. Karas said that when she came back into the courthouse, the woman approached her and asked if she was Nancy Grace, the court-based talk-show commentator. Karas answered that she used to work with Grace and then reported the incident to the court. Karas was called to the witness stand at the end of the morning court session, when the jury left, to recount the story. After the lunch break, there was one juror less. Judge Sherry Stephens reiterated to the remaining 16 jurors that they were not to discuss the case with anyone, watch TV, read newspapers or visit social media. Admin/Sharon..... usatoday/story/news/nation/2014/10/22/arias-jurors-dismissed/17745537/
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 16:00:01 +0000
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