It might also be he is going through the motions of a cross-examination knowing the murder one charge was lost a long time ago, with the introduction of the phone sex tape and text messages by the defense.
What I cannot understand is why people can't seem to believe that Jodi Arias was an abused woman. No, most abused women don't kill their abusers, but one of the major reasons women are incarcerated for murder is because of domestic violence situations.
ALL of the evidence in this trial points to domestic abuse. ALL of it.
Does that mean Travis Alexander deserved to die in such a hideous manner? No, but his treatment of Jodi, confirmed through the documentary record, give us an understanding why she felt desperate enough to do what she did.
Travis was so screwed up, so needy, so manipulative. That 16-page text rant, which I believe was a result of Jodi having accidently left a picture Travis gave to her when she went back to Yreka, is one such obvious example the man was a manipulative bastard who engaged in character assassination via text/IM messages to try and guilt her and tear her down. (I had to rewatch the trial testimony by LaViolette to remember which rant it was, for there were several of them that were completely out of line, from rants over a drawing Jodi forgot, to an email sent to another man by mistake to one from May 26, 2008, that was unspecified as to why the rant but I think this had to do with his fear of getting in trouble with the bishop over his sexual conduct as Jodi had told a friend of hers about it.) He was a drama king for sure. It was all about him and how horrible she was, how she was a Hitler, a stalker, a three-hole wonder who regarded him as nothing more than a dildo with a heartbeat.
Travis was a major head case. I don't know what Jodi Arias ever saw in him. It's obvious to me why he wasn't married although he desperately wanted to be married. Word gets around in that tightly-knit Mormon culture. Otherwise, he'd have been married long before.
Marriage is almost a requirement in the LDS church although single people are members. However, older singles (those over 30) are regarded as second-class citizens in that church.
USA Today had a report on the utterly bizarre cross-examination of LaViolette yesterday:
Arias' defense attorneys have been building a case that she was battered and controlled by Alexander. Alyce LaViolette, a psychologist and expert in domestic abuse, has been on the witness stand for more than a week. On Thursday, she parsed the language of a 16-page Instant Message in which Alexander threatens Arias and compares her to Adolph Hitler, the devil, a prostitute and several sexually insulting names. And she went through a list of women with whom Alexander had exchanged flirtatious, suggestive and sexually explicit communications during the time he was carrying on a secret sexual relationship with Arias.
Defense attorney Jennifer Willmott took a verbal poke at Martinez near the very end of her questions.
"I guess I'll get this out of the way now," Willmott said to LaViolette, "Do you have a memory problem?" a question Martinez repeatedly asked of Arias and another witness on the stand.
Prosecutor Juan Martinez came out swinging when it was his turn to begin cross-examination. Minutes into his questioning, as he tried to force LaViolette to answer questions with yes or no answers, a frequent tactic, his voice rose to a high-pitched rant.
"Mr. Martinez, are you angry with me?" LaViolette asked calmly.
Martinez has anger issues, and he is VERY hard on the ears.
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