Crime & Trial Discussion Forums

I doubt if the Bishop has early onset dementia. If he did, he wouldn't be qualified to testify.

But the fact that he is retired and is probably in his late 60s or 70s or maybe even 80, would make it understandable that he may get a date mixed up. More understandable than Marc McGee who is probably in his 30s.

Since this area is heavily populated with members of the LDS you can bet that there are several LDS members on the jury. And in deliberations they will convince the jurors to believe Bishop Parker, a Man of God, and Deanna Reid, a returned missionary, over a nameless phantom who didn't even have the guts to take the stand, state his name and show his face and testify in open court about his false accusations against fellow LDS members.

Let's weigh the transgressions each side has been able to prove and see which we believe deserves death: Arias or Alexander.

The defense proved Alexander:
1- Was a big flirt.
2- Dated and talked to several different women by phone, text and email.
3- Had sex with Reid and Arias and had sexual fantasies about tying Arias to a tree.
4- Called Arias a three whole wonder and a whore (which has been proven since Arias herself sat on the stand for 18 days discussing every sex position she was ever in with various boyfriends since she was a teenager.)
5- Left the bishop's house and two months later there was a virus on the Bishop's computer that generated popups of women in bikinis and/or bras and pants.
6- Discovered a virus on his laptop and scrubbed it clean with the help of his friend and several virus detection programs.

The prosecution proved Arias:
1- Became sexually active at 14 and lived with Bobby Juarez, Matthew McCartney and Daryl Brewer before engaging in a sexual relationship with Travis Alexander.
2- Went through the phones of Jaurez, McCartney and Alexander and accused them of cheating.
3- Drove several miles to confront Bianca, a woman who was dating McCartney after Arias moved out.
4- Moved to Mesa from California when Travis Alexander broke off their relationship.
5- Showed up uninvited to a Christmas party at Alexander's house before they started dating and announced to all the guest she was his girlfriend.
6-When he told her she was not his girlfriend and introduced her to his real girlfriend and asked her to leave, crawled through the doggy door in the night and slept under his Christmas tree.
7- Peeked through the window and saw him making out with a girl on his couch and confronted him.
8- Followed him on dates with Lisa and Mimi.
9- Slashed the tires of Alexander and Lisa twice.
10- Sent threatening emails to Lisa warning her to stop dating Travis or she was going to hell.
11- Frightened Lisa so she broke up with him.
12- Hacked into his bank account and email account.
13- Staged a burglary to steal her grandfather's .25 caliber gun, the same caliber gun she used to shoot Travis in the head a couple of weeks later.
14- Drove 1,000 miles from Yreka to Mesa with gas cans, a rental car with removed license plates, her cell phone off, sneaked into Alexander's house through the garage and stabbed him 29 times, slit his throat and shot him in the head.
15- Tried to hide the evidence by dragging his body back to the shower and throwing the camera in the washing machine along with the sheets and any towels.
16- Tossed the gun, knife/knives and bloody clothes in the desert.
17- Went through an elaborate plan to try to cover up her crime by leaving him a voicemail, text messages and emails after he was dead, wrote a letter to the family saying two Ninjas killed Travis, sent flowers to his grandmother and attended a memorial service.
18- Called the police as soon as Alexander's body was found and offered to help in the investigation telling Flores it had to be two intruders because he weighed almost 200 lbs.
10- Lied to Flores, the media, her family and friends that she did not kill Travis Alexander.
11- Forged an email to Abe, letters she claimed Travis wrote to her admitting he was a pedophile and that he hit her and perjured herself in court.
There's probably many more I can't recall.

Sorry about the 'dementia' statement. It could have been a comment made by someone. I read a LOT, and as we all know, this trial gets hard to know and retain who says what. LOL

Observer, I fully agree with your comparison. Furthermore, I can't find one, not a one, mitigation factor for Arias.

All I've read, thus far, is her (through her attorneys!) trying to trash everyone that she hates or is jealous about. Even now she's gone after Deanna every way except to confront her face to face. Deanna, whom she hates with a purple passion, and today, even the Bishop. My guess is that she has been excommunicated and wants to get even. I really hope there are some LDS jurors! They will be able to see how Nurmi is only trying to make the LDS and its members to appear vile and deceitful. Nurmie's cross examination won't sit well with their verbal vomit of their church and its members.

Nurmi is getting more ridiculous every time he opens his mouth.

He asked the bishop if Travis Alexander was “lying to the Lord” when he performed Arias baptism.

Then Nurmi asked if Travis Alexander was putting the church’s integrity into question because he was a returned missionary who was having sex.

Hey, Nurmi your client was baptized into the LDS church and continued to have sex, lie and committed murder isn’t she lying to the Lord and putting the church’s integrity into question? Why aren’t we talking about her sins and crimes?

Afterall, the jury is here to decide if she lives or dies. Arias already decided that Alexander must die. So his life should not be examined. Hers should.

Looks like Marc McGee went to the same Criminal University as Jodi Arias.

He goes to social media claiming he knew Travis Alexander and he confided in him that he looked at porn and they lived at the bishop’s house at the same time during the Jodi Arias trial.

Then he supposedly sends the bishop an email on 5/2/13 on the same day as Juan Martinez’s closing arguments and asks him who the fella was who lived down the hall from him in the bishop’s house. According to the email, the bishop answered Travis Alexander. If McGee was so close to Travis that he confided in him, why did he have to ask the bishop who lived down the hall from him?

But the emails didn’t include email addresses so McGee might have cut and paste a different answer from a different email to make it look like the bishop said Travis lived there at the same time as he did.

Nurmi didn’t make a big deal out of it so McGee must not have lived there at the same time as Alexander and the bishop was right in his testimony yesterday that Jake and Travis stayed there at the same time. He didn’t state the dates McGee lived there.

I’d be surprised if anyone who met as many people as the bishop remembered who was doing what and living where in 2000, 2001 and 2002. I know I don’t.

---

The juror questions show they believe Bishop Vernon Parker and see him as an authority on the LDS Church.

The first question was especially good because it was asking if Arias was worthy of being baptized and the answer was no. Arias is always trying to say Alexander was the bad Mormon and leading her astray. She was never a Mormon to begin with because she didn't follow the church's teachings.

Another good question was No. 3 and I bet the real answer is Jake and Marc McGee left the church because they couldn't obey the rules.

Juror questions according to Jen's Trial Diaries:

1- Is a person committing sexual transgressions worthy to be baptized into church?
Parker- No
2- Is there disciplinary action taken against anyone who is perceived to put in question integrity of church
Parker- I'm not aware of that
3- Is Jake and Witness #1 still members of church
Parker- I can't answer that
4- Is there guidelines on how many people can live with you? No
5- Are there any records kept on who lived there? Parker- No Does the church track that? No
7- Do they sign an agreement? No
6- Do witnesses have to go to church first before speaking to lawyers?
Parker- No

Juan wrapped up by asking if the Bishop was a spokesman for the church ...he said NO

This should show Mark McGee's affidavit isn't worth the paper it is written on:

Jen's Trial Diaries @TrialDiariesJ · 34s35 seconds ago Phoenix, AZ
Bishop didn't think TA and witness #1 were friends. They never hung out and Bishop doesn't even know if they knew each other.

I believe that the jury believes everything that the Bishop testified to.

The question about having a lawyer is one that was excellent.
The Bishop's answer was what was to be expected = it was because of any confidentiality conflicts that could arise and nothing more.

Nurmi implied that the Bishop had a lawyer because he was lying but it did not work.

I have been giving a lot of thought to the recent questioning of witnesses since last week.

A great many persons, regardless of their religious affiliation, have committed transgressions contrary to the tenants of their particular religion.

In this particular case, many have done so but the following come to mind first.....
Marc McGee
Jake
Travis
Deanna
and of course Arias

Although Travis and Deanna "came clean" with their issues and are to be respected for that, they still sinned according to the Mormon faith.

This trial is not about the Mormon Church and being a good Mormon.

By virtue of the locale of this case, it is in the heart of the Mormon faith and that is all.

It does not matter one bit if someone of the Mormon faith is on the jury or affiliated in any way with the court or even the many interested bystanders.

This trial is about a woman who planned and executed this plan, methodically and without remorse.

This woman slaughtered another human being in a most horrific manner and has been convicted of doing so.

This woman is now facing a possible death sentence and that is the SOLE issue in this case.

Religion has no place in this trial but the defense decided to put the issue front and centre.

I look forward to Martinez bringing forth the real evidence in this case as he continues with his rebuttal case.
It is time to refresh what the real question at hand is....should Arias be put to death for the crime that she has been convicted of?
Nothing more - nothing less.

Excellent points, Nern.

Did you read Paul Sanders recap of the shameful bullying of the bishop by Nurmi and Martinez swooping in to save the Bishop. I like Sander's recaps because he tells in more detail what happened than the tweets and made it clear that Martinez cleared up any confusion the jurors may have had as the result of Nurmi's smoke and mirrors.

1- Marc McGee never lived in the bishop's house but only visited his fiancée when she lived there for five months. Travis did not live in the house when the now Mrs. McGee lived there but his son lived there.

“Did Witness Number one ever live at your house, the one with the bride to be who was living there?” Juan asked in a typical change of direction.
“Never.”

2- The popups were to quote the bishop "scantily clad women. Like you might see in a J.C. Penney advertisement. You see much worse on television.”

“Would you consider it something you could lose a Temple Recommend for or be excommunicated?” Martinez asked.

“Oh, no,” the Bishop answered heartily. “Like I said, you see much worse on television.”

3- The bishop was not shirking his duties as Nurmi accused him of.

“If your computer ever had child pornography on it, you would have done something about it, wouldn’t you have?”

“Yes,” the Bishop answered.

“Was there any child pornography found on your computer?”

“No,” the Bishop answered resolutely. “There wasn’t.”

4- As far as the bishop knows, Travis Alexander and Marc McGee may not have even known each other.

Do you have knowledge of Witness Number one and Travis Alexander being friends?”

“No,” the Bishop responded.

Juan paused and raised an arm. “Do you know if they even knew each other?”

“They may have come across each other but I don’t know they knew each other.”

“Did you ever see them together?”

“No,” the Bishop answered, “I can’t say that I have.”

5- Jodi Arias also disobeyed the Vow of Chastity forbidding premarital sex not just Travis Alexander and Deanna Reid and would have been sanctioned by him if he was her bishop.

“If a person who is receiving a baptism is involved with both anal and oral sex of her choosing, is that okay in the eyes of the Church? What of Jodi Arias? Wouldn’t she be just as culpable? Is that okay?”

Kirk Nurmi vehemently voiced his objection but the Judge allowed the Bishop to answer.

“No,” the Bishop responded.

“Just because she was baptized, doesn’t that mean she has to report it as well?” he asked. It was piecing and loud.

“Yes.”

https://www.facebook.com/JuanMartinezProsecutorSupportPage/posts/347714732088776

Jodi Arias once again proves she was never a Mormon or she never would have tweeted this disgusting lie about the Bishop:

Jodi Arias Updates‏@JodiAnnArias
Poor Brother Parker. Must be hard 2 be torn between conscience & protecting the Church. His conscience lost.

Yes I did read Paul's recap.

But I have to say, it was not one of my favourites because it just recapped everything that I feel about bringing religion into this case and I am tired of reading the same old stuff that has nothing to do with this trial.

I am looking forward to Martinez moving on from these topics of sex and religion and what is right or wrong.

I am waiting for the FACTS in this case being presented once and for all by Martinez.

I would venture to guess that the jury feels the same way but have no choice but to listen to all the distractions and delay tactics from the defense (Arias).

Should this drivel by the defense (Arias) continue to drag this case on and on and delay the inevitable, I fear that my interest will wain even though I have said I would hang in there until she is sentenced - one way or another.

Breaking news.

Dr. Janeen DeMarte interviewed Sky and Chris Hughes and Lisa Diadone to rebut the defense's emails and she is on the stand now.

Nurmi lost his battle to try to keep her off the stand because she turned in her notes late and will get a chance to interview her later.

Nern, you're right. This is a mitigation phase to determine if Jodi Arias gets death or life for the brutal murder of Travis Alexander.

This is not a church court to decide if Travis Alexander violated the teachings of his religion by engaging in sex activities that every red blooded 30 year old man engages in throughout the country.

Nurmi should not even be allowed to waste the jury's time with talk about sex and religion in a murder sentencing trial.

But unfortunately the law allows him to use smoke and mirrors so Martinez has to defend this nonsense as well as try to prove his case that Arias deserves death.

Detective Smith, the Mesa Police Department computer forensics specialist, is still looking over the computer so he will testify about the porn on the computer much later.

I don't know if the state is even going to call Zach Billings, Taylor Searle or the bishop's wife since they called the bishop, Deanna Reid and Smith to clear up the porn and abuse allegations. Nurmi didn't dare sneak in references to the pedophile letters with the state's handwriting analyst waiting in the wings so he won't be called.
Nurmi will continue to drag out the retrial as long as he can to rake in the money and delay The Princess from going to Perryville but eventually it will happen.

I just can't wait for it to be over. But it looks like it will be longer than I thought because Nurmi announced he is bringing Geffner and Miccio-Fonesca back to rebut what DeMarte says and he already said he is calling Abe and Deanna back to the stand.

My husband will be glad when it is over. He will get his wife back.

Every time I tell him what is going on, he just gets angrier and angrier at the legal system which allows attorneys to trash the victim and the people who are working hard to put a criminal behind bars.

I do not understand.

Abe and Deanna were the State's rebuttal witnesses. How can the defense now call them as witnesses. Is this surrebuttal?

My conclusion in all this is.....

The defense (Arias) is dead in the water and they know it.
Therefore, to keep Arias out of Perryville for as long as possible, to keep making money as attorneys, to wear down the jury AND to stall until the Omnibus hearing that has been delayed again, they will continue with the accusations of witnesses lying, they will continue with talk of sex and porn and they will continue with computer issues.
They have no other recourse now.
They have no leg to stand on anymore at all - not that they had one to begin with.

I am sure your husband will be glad when this is over if not just to get you back - LOL - but to see this atrocious case put to rest.

Nern, Abe and Deanna had to be recalled because of the questions Nurmi wants to ask them. Apparently in the state's rebuttal case under the court laws of procedure, Nurmi can only ask questions that fall under the scope of what Martinez asked them.

Of course, he wants to drag out the case as long as he can to keep himself in the national spotlight and line his pockets with more money since the pedophiles he represents are broke and can't afford to pay him $250 an hour like the taxpayers.

Dr. DeMarte testified that Jodi Arias suffers from borderline personality disorder and adjustment disorder, not PTSD. BPD is a personality disorder but it can be considered a mental illness, she said. DeMarte said both Samuels and Geffner's tests were invalid. She said Samuels test for PTSD was based on the Ninja story, a fabrication, and Geffner was leading in his questions and Arias gave conflicting answers.

She also testified that Jodi Arias scored high on intelligence tests.

Jodi Arias test scores are important in mitigation because the law won’t let the state execute a murderer who has a low IQ but someone with a high IQ can be executed.

Arias told Dr. DeMarte she had the same IQ as Einstein so she tested her intelligence and found it to be superior.

According to Jen Wood’s tweets, Dr. DeMarte testified that Arias scored 136, which is superior, on the intelligence test for verbal comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning 113, High Average Working Memory 105, Average Processing Speed 102 Average, Full Scale 119 High Average General Ability 127 Superior.

That shows she is smart enough to know it is against the law to stab someone 29 times, slice their throat from ear to ear and shoot them in the head and smart enough to know how to cover up a crime and try to get away with murder.