Sky and Chris Hughes attended most of the murder trial with the family and were there for the verdict.
They have been absent from the retrial probably because they thought they might be called by the prosecution to rebut the emails they sent to Travis Alexander saying he abused women and that he should tell Jodi he wasn’t in love with her and would never marry her..
Sky Hughes showed up at the retrial for the first time Monday looking like she had lost a lot of weight. I can imagine this has been hard on her. Not only did she lose Travis who was like a little brother to her but she may feel Arias may not get the death penalty because of those letters she wrote.
I imagine she felt free to show up in court after Dr. DeMarte interviewed her about the emails and she knew her side would be presented in court.
Chris Hughes responded on Jen Wood’s Internet show to the criticism they were getting on social media about the emails. He said people had said they should have minded their own business. He said Travis asked them for advice on his love life and confided in them, especially Sky, and invited them to be in his business.
He explained that those emails were written early on in the relationship when Jodi Arias had manipulated them into believing she was a nice and sweet girl and was distressed because Travis Alexander was not committing to her.
I think any anger at the Hughes for writing those emails is misplaced. Those were private emails they wrote to their friend and at the time they had no idea Arias was a psychopath and capable of murdering their friend and exposing their private communications for all the world to see.
The anger should be at Jodi Arias for murdering Travis Alexander and forcing his friends who are still grieving to explain their utmost private moments to the world. It must be excruciating.
I always felt that it was a real stretch for having "only 27 when she committed the crime".
She was an adult and knew right from wrong.
Her intelligence tests only go to prove this.
Well, in my book, any emails are private unless the sender sends them to multiple people. but that has not been the case at all in this trial and all emails seem to be fair game.
The only criticism I have regarding Skye and Chris is that I feel they were premature in talking about the book they have written about their friend Travis. They should have waited until the trial was over and done with.
Hockey Nana read my post of Jodi's plea bargain and reactions posted, and then I replied!
I do not believe Jodi will ever have a jury again, this was protected information that would by law' lose its protection status at time of verdict.
We knew this information' but we now have the verbatim, as I've been disagreed with Jodi will need a attorney retainer on par with the costs of the process being appealed, I've been saying a million dollar retainer but 3 million (spent by defense' to date) may not be 1/2 enough, Jodi gets a free procedure review attorney to present an appeal and she has no mitigatory.
So soon Jodi's followers will have nothing to follow no matter what the verdict!
Travis was 30 some years old and Jodi chose sexual character assassination' arguing imperfections, my religion has celibate male priest' Jodi's attack is based on Mormon Hippocrates's a judgement reserved for devinity not humanity, Jodi gets run over by the Jodi bus, we will hear about an appeals failure and nothing more' Jodi chose 5 years of fame by exposing her perversion!
I'm convinced that the judge rushed the (premature) Allen charge' mistrial, just to allow Jodi time to come to her sences, (give up the gun time) for to save her-own life, unless the judge is inept or Jodi charmed!
The jury finally got to see today why no relatives took the stand to beg for Jodi Arias life.
They didn't like her according to Dr. Janeen DeMarte.
She testified that Arias' cousin Amy said in an interview in 2008 that at family functions Arias was snide, smirky, sarcastic and a total bitch.
DeMarte quoted Arias's maternal grandparents saying in an interview in 2008 that Arias was mean to her mother and would tell her how to raise her younger brothers and sister. They also said Arias didn't want anyone running her life and if you spoke to her you had to use perfect grammar or she would correct you.
DeMarte says this is overbearing and aggressive. She said the most problematic issue for the relatives was Arias acting rude and over bearing.
Juan says this isn't suffering in silence or a wilted flower as was testified to by Fonseca and Geffner.
Nurmi tried to keep this testimony out claiming it was character assassination of Arias and that isn't allowed in the mitigation phase.
The judge overruled him and let the prosecution actually say something negative against the murderer finally.
This is only fair because the jury needs to see the true side of Arias to decide whether she deserves to live or die.
We saw this side of Arias in her cross examination with Martinez. She corrected his grammar and was snide, sarcastic, smirky and a total bitch. So we know Amy isn't lying. Arias' witnesses who said she was always sweet and nice and perfect are.
But Martinez won't get a chance to bring that side out in her in front of this jury. At the secret testimony, she put on an act of being an innocent victim who was beaten by mean abusive drug addicted parents, being cheated on by boyfriends and was truly remorseful for this "horrific crime." She spoke so quietly the judge had to keep asking her to speak up so the jury could hear her. At the allocution she will put on an act of being a prim and proper and caring person who donated her hair, glasses and artwork to charity.
According to Jenn Wood, DeMarte rebuted the testimony of Fonseca and Geffner that Arias:
1- Lacked self esteem by reading an interview from Gary Brinkman, owner of the Purple Plum where Arias worked as a waitress which she says shows Arias is assertive. Brinkman said he knew her since she was 17 and she would flirt with the good looking guys and ignore female customers. He said Arias flirted with and used men. He said she would tell guys she was new to Yreka and ask them to show her around. This shows she more of her lying to manipulate men because Arias lived in Yreka most of her life.
2- Never asserted herself in the sex games but always did what Alexander dictated by reading smutty text messages where Arias says if he will give her a facial, she'll give him a BJ or they can just grind and she wants to "lick him up and F" him like a horny schoolgirl.
3- Was physically abused by testifying that she found no documentation of physical abuse and it was never in Arias' journals and she told inconsistent stories to different psychologists and while being tested and she knew domestic violence should be reported because she wrote that in her journal.
4- Was not sexually inappropriate with men by reading an interview in which a waitress named Nichole at the Purple Plum quoted Arias as saying she was a goddess, smelled like a goddess, looked like a goddess and was all over the men. JA was all over the young men and couldn't stay focused. She was very inappropriate with men. She would sit and kiss Edgar.
As for the text messages from Sky and Chris Hughes to Alexander, DeMarte said Sky Hughes told her the skank comment was a joke and Alexander called Arias late at night because of her work schedule and Lisa Andrews told her Alexander was concerned about the pay of a teacher, not the career choice and any sexual contact between them was consensual and that Arias was in his house turning the lights off and on when Lisa was there with Travis.
Court adjourned for the day without DeMarte mentioning anything about the tires being slashed so either the judge won’t let that come in or she hasn’t got to it yet.
According to Jen’s Trial Diaries tweets:
After the jury was told to report back at 9:30 am tomorrow, Juan Martinez told the judge the report from the state forensics computer expert on Alexander’s computer regarding the porn can't come in for a month but he will try sooner.
Nurmi accused the state of keeping evidence from them.
Martinez said all this porn on the hard drive is from a virus and this defense just keeps dragging things up and then charging prosecution misconduct.
Martinez said the state forensic expert did a experiment on a clean computer and installed Spy Bot and all the porn the defense complained about was put on there from the software not Travis Alexander.
Yes, Observer. Her IQ is so high that she cannot possibly be considered a 'mentally ill' person. She was smart enough to plan how much gasoline she would need, which would be hard for me! She knew she would have the advantage IF she ambushed him while he was wringing wet, no weapon, unless one considers a bar of soap a 'weapon', and no phone within arm's reach. She'd already put the dog outside the bedroom, I believe, because if that dog had been around, i bet the dog would have gone after her in a heartbeat for attacking Travis. She even tried desperately to clean up the mess later. And continued to attempt 'covering her tracks' with phone calls to Travis, getting rid of the gun, and going on to climb in the sack with Ryan Burns.
She really thought she had all the facts covered and that she'd figured out how to do a perfect murder. She had far too much intelligence for any 'mentally ill' mitigation charge to benefit her. So, of that, I am glad!
Assassinating her character!!
What B.S.
So Nurmi is saying that the defense (Arias) can say everything vile they can come up with about Travis, which they have done and continue to do BUT....because this is a mitigation case, the State cannot rebut these accusations by showing the true behaviour of the defendant and showing that she was the instigator!
In fact, Martinez was only bringing in hearsay - which is allowed - just as the defense (Arias) did.
Absolute B.S.!!!
They want to recall Geffner and F. (cannot remember her name and that says a lot, doesn't it?) to rebut DeMarte. Should be interesting because DeMarte has the facts to back her up whereas Geffner for example, only has the bogus test results of Samuels and his own tests where he led Arias to give the answers he (they) wanted.
It is too bad that the State's witness regarding computers will drag this case on for a while longer. Seems to me that it has been proven definitively that there was no porn on any computer that was Travis' but rather put there by a virus and in the case of the Bishop's computer, it was pop ups put on by someone else. I guess it is better to be safe than sorry in the end.
As far as I am concerned, the jury will see that Arias' testimony and timid demeanor was an act given the testimonies that have been entered by the State in their rebuttal. Too many people have seen the true and real side of Arias and now the jury has heard it. Put that together with the horrendous slaughter of Travis committed by Arias AND why the jury is even there and they will not buy what Arias is dishing out - in her testimony and her coming allocution. They will see that it is true evidence of her manipulation to get what she feels she deserves. Jurors are not stupid people.
The jury will also couple this fake act with the fact that Arias has been proven to be very intelligent and is able to come up with a way that she thinks she can fool them.
But again, the issue at hand is .......she used her intelligence to come up with a plan, take her time with it, then execute this plan by slaughtering Travis. However, her intelligence didn't come through for her and she has been convicted of his murder and now they must decide if it warrants the death penalty for her.
I was happy to hear what happened regarding the Purple Plum. I has seen the cyber rumors that Arias was caught in the restroom, doing something to a 10 year old boy, but I had never heard any testimony or seen any tweets that confirmed it was no more than a rumor. This was pretty much resolved when her ex boss testified how she ignored the women, but gave the men 'super nice' service at the Purple Plum.
Also, a coworker from the Purple Plum, Nichole, quoted Arias as saying "she was a goddess, smelled like a goddess, looked like a goddess" and was all over the men. Nichole told Dr. Demarte that JA was all over the young men, couldn't stay focused and was very inappropriate with men. She would sit around kissing Edgar, whoever that was.
Apparently she considered herself to be God's gift to mankind. She sure had a high opinion of herself, and likely still does. I don't think a narcissist 'outgrows' that kind of self-importance. I recall she also told Travis, after their bathtub 'date' (using her Tootsie Pops and the 'space candy') that he made her feel (quote) Like a goddess (unquote). To her way of thinking, she deserved to be treated 'like a goddess'.
She has no shame, but gladly described in sick detail every sex act in all the manuals that have ever been written. She seems to think that is her 'high calling'...as a 'goddess'. I could be wrong, but I also believe she is trying to 'hook' a few male jurors with her sexual goddess act. In reality, she is no more than a tramp, a whore, a common slut, and in fact...a serial slut. She learned sex could keep a roof over her head, while no parents were there to tell her 'how to live her life.' She is resentful of anyone who sets 'boundaries' or 'rules' that she should follow.
The men she's sleeping with are not to set rules for her to abide by, but she does expect them to live by HER rules, for example:
1- They are not to talk to any other women in person or by phone or emails.
2- They are to call her (or take her calls) day and night, so she can keep tabs on where they are, who they are with, and what they are doing.
3- They are not to sleep with any other woman, except her. (After all, why should they even want to do that when they have HER, the goddess.)
4- SHE will be the one to say when the 'relationship' is done and won't tolerate the male breaking away! That is to be HER decision.
5- She will track them down and follow them, to keep the door open, should she decide to come back into their life or when she needs something. (The only one who succeeded in getting away from her was Bobby, who finally moved so far away she can't afford to follow him. She still knows where Matt and Darryl live, in case the 'goddess' in her needs something from them in the future, as she showed when she drove over 3,800 miles to kill Travis! She stopped first at Darryl's and Matts, to get money and gas cans.)
I hope, since Dr. Demarte has had even more contacts with her, her family, co-workers and employers, that she can add 'narcissist' and perhaps even 'psychopath' to her diagnosis this time!
The latest is that Nurmi has filed a motion to preclude DeMarte as a witness because the defense (Arias) did not get to question or read what she was going to say in a timely manner from the State.
This motion will be denied as well.
The longer DeMarte is on the stand, the deeper the hole for the defense (Arias). The defense (Arias) knows this and had to resort to the only thing they know how to do well - file a motion.
I can just imagine how infuriated Arias must be with all the information DeMarte testified to today.
It essentially negated her act as the timid, quiet, mentally ill victim who testified IN SECRET. How dare DeMarte get on the stand and tell lies about what people have said about her!!!!! How dare she!!!!
Deanna Reid is number one on her 'hate list' but I bet DeMarte moves into second place after today.
This is the first sentencing trial I have ever seen where no relative has come forward and tearfully begged for the murder's life.
Her mother, aunt, sister and father attend the trial, write on social media that she was wrongfully convicted and sign petitions asking the state not to kill her because she is a battered woman who was fighting for her life and solicit money for an appellate fund but they won't tell the jury that they want her to live.
Even abusive parents will take the stand and admit they had abused the murderer as a child or the other parent had. They would say they were a good child. They just went wrong.
But when I listened to the interviews of her parents, grandparents and cousin Amy, I understood why.
Arias was never a good child. They are probably afraid of her because she was so violent, overbearing, aggressive and rude and showed no respect for authority.
I thought for sure her maternal grandparents would blame her father and stick up for her but they didn't so he must not have been abusive. They said Arias was mean to her mother and told her mother how to raise her siblings and would correct their grammar if they tried to talk to her. They said she was rude and overbearing.
They probably didn't even want her living in their house but they were too afraid of her to kick her out. Can you imagine how frightened they were when she was arrested and they found out she had shot Alexander in the head with a gun she stole from them and realized she could have killed them too?
In her allocution, she said she had wanted the death penalty but her cousin talked her out of it. So where was the cousin to say her life was spared? She said her family beat her and never supported her and yet she wanted the jury to save her life for her family. Yet nobody in her family told the jury they wanted her to live.
That means they feel safe that she is behind bars because they know she is capable of killing them also.
The only cousin interviewed said she was snide, sarcastic, snarky and a total bitch and that she would correct her grammar. None of her relatives but Carl said she was beaten by her father.
In interrogations, her mother and father said she was a strange child, nice one minute, angry the next, that she was mean to her mother, that she made up having a bad childhood, grew pot on the roof and when they called the sheriff she never trusted them after that, that she obsessed on and stalked Travis, her mother asked her if she killed him and the father said he asked her why she was going on the run if she was innocent.
Her brother wouldn't take the stand but he did say in an interview that their father was violent. No one else in the family said that. The aunt and grandparents would know. They lived in the same town and would see bruises. He is probably lying. As is the friend of Carl's who said in the affidavit he witnessed Carl's father throw him against the refrigerator.
After Arias was convicted, Martinez got the death penalty for a cop killer who was beaten every day by his father, had brain damage and had a low IQ and his parents pleaded for his life to be spared. The abuse excuse didn't work for him. The jury determined someone who is bad to the bone can not be rehabilitated and society is not safe with them in it.
Finally the jury is getting a glimpse of the real Arias. When your own relatives won't beg for your life, how can the jury feel your life is worth saving?