Jodi Arias Trial - Defense Rests, Prosecution Rebuts

The defense has rested, finally.

I am just now watching the part of the trial where clinical psychologist Janeen DeMarte is testifying and she is   wonderful, professional, and easy to follow since she is consistently recalling most all parts of this case with ease.

So far we have learned that Jodi has an overall IQ of 119, a far cry from Einstein's. Dr. DeMarte is very well educated and sounds like she has been at the top of her game for quite sometime. Unlike Ms LaViolette, DeMarte is able to administer a variety of tests that help in diagnosing a patient. Dr. DeMarte was able to use these various tests to come up with an official diagnosis for Jodi and that was revealed to be Borderline Personality Disorder.

DeMarte gave an excellent description of what borderline personality disorder is when she compared it with someone acting like a teenager. They often experience frequent mood swings; they are very immature; they internalize anger and can take that out on people at inappropriate times; they often will act out and blame others suggesting that someone else "made them do that." Borderlines have difficulty in close relationships and often push people away when they actually are trying to get closer to a person.

During DeMarte's entire testimony Jodi sat at the defense table drawing, doodling, writing -- who knows? She completely ignored the woman, basically acting out the exact way DeMarte was describing her. Jodi's behavior was clearly immature. She made it clear to anyone paying attention that she was obviously angry with DeMarte's testimony. It was only until her lawyer started cross examination that Jodi decided to put her glasses back on and pay attention.

Personally I am much more impressed with DeMarte as compared with LaViolette. She is young but I see this more to her advantage since she has much more education and is much more familiar with updated information. Ms. LaViolette couldn't be troubled to know the difference between an e-mail and a blog, nor does she have the ability to administer tests or interpret them.

The prosecutor, Juan Martinez, did an excellent job at pointing the differences in which the two women executed their examination of Jodi. While LaViolette apologized to Jodi for reading her diary and spent 44 hours with her developing a relationship, DeMarte did not do those things at all; she approached Jodi objectively, did not apologize to her for doing her job, and she was able to both speak with Jodi as well as test her for an official diagnosis.

Jenn Wilmot conducted the cross examination of this witness and as we have seen from this defense before, her questions were given slowly, constantly referring to her notes; she tried her best to discredit DeMarte but the questioning slowly fizzled into a sort of meltdown. DeMarte was quick and concise. She answered the questions directly compared with LaViolette who insisted on qualifying each and every statement she made in order to justify her distorted opinion of Jodi.

So far this has been an excellent testimony and if you take the time to watch it, you can actually learn something. Dr. DeMarte disagreed with the idea that Jodi suffered from PTSD, citing inconsistencies in Jodi's statements and explaining that PTSD is something that is related to one specific event, not different events that Jodi claimed to two different people. She explained that PTSD sufferers will often display a fear or exaggerated actions that demonstrate they are scared. This might be found when a loud noise such as a slamming door is heard, the sufferer will jump or display an exaggerated movement displaying freight. DeMarte explained that when she viewed the interrogation tapes of Jodi, there were times when doors were slammed, people were making noises outside of the room which could be heard but that Jodi did not make any sudden movements or acknowledge the sounds in anyway.

In addition, Dr. DeMarte did not agree that Jodi was a battered woman. She explained (rightly so), that women who are in these relationships will cite that their partners are controlling, limiting their social connections, snooping through their private stuff, demanding they only spend time with them, etc. Jodi made no indication that Travis acted that way. Jodi also cited four incidents of domestic violence with DeMarte but had cited numerous incidents with another doctor (I believe this was the first man that testified for the defense  saying Jodi had PTSD, and I apologize because I have yet to watch his entire testimony). Jodi's inconsistencies and lack of indicators led to her belief that Jodi was not the victim of domestic violence.

DeMarte also pointed out that women who are abused are generally not fond of their bodies, have a lot of insecurities when it comes to their body aesthetics, which Jodi did not indicate.

The oddest part of Jodi's statements had to be those that pertained to her memory loss. DeMarte explained that when people begin to talk about things they typically remember more of what happened, in Jodi's case this was the opposite. Jodi also indicated to Dr. DeMarte that when she came out of her "fog" she looked down at her hands and saw a bit of blood, and stated that's when she knew she killed Travis. DeMarte questioned this story. If you have no memory, how can you look at a little bit of blood on your hand and know you killed someone? A person looking at their hand and seeing a little bit of blood, having no memory of anything prior, would think they may have cut their hand somehow, not believe they actually killed someone. Again, Jodi is caught in another lie.

Jodi also demonstrated higher levels of function in her fog by trying to cover up the murder. Deleting pictures, using water to wash away fingerprints, getting rid of both the knife and gun, all while done in this so-called fog of hers.

I would add that I personally believe Jodi is a sociopath since she seems to be incapable of expressing emotions unless she feels she can gain sympathy of some sort. Her tears during her interrogation videos seemed almost timed, since she only cried after the detective informed her she wasn't acting like an innocent person. She knows exactly what happened that night but instead of telling the truth, she continually chooses to lie, distort, and make up stories for the purposes of covering her own ass.

The defense was slow and looked a bit incompetent but than again, what do they really have to work with? They're defending a pathological liar who murdered someone and clearly has no remorse. The best they can hope for at this point is no death penalty.

The prosecution has since began their rebuttal. We have cleared up the matter of the gas can. A Walmart manager was called to the stand for the purposes of clarifying that there are absolutely NO records anywhere indicating that Jodi returned a gas can as she testified to doing on the stand. In addition, there were no gas cans returned at all to that very store.

An employee of the gas station where Jodi filled up and acquired three receipts was able to confirm that there were three purchases made for gas. This cleared up any idea that Jodi may have gone into the store to purchase something else other than gas. The manager explained that two swipes of the same credit card at a pump would go through but a third swipe would automatically prompt the buyer to come inside for their purchase. This is done as an attempt to prevent fraudulent charges.

Juan Martinez also called to the stand a friend of Travis' that was able to produce a video of Travis and a picture that clearly displayed Travis showing affection to Jodi in public, that she was not just some secret during the entire span of their relationship. Another claim made by Jodi proved to be a lie.

Travis' ex-girlfriend was also brought to the stand and testified that Travis was a calm person; he did not threaten her, grab her inappropriately; they did have sex and went to their bishop; they argued like many couples but he never struck her or criticized her. This demonstrates that Travis was overall a reasonable person who has not shown patterns of violence, indicating that the likely hood of Travis suddenly demonstrating this behavior with only Jodi is unlikely. Anything is possible but in this case, not probably. Once again, Jodi's stories fall short of logic and reason because they are all lies.

A police officer was called to confirm he found no images of naked women on Travis' computer. None. He found no evidence of child p**n or inappropriate pictures that depict children. No memberships to p****graphy websites or any other indication of someone interested in kink or other sexual deviance.  Nothing. Truth be told, I expected at the very least for them to find a bit of p**n. It seems as though this is a rather common thing for many men in today's world to peruse through on occasion but surprisingly nothing was found.

The shelves in the closet were inspected. They are simple shelves that are held up by pins inside of peg holes.       Nothing in the closet looked disturbed and for Jodi to claim she stepped on one in order to reach the top shelf to retrieve the supposed gun Travis kept lost all credibility. When the defense questioned this, it appeared as though Jodi prompted her attorney to ask, "Could the shelf have been placed back in order to make it look as though it wasn't disturbed?" Well, yes when you have someone making efforts to cover up their murder, I suppose that could happen.

The questions from the jury continue to expose the idea that most of them are not at all believing Jodi and her web of continued lies. They are more interested in satisfying their minds, putting them at ease for when they hand down that guilty verdict. I could be wrong; I have to admit; I've been wrong before but these questions are intelligent and seem to go against supporting Jodi.

From what I understand closing arguments begin next week. I can't wait for Juan to bring it all together and hit a home run.