The Jodi Aria trial gripped the nation as it broadcast personal attacks and animated, heated arguments between the defense and the prosecution. Recently unsealed transcripts show the Jodi Arias trial had everything, screaming matches, harsh interrogations and examinations. But some of the most exciting aspects of the Jodi Arias trial didn’t happen when the cameras were rolling.Jodi Arias trial update. Jurors found Jodi Arias guilty of premeditated murder in the June 2008 gruesome slaying of her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander.

Jodi Arias trial hearing transcripts have been unsealed and have been released. It is becoming clear that the most dramatic moments are still coming to light. The transcripts show that one of the key witnesses never testified. Jodi Arias’ childhood friend, Patricia Womack, was supposedly under death threats, but the transcripts suggest that she may have bowed out at the last minute out of fear of what the prosecution would say about her.

Jodi Arias was working as a waitress while she was learning photography who jurors found guilty of the June 2008 premeditated first-degree murder in the violent murder of her ex-former boyfriend, Travis Alexander who was 30 at the time of the slaying. The killing was gruesome, in two minutes Jodi Arias stabbed her boyfriend almost thirty times, shot him in the face and slit his throat so violently his head almost came off.

Jodi Arias maintains that she acted in self-defense, but the jury didn’t want to hear it. For someone to do something this drastic, this quick, who had no history of violence, or indications what she could be capable of this kind of extreme violence, Jodi Arias must have something in her past that was triggered.
Judge Sherry Stephens dismissed the hung jury and ordered a status update on July 16 to see if the Jodi Arias trial will move into another penalty phase or if they will table the death penalty under a plea deal.

Jodi Arias lied to police about how her involvement with Alexander. Jodi Arias at first said she had nothing to do with his brutal death. Arias finally admitted that she did kill Alexander. She said she had to fight for her life when he attacked her during a nude photo shoot. The jurors did not believe Jodi Arias’ claims of self-defense, but they couldn’t decide whether to put her to death or sentences her to life in prison. Arias went on TV and said she preferred death to life in a cage. She changed her mind and asked for leniency for her family’s sake.

Judge Sherry Stephens hid some of the most contentious content of the trial in court sidebars that the public didn’t see in the highly-publicized live video feeds of the proceedings. The Arizona Republic got the trial transcripts and described the behind-the-scene happenings as very intense. Both sides looking for blood. The transcripts show that the prosecutor Martinez and Arias' defense team were at each other’s throats and resorted to insults many times. Arias' lawyers tried to get the prosecution cited for misconduct, but none of claims stuck.

The transcripts show that Patricia Womack never testified because she was supposedly under death threats. Womack refused to appear on the last day of court. Patricia Womack was a key final witness for Arias. The transcripts show that Martinez told the Judge that she had a drug problem and was skipping her trial date because she was afraid she could be found guilty of violating welfare regulations. Martinez is also heard saying that Womack was hiding money she made from pictures she had sold to a TV station.

Kirk Nurmi, one of Jodi Arias’ attorneys pleaded to Judge Stephens that the case should be thrown out, and that Arias should be retried because Womack refused to testify because she received "threats on her life if she were to testify on Ms. Arias' behalf."

Arias is next set to appear in court tomorrow.

 by Tony Sokol