Jodi Arias sentenced to life in prison without parole
On Monday, April 13 KTAR News 92.3 will air a special two-hour edition of “Legally Speaking: The Jodi Arias Trial” from 7-9 p.m. with Monica Lindstrom, Mike Russell and Martha Maurer. You can also listen on KTAR.com or on the KTAR app.
PHOENIX — Convicted killer Jodi Arias will be spending the rest of her life in prison without parole.
Judge Sherry Stephens handed down the sentence Monday at Maricopa County Superior Court. One of Arias’ attorneys, Jennifer Willmott, said Arias will appeal the decision.
Arias, 34, addressed the courtroom prior to being sentenced. During her statement, for the first time, Arias said she remembered killing Travis Alexander in 2008.
“I do remember the moment when the knife went into Travis’ throat and he was still conscious,” she said, adding that Alexander continued to attack her despite being stabbed.
Arias shot Alexander and stabbed him nearly 30 times in his suburban Phoenix home before fleeing and driving to Utah to meet up with another romantic interest. She was arrested weeks later and initially denied any involvement.
International attention soon followed after she gave two television interviews in which she told a bizarre story of masked intruders breaking into the home and killing Alexander while she cowered in fear. She subsequently changed her story and said it was self-defense after Alexander attacked her on the day he died.
Arias rehashed her disbelief at her actions, saying she was “disgusted” and “repulsed” by what happened. She apologized to Alexander’s family.
“The most important thing I want to say is I’m sorry for the enormous amount of pain I caused to the people that knew Travis,” she said.
Burn in hell Tanisha yells as she walks out of the courtroom #JodiArias @KTAR923
— Monica Lindstrom (@monicalindstrom) April 13, 2015
Arias was originally found guilty in May 2013 of the murder of Alexander in Mesa.
Arias’ case has gone through several twists and turns leading up to her sentence. The original penalty phase was declared a mistrial, and it resumed in October 2014.
Her trial became a media sensation as details of their tawdry relationship and the violent crime scene emerged while the courtroom saga was broadcast live. Spectators traveled to Phoenix and lined up in the middle of the night to get a seat in the courtroom to catch a glimpse of what had become to many a real-life soap opera.
Her life was narrowly spared after a second panel of jurors deliberated for more than 26 hours but failed to reach a unanimous verdict; it was an 11-1 vote in favor of the death penalty.
The holdout juror was an unidentified woman who allegedly made up her mind before the retrial commenced. Her fellow jurors also raised several other concerns.
Arias will begin serving her sentence in a 12-by-7-foot cell in a maximum-security unit at the Perryville prison for women, located 30 miles west of downtown Phoenix. If prison officials deem her behavior good over time, she could be moved to lower-security units.
A former communications director for the Arizona Department of Corrections said the convicted murderer will spend 23 hours a day in her cell. She is allowed to have one small television, if she can afford it, which will receive a maximum of 15 channels.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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