When I first started watching the trial (via live stream so that my info wasn't filtered) I had no knowledge or opinions on the relationship between CMJA and Travis.
The defense went first in terms of trying to define the relationship. What they presented initially did make Travis seem to be a cad. But as testimony went on with CMJA on the stand and JM's cross, things started to shift quite a bit. Choked by two boyfriends? Hmmm...The jury questions were also quite good and some obviously did not believe her story. When that testimony was over, I recognized that it was an unhealthy relationship, but still did not have a clear opinion on the relationship.
Then we had to listed to ALV. Her first few days on the stand, she came off as credible when she talked about DV in general. But when she got into the relationship between CMJA and Travis, things really started to unravel. It was obvious that there were lies told to ALV that she bought hook, line and sinker. Juan crucified her in cross especially with that whole very painful elicitation of the answer to the question "Was Travis very afraid of CMJA's stalking behavior?" One jury question that blew things wide open for me was the one that asked if she had access to all information about the relationship and she replied no, that she had reviewed only what the defense gave her.
I think that was when she just lost any iota of credibility and I thanked that juror for the very important and insightful question.
DeMarte helped put things into further perspective for me when she said that Travis only responded in that aggressive manner when he was lied to. One of the bombs she delivered was that CMJA reported a very high number of DV incidents to Dr. Karp, but much less to ALV. The picture that she painted of the relationship is one that I did accept.
Outside of the trial, information that CMJA stalked Bobby Juarez only solidified my opinion of her as obsessive and a stalker. I have no doubt that there was much, much more information not allowed in trial that would make things even clearer.
There is no doubt in my mind that CMJA was the dominant person leading this relationship. For as much charisma and inspirational qualities that Travis may have had, he was both inexperienced and vulnerable to someone like CMJA. While he did tell a friend that he was very afraid of CMJA, who would ever stop to think they needed to protect themselves from a person that was 1,000 miles away?