As a follow up to my earlier post, I just saw the bank statement that was presented this afternoon. Wow! The transaction immediately prior to the gas purchase in SLC is a gas purchase in Mesquite, NV!
Just as I suspected, she drove back to I-15 and filled up north of Las Vegas to cover for the So Cal to Utah alibi.
Assuming she had 13.5 gallons of gas in the car tank and 15 gallons in the 3 tanks, that's a total of 28.5 gallons. With a conservative estimate of 28 MPG in the Ford Focus, she had a range of approximately 800 miles
The distance from Pasadena to E. Mesa to Mesquite, NV - approximately 800 miles
If Juan puts a Walmart rep on the stand that testifies the receipt was never returned and also possibly that she was never identified on surveillance the day in question, she is officially toast.
Also - I used to live in Phoenix and have made the drive to SLC numerous times. NEVER did I go through Vegas to get to the I-15 The most direct route is I-17 through Flagstaff, Page, AZ and Kanab, UT. Furthermore, at the time Jodi made the drive, the Hoover Dam bypass wasn't complete. There would be significant delays at the dam (post 9/11) for security purposes. Nobody went this way in 2008. She wouldn't have had enough fuel on her to go through Kanab. She had to get to the I-15 "alibi route" as quickly as possible.
THIS :rocker:
I think she was somehow hoping the receipts would look like she had just taken the expected route from S. CA to Utah on the I15. There would be no receipts in Arizona, and of course, no one would even think she had gone to Mesa. So you're right. Even though I have never seen this part of the country, I noticed that she took the wrong route from Mesa to SLC. She went west, instead of north, in order to, like you said, hook up with the I15 and make it look like she was coming from Pasedena instead of Mesa.
That's the way it looked to me, too. I'm not sure how Juan caught on to this, but it is great detective work, imo.