Retrial for Sentencing of Jodi Arias - 1/29 thru 2/2 - Break

[MeeBee]

What I find truly fascinating after re-watching JW Q Dr D is that she really doesn't know how to ask questions or what the answers are going to be. She seemed shocked to "learn" about all the jobs Jodi had as if she never knew that. And to think she has been in practice for almost 20 years AND teaches other lawyers? I was thinking she was somewhat "green" but after researching her and finding out she has practiced that long and she still can't ask a decent question to save her life? THAT is fascinating to me!

I have learned that having book learnings does not always translate to being good at what you do. There are people who are motivated and driven to succeed and that gets you far but it doesn't mean you'll always be good at putting what you learn into practice. I think Willmott is intelligent and she is good at what she does and can teach the things she's learned to future lawyers. I am only observing this from a lay person's point of view but I think she does make these boneheaded mistakes and doedn't know when to quit while she's ahead. She asks TOO MANY questionsI've noticed that when she thinks she's made a good point she tried to really nail it down and keeps asking questions on that one point in many different ways and that leads her into undoing the work she just did in getting the answer she originally wanted.

For instance, when she was questioning Dr. Hayes and kept trying to drill on Dr. Demarte not doing a good job, she'd ask a question, get the answer she wanted and then keep going. She had tried to say previous that Demarte was being misleading by including work she's done before she was licensed as years that she practiced. Hayes said she would not include pre-license work in how many years she'd been practicing. And Willmott kept going and got Hayes to say that while other psychologists might do this, she personally doesn't. It's just a choice. Good job.

Or when she was trying to nail Demarte for not using the latest version of the MCMI. Willmott had gotten an answer she wanted and said, "you wouldn't just not use the latest version because your employer hadn't bought the latest version, would you?" Giving Hayes the chance to say yeah that's exactly one reason why you wouldn't. You can't use it if you don't have it. She further clarified that even though there's an updated version, using an older version is still perfectly adequate. It's just an updated version of the tests but the old test still works fine.

I think the points she wants to make are good but she doesn't always ask the questions in a way to make her point. She's too open ended.

 

[Nali87]

I have learned that having book learnings does not always translate to being good at what you do. There are people who are motivated and driven to succeed and that gets you far but it doesn't mean you'll always be good at putting what you learn into practice. I think Willmott is intelligent and she is good at what she does and can teach the things she's learned to future lawyers. I am only observing this from a lay person's point of view but I think she does make these boneheaded mistakes and doedn't know when to quit while she's ahead. She asks TOO MANY questionsI've noticed that when she thinks she's made a good point she tried to really nail it down and keeps asking questions on that one point in many different ways and that leads her into undoing the work she just did in getting the answer she originally wanted.

For instance, when she was questioning Dr. Hayes and kept trying to drill on Dr. Demarte not doing a good job, she'd ask a question, get the answer she wanted and then keep going. She had tried to say previous that Demarte was being misleading by including work she's done before she was licensed as years that she practiced. Hayes said she would not include pre-license work in how many years she'd been practicing. And Willmott kept going and got Hayes to say that while other psychologists might do this, she personally doesn't. It's just a choice. Good job.

Or when she was trying to nail Demarte for not using the latest version of the MCMI. Willmott had gotten an answer she wanted and said, "you wouldn't just not use the latest version because your employer hadn't bought the latest version, would you?" Giving Hayes the chance to say yeah that's exactly one reason why you wouldn't. You can't use it if you don't have it. She further clarified that even though there's an updated version, using an older version is still perfectly adequate. It's just an updated version of the tests but the old test still works fine.

I think the points she wants to make are good but she doesn't always ask the questions in a way to make her point. She's too open ended.

Great points. But also more recently with DR, why in hell would she ask if her immigration papers would support DR's claim that she didn't come back to the USA during her mission? When DR answers "Yes" to that question, it just gives DR's story more credibility.

 

[MeeBee]

I wanted it not to be true because it would really invalidate they're whole "cheating player T-Dogg" persona they've created for Travis. But you're right; JA has been telling the truth about somethings: them being "official" and him cheating on her at some point. I think he might have liked her a lot before her true self started coming out.

LOL at coo coo for cocoa puffs.

Well we still don't know he actually cheated on her. Jodi's definition of cheating is probably a lot less forgiving than mine or yours.

 

[east2west]

I am so old school. I still love to burn Nag Champa incense.

Doesn't go over so well in an apartment. Knock-Knock.[emoji4]

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk

 

[BritsKate]

I've always believed he (and she) liked the sex.

But I've never believed he genuinely liked her a lot.

I wonder if in LDS circles the words "like" and "love" and even the phrase "I love you" are commonly invoked. That is to say, more often than in strictly committed, monogamous (real monogamy, not JA's version where she doesn't do two guys at once), long-term exclusive relationships.

I dunno. He may have liked the idea of her. If she really is a psychopath, she would have studied him and attempted to mirror his interests and values. Initially, she may very well have seemed absolutely perfect for him. She also would have 'love bombed' him a whole lot in the beginning. It's hard not to like someone telling you how amazing and wonderful you are.

JMO

 

[mydirtysecret]

This is sort of OT but i know we have Mormons on here. Since only friends and family with TRs can witness the celestial union in temple is it usually followed up with a small "civilian" ceremony for ALL friends and family to be apart of

 

[khaki]

I agree that I wish we never had any evidence that Travis considered JA his girlfriend, but the upside to hearing him say that in reference to JA's interlude with Abe is that is shows the jury that JA went on a date with and got physical with another man, while she was Travis's girlfriend.

edit: I am all confused now. I posted this when I was still way behind in this thread, back about three pages. They weren't dating when she had the magic panties incident? Or the dinner date? :facepalm:

 

[MeeBee]

Great points. But also more recently with DR, why in hell would she ask if her immigration papers would support DR's claim that she didn't come back to the USA during her mission? When DR answers "Yes" to that question, it just gives DR's story more credibility.

Exactly. One of the many examples of her not knowing when to stop. Why would Deanna answer that way if she couldn't actually produce the papers that prove it? It's just a poor strategy to attack her credibility in a way that's so easily disproven. She didn't even need to go about attacking her credibility in the way she did, in general. I think her best course would have been to suggest that Travis was her friend and a former lover and they were close and maybe she just wanted to protect his memory, same way Jodi claims she does. She sort of went the opposite direction there by keeping the thing about Napolean out. In fairness, she has next to nothing to work with.

 

[Nali87]

I'm way behind here so sorry for the late comment. As per a previous poster, I believe Mormons consider it sacred, as opposed to secret and mysterious...

http://www.mormon.org/faq/purpose-of-temples

I'm not Mormon so I don't know what they think of their temples. I know that what happens in the temples can't be shared with outsiders, and that fits my definition of something being "secret" and because of that secrecy, it all has an air of mystery to outsiders, it does to me anyways. And in my opinion, something can be "sacred" and "secret and mysterious" at the same time. I didn't/don't see the problem with me using those words to describe it and I meant no offence.

 

[ziggy]

OK WSers: I figured out how to search for posts when you ask me a question. Yay. Bad news, thread closed, can't respond...so...

I will return to the courtroom Monday, Groundhog Day...ironic since it seems Nurmi will be doing cross on Bishop Parker and it will feel like Groundhog Day for us with his inability to effectively impeach.

Getting to know some of the insiders slowly. I'm the new kid in town and I don't exactly blend (My Cousin Vinny reference). Day before yesterday JA turned and stared at me during a recess and I stared right back into those dead eyes until she turned away. If MDLR follows the forum, I wondered if they were trying to figure out who ziggy was. If they were curious, I'm sure it wasn't difficult to figure out.

One of the media reporters approached me - she was looking for JA supporters to interview so, no interview happened. She said JA supporters won't talk to her. She also said she is the only one in the media room who thinks the verdict will be death. Most of the trial watchers think death penalty will be handed down.

Spoke at length with the Tweeter, The 13th Juror, who authored a book on the Devault murder case for which he did jury duty. Interesting similarity in the cases. We compared jury duty stories, as I was jury foreman in a criminal trial last year in the courthouse where I knew most of the judges and my law school friends clerked in the DA's office and the Public Defenders Office. Beats me how I remained on the jury, but it was not fun and another woman and I hung the jury; the 2 of us guilty, the other 10 found reasonable doubt based on the desperate "the photo ID procedure used to gain the witnesses' ID of the defendant was flawed and subliminally made them choose him" argument. It worked because all of our eyewitnesses had been drinking and all gave widely varying descriptions of the perp. But I digress...

He has been studying the JA jurors and told me that the seasoned citizen male is the loner juror aka one who could hang a jury. Apparently he carries a CD Walkman (yes, you read that correctly) and puts his earbuds in during breaks and does not engage in conversations with the others. I have observed he does take notes often.

We agreed the Bishop looks like the perfect witness - above reproach - a friendly looking, soft- spoken older gent, who seems a bit nervous but appears to want to answer truthfully, even though this process pains him.

Jen from Trial Diaries is sweet. Need to find out who Wild is because the commentaries crack me up. Beth K has her computer on her lap with the power cord attached to an extension cord, lol. She is a one row media mogul.

Have a a great weekend and let's hope the Seahawks and their fans take their cold, stupid rain back To Seattle with them!!!

 

[Hatfield]

I have learned that having book learnings does not always translate to being good at what you do. There are people who are motivated and driven to succeed and that gets you far but it doesn't mean you'll always be good at putting what you learn into practice. I think Willmott is intelligent and she is good at what she does and can teach the things she's learned to future lawyers. I am only observing this from a lay person's point of view but I think she does make these boneheaded mistakes and doedn't know when to quit while she's ahead. She asks TOO MANY questionsI've noticed that when she thinks she's made a good point she tried to really nail it down and keeps asking questions on that one point in many different ways and that leads her into undoing the work she just did in getting the answer she originally wanted.

For instance, when she was questioning Dr. Hayes and kept trying to drill on Dr. Demarte not doing a good job, she'd ask a question, get the answer she wanted and then keep going. She had tried to say previous that Demarte was being misleading by including work she's done before she was licensed as years that she practiced. Hayes said she would not include pre-license work in how many years she'd been practicing. And Willmott kept going and got Hayes to say that while other psychologists might do this, she personally doesn't. It's just a choice. Good job.

Or when she was trying to nail Demarte for not using the latest version of the MCMI. Willmott had gotten an answer she wanted and said, "you wouldn't just not use the latest version because your employer hadn't bought the latest version, would you?" Giving Hayes the chance to say yeah that's exactly one reason why you wouldn't. You can't use it if you don't have it. She further clarified that even though there's an updated version, using an older version is still perfectly adequate. It's just an updated version of the tests but the old test still works fine.

I think the points she wants to make are good but she doesn't always ask the questions in a way to make her point. She's too open ended.

Yup. You are so right that she does this.

When she finally makes a valid point for her defendent, she ruins it by asking a bunch more of the same question turned-3-ways-sideways and she either contradicts her point OR gets the jury so confused they have no idea what the point was to begin with.

 

[Wing Ding]

No. I went to Guadalajara for two summers. Jodi, it is claimed in sworn testimony and in the book, went to Costa Rica at the end of tenth grade. She spent her 17th birthday, which is July 9th in Costa Rica. It is then claimed that Victor came and stayed a month. Details about his stay were also testified to. IMO Juan would have called her out on yet another lie if it were not true. I don't have any trouble thinking that her folks thought a trip might be helpful in turning her thoughts/behavior around. Parents try lots of things in hopes of turning rebellious teens around. Unfortunately Jodi was manifesting signs of her personality/psychiatric disorders, not just teenage rebellion
JMO

Whoops! Sorry, I thought your post was what Jane had said in her book about Jodi's trip. Well, I read a post here about a convo TA and JA had with each other where they referred to themselves as bf/gf, so I won't completely rule out a school-related trip to Costa Rica. It's just... I just... I just hate it when she's not lying about something.

Thanks for your post, TM.

Edited to add: I'm still keeping an open mind that "Victor Arias" from Costa Rica is a relative.

 

[ziggy]

This is sort of OT but i know we have Mormons on here. Since only friends and family with TRs can witness the celestial union in temple is it usually followed up with a small "civilian" ceremony for ALL friends and family to be apart of

We flew to Oregon last summer for a family member's Mormon wedding. We had to wait outside in the drizzle under umbrellas with a few bridesmaids until the ceremony was over - only Mormons could go in. Then we participated in the family and wedding party photos outside the temple and went to the reception. My daughter (cousin of the bride) and the sister of the bride were bridesmaids who bought dresses etc. but could not attend the wedding. Weird but whatever. At least they had a DJ, dancing, and killer Hawaiian BBQ at the reception. Was jonesing for a glass of wine though.

 

[daisydomino]

I dunno. He may have liked the idea of her. If she really is a psychopath, she would have studied him and attempted to mirror his interests and values. Initially, she may very well have seemed absolutely perfect for him. She also would have 'love bombed' him a whole lot in the beginning. It's hard not to like someone telling you how amazing and wonderful you are.

JMO

BBM Would have—we know she did just that. To a very creepy degree. Before she killed him she practically copied his blog.

 

[Hatfield]

OK WSers: I figured out how to search for posts when you ask me a question. Yay. Bad news, thread closed, can't respond...so...

I will return to the courtroom Monday, Groundhog Day...ironic since it seems Nurmi will be doing cross on Bishop Parker and it will feel like Groundhog Day for us with his inability to effectively impeach.

Getting to know some of the insiders slowly. I'm the new kid in town and I don't exactly blend (My Cousin Vinny reference). Day before yesterday JA turned and stared at me during a recess and I stared right back into those dead eyes until she turned away. If MDLR follows the forum, I wondered if they were trying to figure out who ziggy was. If they were curious, I'm sure it wasn't difficult to figure out.

One of the media reporters approached me - she was looking for JA supporters to interview so, no interview happened. She said JA supporters won't talk to her. She also said she is the only one in the media room who thinks the verdict will be death. Most of the trial watchers think death penalty will be handed down.

Spoke at length with the Tweeter, The 13th Juror, who authored a book on the Devault murder case for which he did jury duty. Interesting similarity in the cases. We compared jury duty stories, as I was jury foreman in a criminal trial last year in the courthouse where I knew most of the judges and my law school friends clerked in the DA's office and the Public Defenders Office. Beats me how I remained on the jury, but it was not fun and another woman and I hung the jury; the 2 of us guilty, the other 10 found reasonable doubt based on the desperate "the photo ID procedure used to gain the witnesses' ID of the defendant was flawed and subliminally made them choose him" argument. It worked because all of our eyewitnesses had been drinking and all gave widely varying descriptions of the perp. But I digress...

He has been studying the JA jurors and told me that the seasoned citizen male is the loner juror aka one who could hang a jury. Apparently he carries a CD Walkman (yes, you read that correctly) and puts his earbuds in during breaks and does not engage in conversations with the others. I have observed he does take notes often.

We agreed the Bishop looks like the perfect witness - above reproach - a friendly looking, soft- spoken older gent, who seems a bit nervous but appears to want to answer truthfully, even though this process pains him.

Jen from Trial Diaries is sweet. Need to find out who Wild is because the commentaries crack me up. Beth K has her computer on her lap with the power cord attached to an extension cord, lol. She is a one row media mogul.

Have a a great weekend and let's hope the Seahawks and their fans take their cold, stupid rain back To Seattle with them!!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR POSTING ABOUT THE TRIAL!!!

I so wish you had been going since day 1 becuase I just LOVE your trial posts when you attend and love how you summarize things. You give us what we NEED. Just like this post where you are desribing the people and their reactions and their looks of who they really are.

That is the kind of info we need to fully understand what we are missing.
None of the other tweeters tell us much about the people in the courtroom and what they are actually witnessing. We need all those squishy details along with what they say. By getting all the extra stuff about their reactions, it helps so much.

For example if 1 of the tweeters tweets "Witness: No it did not happen".
You give us so much more like:

"The tall witness with the mustache just frowned and looked very mad as he said "No, it did not happen". Then he let slip a fart and everyone in courtroom began cracking up hysterically." :happydance:

Those are the details that really give us the big picture. So THANK YOU.

And huge KUDOS to you for winning a staring contest with JA. Every time she tries to pull that on you, stay with it and give her the stink eye till she backs down. LOL

 

[MarVa]

I assume that they were so vested in Fibber McGee's testiphony, they were assuming they could corroborate it with the bishop.

When they learned otherwise, they dropped him like the clichéd hyperthermal spud.

Fibber McGee. LOL!! :lol:

 

[mydirtysecret]

We flew to Oregon last summer for a family member's Mormon wedding. We had to wait outside in the drizzle under umbrellas with a few bridesmaids until the ceremony was over - only Mormons could go in. Then we participated in the family and wedding party photos outside the temple and went to the reception. My daughter (cousin of the bride) and the sister of the bride were bridesmaids who bought dresses etc. but could not attend the wedding. Weird but whatever. At least they had a DJ, dancing, and killer Hawaiian BBQ at the reception. Was jonesing for a glass of wine though.

Wow ziggy that is weird about having guests wait literally outside I guess I'm not sure why you'd ask people to do that lol. I've always had a calling into The Mormon religion since I was a teen, even though I was raised strict Pentecostal although never converted since I covet my soda and wine. Sadly it's the only reason why I never converted. Now if they ever relax those rules I'm in like Flynn lol

 

[Hope4More]

I dunno. He may have liked the idea of her. If she really is a psychopath, she would have studied him and attempted to mirror his interests and values. Initially, she may very well have seemed absolutely perfect for him. She also would have 'love bombed' him a whole lot in the beginning. It's hard not to like someone telling you how amazing and wonderful you are.

JMO

I just wrote and lost a much longer version of this exact thought. She chose her prey at that convention. Spoke to others and heard his story, spoke to him and probed his vulnerabilities. Had he been whole and emotionally secure she would have moved on to better prey.

Even in that May 2008 text fight he told her that she was "the nearest thing to perfection." But that she kept ruining everything. He never fully understood that the near perfection was a mirage, created by her manipulation of him; not until that May did it even occur to him that she was in fact responsible for trying to ruin him.

She chose her prey well.

 

[mydirtysecret]

I just wrote and lost a much longer version of this exact thought. She chose her prey at that convention. Spoke to others and heard his story, spoke to him and probed his vulnerabilities. Had he been whole and emotionally secure she would have moved on to better prey.

Even in that May 2008 text fight he told her that she was "the nearest thing to perfection." But that she kept ruining everything. He never fully understood that the near perfection was a mirage, created by her manipulation of him; not until that May did it even occur to him that she was in fact responsible for trying to ruin him.

She chose her prey well.

It wasn't until I learned through DB that she was getting deep into PPL and the Mormon religion months before she met Travis that the light bulb went off in my head that this meeting of TA was no mistake. He was an executive,motivation speaker on conference calls and at events she would have learned of Travis soon, stalked him out on myspace and purposefully bumped into the one event that she KNEW he'd be at. A broke waitress isn't going to risk going to Vegas unless there was a big potential windfall there in the husband lottery for her

 

[Hatfield]

Wow ziggy that is weird about having guests wait literally outside I guess I'm not sure why you'd ask people to do that lol. I've always had a calling into The Mormon religion since I was a teen, even though I was raised strict Pentecostal although never converted since I covet my soda and wine. Sadly it's the only reason why I never converted. Now if they ever relax those rules I'm in like Flynn lol

I try to be understanding of different beliefs and the formal processes they have. For those of us that are not familiar with them I think we are mainly just very curious and it sometimes surprises us why things happen the way they happen.

I once was invited to a funeral of somebody and they made everybody take off their shoes before entering the place where the body had an open viewing of the casket.
It bothered me just a little bit to have to take off my shoes but I did it anyway because I knew it was their custom and I wanted to pay my respects.
The only reason it even bothered me was because I was not prepared mentally for that to happen and I was embarrassed about my own socks. LOL Had I known beforehand, I would have wore my good socks. LOL