Knife first, forensically and logically, is more difficult for me to get to. ... I'm in the gun first camp, so would love to hear your thoughts, I just haven't heard enough up to now to get me from gun first. ...
bbm - respectfully snipped.
On this:
I don't think Travis is being forced to pose in those photos. If anything I think he is annoyed - my guess: by JA's insistence that he 'pose' for her. All I read in his face in those (now) tragic shots is, "Please. Just. Freaking. Leave." I don't think Travis' demeanor in these photos matter - beyond the fact that they are the last moments of a decent human being before he is violently butchered. His life - not his demeanor REALLY matters to me. And JA is the only person at that time - who knows he's about to die. That is important. Travis' last breath is important, I don't care if he was mad or sad or surprised or what - I care that someone took away his ability to breath. (sorry... this defendant makes me so furious I have trouble containing it).
I think JA caught Travis off guard - she did something that made him exit the shower without putting on his robe or grabbing a towel first... it was something THAT startling - or that troublesome - she provoked an otherwise inordinately neat and clean person to exit a shower soaking wet - not an ordinary action - not for a guy with the habits/home of Travis.
And this is where the gun comes into play and how I think JA got Travis to forget everything - only an emergency would do that:
JA suddenly (planned by her, unexpected by Travis) whips out Gpa's gun and says something like, "Okay, F-it! You won't (take me/be with me/forsake all others/whatever a violent, homicidal psychopath would say), then my life means nothing!" ...or some such drivel JA would spew, gun to her head, safety on. She grew up with guns. She knows what does/doesn't happen depending on the safety/cocking/trigger mechanism. She grew up with guns.
THAT would alarm any decent person, including one who cares *deeply* about neatness, order and takes pride in his home - THAT would make him forget all that. Make him forget about everything - except the immediate crisis.
This make sense, forensically, imv. JA caused Travis to somehow exit the shower uncharacteristically - basically eliminating the strength/size advantage, catching him off guard...
Plunge. So ugly, so vile, so (horribly) ...
easy. Right in his heart, but not quite.
Hence the blood evidence at the sink. I've gone on too long, so you can take it from there - and the forensics work without demanding unrealistic mental calisthenics as JA is wont to do.
The tinkly, piddly little gun was a ruse to make an unsuspecting, 100% vulnerable man into a 200% vulnerable man. A man unwilling to have an ex-girlfriend blow her brains out. Little did he know that this was just one more event in her long line of using the threat of suicide as a weapon or control factor to make things go her way.
Just my theory.