Ms LaViolettes testimony requires us to enter into a topsy turvy world where the victim is guilty, the abused is the abuser, a genuine female victim of DV always minimizes and conceals the abusive behaviors of her abuser and the physical results of the abuse, while a genuine male victim of an obsessive stalker instantly alerts the authorities to the stalking behaviors and his fear of them.
Over the 44 hours she spent with Arias, and with the several books she bought for her, she - perhaps unwittingly - helped Arias craft this preposterous 'self defence' claim. Sadly, and ironically given her use of fairy tale characters to demonstrate her theories, she failed to notice that the fairy tale Arias came up with - complete with the addition of atmospheric 'fog' - falls apart when applied to real world standards of enquiry and evidence.
The Fantasy: A teeny tiny downtrodden female protagonist 'finally' snaps and 'fights for her life' against the enraged physically powerful, ginormous abusive male antagonist! She struggles with him in a life and death tussle on the floor! He nearly overcomes her, but not wait! She escapes - he pursues! She slows him down with A Gun No One Else Knew Existed, yet still he attacks! A magical fog descends, and she finally overcomes him by use of An Enormous Knife That Happened To Be In The Bathroom.
The Reality: A man is showering while a woman he is intimately familiar with takes some photos of him. The camera records the time each photo was taken. The last photo of him alive shows him sitting in the shower. Less than 3 minutes later the man is on the floor streaming blood, dead or very close to death. The woman moves his body, cleans the scene up a little, and leaves, perhaps with a fresh band aid on one finger.
Strip away everything else and focus on the victim's injuries, the ME's testimony, crime scene, Arias's lack of injuries, and the date stamped photographic evidence she left. What was left behind leaves a pretty clear story about what happened in the three minutes - and even clearer story of what didn't happen - between the last shower photo and the end of the hallway photo.
Arias claims TA got the jump on her and initiated the first assault, but barely even bothered to claim she had any injuries from the supposed 'body slam' or subsequent claimed 'linebacker' events, except for describing the most miraculous recovery from being winded ever. Her claim that her shoulder has 'never been right' since comes with no corroborating reports of her complaining about pain, no evidence of disability or request for treatment for said 'injury' over the last 4 years, and the finger injury she showed Det. Flores, if indeed sustained during the events of June 4th, looked exactly like injuries he had seen knife wielding assailants sustain. Nobody has testified that during the following days/weeks Arias had any bruises or other injuries. Remember this alleged assault on Arias was not the act of a secretive DV abuser, who might well have deliberately inflict blows where they would not be visible, but the act of a powerful, enraged, raging bull who was going to KILL her.
The defensive wounds to TA's hands alone, coupled with the sheer volume & type of other injuries she inflcted on him tell us that from very early during the 3 minutes. he was incapable of either attacking her, and had only limited and temporary ability to defend himself.
From the photos recovered from TA's camera and crime scene pictures, everyone, including the Jury knows the incident was over and done with in no more than 2 minutes, that it began at the point the camera took the first 'accidental' photo, in or close to the shower, (see blood evidence, his not hers), that Travis Alexander was naked and wet when it began, and continued to be naked throughout. His bathrobe is in the crime scene pics, still hanging on the hook right next to the shower, because he didn't have time to put it on, use it to stem blood flow, or use it to attempt a 'fluffy' defense against the knife/gun with it bundled up. Why? Because he was already badly incapacitated both mentally and physically due to the initial assault/attack in or near the shower.
A further early distinguishable, separate injury/'event' (see blood evidence, his not hers) occurred at a LOW level near to the end of the bathtub/toilet cubicle area, indicating TA was already on or close to the floor at the time. At this point he was within a few feet of two sets of bathroom scales. He didn't grab a set and belt her with it. No evidence at either the crime scene or on her person to suggest he slammed her head against the floor, the bathtub, wall, or the toilet room door. He apparently had very little conscious awareness as to what had been done to him/what was happening to him - if he had, he might have locked himself in that toilet cubicle.
Instead, TA made his way to the sink area to check out whatever the hell it was that had happened to him. (I'm going to make a guess here. It was an injury that he could not see, or that he couldn't comprehend even though he could see it, hence the instinctive move towards the mirror to 'check it out'). He may not have even managed to stand to his full height at that sink, but he was there, with his back to her, dripping water from his hair/body in with the blood he was shedding, coughing/spraying.
He wasn't conscious/dangerous enough to then effect any flight, or fight. He didn't grab what looks like a full, quite large (and possibly heavy) glass Cologne bottle from the corner of the vanity unit near to the bathroom closet door and clock her with it; he didn't grab the spray cleaner from the cupboard below and spray it at her/swipe her with it; he didn't grab anything from the bathroom closet, like a towel to bundle to try and defend himself or to throttle/smother her with (no blood spatter in the closet apart from what wicked up the cardboard box); he wasn't strong/conscious enough to punch her lights out, (leaving visible bruising for days/weeks) grab her and smash her head against any part of the vanity unit, bathroom or closet door, twist/break her arm, or pull out a huge chunk of her hair causing her scalp to bleed (leaving visible scabs/bruising for days/weeks).
An alert, conscious, able and especially a rageful person could/would have done any or all of these things but all he actually achieved was a few attempts to grab the knife or deflect the knife with his hands, and turning HIS BACK to her.
There was no time in the two minutes for the closet interlude as described by Arias to occur. There is no evidence whatsoever that any closet interlude occurred during those 2 minutes.
She went on to stab him many, many more times following that initial shower/bathtub phase of her attack: so many times that while the crime scene is awash with blood (all his apart from one print) there are no further 'distinguishable' knife wound blood spatters, IIRC, until the final throat slash near the end of the hallway something like 15 feet away from the sink?
Why? Because the assailant had complete power over the victim. He simply wasn't capable of fleeing her, defending himself or attacking her. That single hair of hers found near the bathroom door would have been a CLUMP if he had pulled it out. She didn't scratch him, or pull his hair out, because she had no need to. She had inflicted a possibly fatal, certainly fatally debilitating injury early, and each successive wound weakened him further through shock, pain, blood loss, damage to tendons/muscle etc. He never got near enough to her to inflict any kind of 'struggle' injuries on her. She only got that close to him after he was incapable of defending himself or inflicting any 'struggle' injuries on her.
The multiple wounds he suffered when his back was turned - whether curled up trying to shield his head/chest, or crawling/dragging himself away from her - are utterly damning. In particular he was no longer capable of moving away from her at a quick enough pace to avoid that telling cluster of nine wounds on his back.
By the time the first of the 'accidental' photographs of TA during the attack were taken, the incident had progressed to the hall the hall. In the first of those phtos, he was down, out, prone on the floor and streaming blood, while she was upright. Yet according to the M.E Arias went on to inflict at least one more fatal type wound (the gun-shot) when he was already dead or close to it. We do not know whether his throat had been cut when the final two accidental pictures were taken. There was a large amount of blood streaming over his shoulder, but remember, he had had been stabbed several times on his front torso, and on the right side of his neck. Those injuries could also have caused the blood streaming we see in the pictures.
By her own account - every single stab wound she inflicted on him, was inflicted after she had shot him in the head. Every. Single. One. And let's imagine her 'fog' lifts and she recalls an epic life or death struggle during which she happens across the Enormous Knife That Happened To Be In The Bathroom, or even manages to wrest it from the hands of her alleged attacker? She can't conjure up retrospective defensive wounds, cuts, bruises, scratches, scalp wounds, broken bones, cracked ribs, or stab wounds to her body, or her blood instead of his all over the scene.
LaViolette helped Jodi Arias craft a fairy tale to try and excuse/explain why she slaughtered Travis Alexander, but nothing except pre-meditation can explain the evidence we have about the two minutes, or the two weapons used.
lease:
