Highlights from the Defence opening statements:
1) Jodi was forced to kill Travis. "The million dollar question is what would have forced her to do it?" "In just those two minutes Jodi had to make a choice, she would either live or she would die".
2) Jodi did not always tell the truth. Jodi was scared about what had happened and scared about what she had done. She had absolutely no experience with police interrogation before. So when they talked to her she wasn't always truthful. Her fear and her ??? led her to tell different stories. Those stories were not the truth.
3) Jodi loved Travis so what would force her to take his life?
4) At the convention in Vegas where Travis met Jodi, Travis spent a lot of time wowing Jodi. Travis invited Jodi to the executive banquet and got her a front row seat. Travis tried to kiss Jodi but she stopped him and reminded him that she had a boyfriend.
5) Four days after the Vegas convention, Jodi and her then boyfriend Darryl broke up.
6) The week after the convention Travis convinced Jodi to drive up to meet him and stay at his house. At this time Jodi was introducted to the Morman church. Jodi went to church with Travis and his friends.
7) A few days later, Travis stopped in Mesa to see Jodi. They met at a Starbucks. Travis gave Jodi The Book of Morman. Travis sent missionaries to Jodi's house, once a week.
8) Two months after meeting Travis, he convinced her to convert to Mormanism. Travis was a very important member of the Morman church.
Travis was a temple member. Travis baptized Jodi into the Morman church. Members are not to have premarital sex of any kind. (This was in November).
9) In reality Jodi was Travis' dirty little secret. From the moment he met her he was pushing and pushing Jodi to have a sexual relationship. Travis pursueded Jodi to have oral and anal sex.
10) Travis found somebody (Jodi) who was easily manipulated and controlled. He could have a secret sexual relationship and on the outside he could still pursue the appropriate Morman woman.
11) Travis encouraged Jodi to date somebody else but when she would talk to another man Travis would degrade her by yelling and embarrasing her.
12) Jodi avoided Travis' temper by being humble, compliant, and agreeable.
13) June 2007, Jodi broke up with Travis because he was pursuing other women while he was still having sex with Jodi. Travis didn't want to break up. Travis begged Jodi for forgiveness. They never stopped seeing, talking or emailing each other.
14) July 2007, Travis sent Jodi a poem apologizing for his behavior asking her to be with him. Later that month Jodi flew out to Mesa to visit and that weekend Travis showered her with attention and he was nothing but sweet and kind.
15) Shortly after that weekend Jodi moved to Mesa and moved in with one of her Morman girlfriends.
16) Travis treated Jodi differently in the public eye. He degraded her to his friends. Claimed she was "crazy" or a "stalker". Also called her "
" or "
" if she texted or talked to another man.
17) Travis distanced himself from Jodi to his friends and this made it easy for him to keep control of her and keep her for his own sexual needs.
18) The defence will be calling a domestic violence expert.
19) To his friends, Travis insisted that Jodi stalked him, Jodi wouldn't leave him alone. Travis had a t-shirt made claiming his ownership of Jodi.
20) In April 2008, Jodi found out Travis was pursuing other women. Jodi had enough and she moved away to live with her grandparents. Travis wouldn't let her go. He continued calling, texting, and emailing. He guilted her for leaving and Jodi fell right back into the relationship with him.
21) Even though they did not see other from April to June 2008 Travis was still able to use Jodi for his own sexual desires through the phone. The jury will hear a recorded call between Travis and Jodi. Made just a couple of weeks before Travis died. Travis tells her about his fantasies and how he wants to tie her to a tree and put it in her
all the way. Jodi pretends to climix and Travis tells her that she sounds like a twelve year old girl that is having an orgasm for the first time.
Travis discusses how he is going to Cancun with somebody else.
22) It was Travis' continual abuse that forced Jodi to kill him. He left her with no other option than to defend herself. On June 4, 2008 Travis threatend to kill Jodi.
23) Travis beckoned Jodi to come see him in Mesa.
24) Travis wanted to tie Jodi up. He was prepared with soft rope, like curtain tie back rope. Travis tied Jodi and used a knife to cut the rope. They had sex and Travis wanted to take pictures of Jodi with his new camera.
Travis liked to see Jodi in pigtails so she put her hair in pigtails.
25) Later they were in Travis' den looking at photos and there was a problem with the computer and Travis got angry and threw a CD against the wall. Jodi then went into protection mode. Jodi knew that sex calmed his temper. Travis then spun her around and bent her over the desk and had quick and rough vaginal sex, ejaculating on her back.
26) Jodi then went to the shower and rinsed herself off. Travis' temper had now subsided.
27) Travis wanted Jodi to take photos of him because he had been working out. Travis went into the shower and Jodi took pictures. Jodi accidentally dropped his camera. Travis lunged at Jodi in anger knocking her to the ground and there was a struggle. Jodi's life was in danger. This is not the result of premeditation.
