The ninjas (and a bit more), The versions from her Interrogation vs. her letter to his family, versus what she wrote in her “manifesto.”
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June 2008: Two phone interviews with Flores (suggests in one that TA was too strong to be overcome by a single person, Flores agrees. She has the time and motivation after these interviews to redact her journals, and to write entries that are intended to prove she didn’t feel hostile towards Travis, that he was still pursuing her, that she had no motivation to kill him).
July 15, 2008: Arrested, interrogated for 2 days.
July 28, 2008: Wrote letter to TA’s family while in jail, still in Oregon.
Sept. 5, 2008: Extradited to Arizona
Sept. 11, 2008: Pleads not guilty. Bond set at $2M. Judge Duncan assigned case.
September 2008: Jailhouse interview with Inside Edition, “No jury is going to convict me.”
(The
’s “Manifesto” is undated, but she said in it that she was writing it after an interview (with a male reporter) to set the facts straight. Thinking it’s most likely she’s referring to the Inside Edition interview. If so, she may not have even met with her attorney Schaffer yet, much less had the opportunity yet to review any evidence).
October 22, 2008. Maria Schaffer counsel of record.
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INTERROGATION.:
DF: I’m surprised he allowed you to take pictures of him in the shower. The first few looked like he wasn’t too comfortable, but, obviously, whatever you were saying to him made him a little more comfortable.
JA: I remember all that pretty clearly.
DF: You remember that?
DF: What went wrong? Did he say something to you? Were you angry about something? Were you frustrated? What was it?
DF: Something happened at that point, and I don’t know what it was.
JA: What are they going to do with the rental car? Are they going to bring it here?
DF: Mmm hmm. There were several photos of him, and the last one that we have is of him sitting in the shower, and that’s when I think it happened. He was sitting down looking up at you. What did you do? What happened, Jodi? You’ve gone this far. Did you plan on doing that the whole time?
JA: (Whispers) No.
DF: Then why? Tell me. I don’t believe you planned it, but then I don’t understand why, why you took a gun with you.
JA: Oh, I didn’t.
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DF: Was there an argument? No?
JA: Umm…Not between Travis and I.
DF: Any argument between anybody?
JA: (Whispers) Yeah. Is there any way I can see those pictures? I just…
DF: No, not right now.
JA: Can I see them soon? I will…
DF: You need to start letting me know what happened. You’re telling me that some other people were there. You know how much that concerns me?
JA: I don’t know who they were. They know where I live or they know where my parents are. I don’t know if they know where my grandparents are, but they got my address. They know where my family is. Sorry.
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JA: They didn’t discuss much, they just argued.
DF: About what?
JA: About whether or not to kill me.
DF: For what reason?
JA: Because I’m a witness.
DF: A witness to what?
JA: Him. Of Travis.
DF: Of Travis’ murder?
JA: Yeah, but I didn’t really witness it. I didn’t see much. I just…
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DF: Well, help us protect your family, if that’s the case.
JA: They got my driver’s license. It has a P.O. Box on it.
DF: Mmm hmm.
JA: Then they got my registration out of my purse which was in the purse that I was using at the time, and it has my parent’s address on it.
DF: Why would they do this, what were they arguing about? What did they say, their details?
JA: They didn’t say a lot. They were white Americans from what I could tell. They had, umm…ummm…what do you call those things? They are like beanies but they cover your whole face, and they’ve got like holes for your nose and eyes . . . .
DF: Ski mask?
JA: One was black, I think they were both black or dark blue or something. It was…. Anyway, umm it wasn’t until I was in LA and Laura wasn’t getting back to me, and it was already like 9 something…….
DF: Well, continue on with the story, about one o’clock…
JA: Yes, we had sex a couple of times. Once was in his bed and once was again downstairs in his office. He was looking at some pictures that I had brought for him, but he has a virus on his computer, so when he clicked the Start menu on Windows XP or Windows 2000 or whatever, you have like My Pictures, My Music, My Computer. You can usually click on My Computer and then go into the disc drive and open that....
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JA: ….but I asked him if I could take pictures of him in the shower, and he’s like, “No.” I was just like, “I have an idea.” “Well, what do you mean?” I was like, I said, I saw this thing in a Calvin Klein ad once and it looked really good, and you’re right, he wasn’t really comfortable at first. He’s standing there and he says, “I feel gay.” (Laughs)
JA: So some I deleted and some I kept taking umm…and some he looked really good, I thought. The one that you showed me yesterday looking right at you, I think that is a great picture. He hates it. I don’t know what he hates about that. I think it’s a very good picture of him.
DF: So you were taking pictures and showing him?
JA: Yeah. Yeah. His shower door was open. His water pressure in that shower isn’t that great, so it’s not like water was going everywhere.
DF: What happened when the last picture was taken?
JA: He was kneeling down in the shower. I don’t remember.
JA: He’s like…if this is the shower and the sink is over here, I was like right here taking pictures, and I don’t really know what happened after that exactly, except I think he was shot.
DF: Where were you?
JA: Kneels on the floor to show Detective Flores where she was crouched….
Umm… if this is his shower and he was sitting here, I was like…Well, if this is his shower, and he’s sitting here, I was like right there on my knees, and his bathtub was right here, and I was taking them here, and I was just going through the pictures, and I heard this loud ring,
JA: and…I don’t really remember except Travis was screaming. I think I got knocked out, but I don’t think I was out long.
I know I got knocked in the head, and I’ve gotten knocked in the head once by my dad when he was just really mad, and it wasn’t like… Actually, he didn’t knock me in the head, he just pushed me against the wall, and I hit my head and I fell, but he…In this case I think it was similar because he uh… was screaming, and I was by the bathtub, and he was holding his head, and there were two people there and…
DF: What did you see?
JA: Umm…I remember putting my hand on his back, because he was on all four of his knees. He was like .. (Jodi gets up, moves to the floor on all fours, positioning herself and demonstrating what position Travis was in as she describes this to DF)
JA: …on his knees like this doing something like this or something like, I don’t know…and I was like, “Are you okay? What’s going on? What’s going on?” and he’s like, “Go get help! Go get help!” and I said, “Okay!”
I turned around. There were two people there, one was a guy and one was a girl. I couldn’t tell that at first, but you could see one was a girl and one was a guy because of their build and their voices. Um…I remember what they were wearing like maybe jeans, um…
DF: What did they say?
JA: One was in all black and one was in jeans.
DF: Did they say anything?
JA: Yeah, the girl wanted to kill me, too.
DF: What did she say? What words did you hear? What phrases?
JA: Umm…”Who is that? Who is that?” I thought he was by himself or alone or something and… He was like, “Shut up, just finish it,” and Travis was screaming the whole time. He wasn’t screaming like a girl.
He was just like… like he was in pain… like he was like shocked, like “Ahhhh,” you know. He wasn’t really moving though, you know, he was just kind of staying still on the floor.
DF: Then what happened?
JA: Well, as soon as he said, “Go get help,” I turned around and they were there and…
DF: Where were they?
JA: They were in the bathroom.
DF: Where at in the bathroom – out in the hallway or in the bathroom?
JA: The girl was in the hallway, kind of. Um…and the guy was more toward in the bedroom, but like still in the bathroom, like on the tile carpet area right there where it starts.
DF: Okay.
JA: and… he started coming in toward the bathroom, too, and I… (Puts head down on table).
JA: It was…
DF: What happened? What happened, Jodi? What did you see?
(Jodi crying) I chickened out like a little bytch.
DF: You took off?
JA: I ran, and he stopped me when he… (crying)
DF: He stopped you?
JA: Travis. Umm…he was…umm… he was still like conscious and still alive.
DF: You just left him there?
JA: No, I ran into the closet, because there are two doors, and they were sort of in the hallway already, and he stopped me, and he didn’t touch me.
He was just…held the gun to my head and he said, “You don’t go anywhere,” and he told the other girl to finish it, but I didn’t see. Umm…but, he was like…he wasn’t saying a lot but…umm…
DF: What happened?
JA: He told me to stay there and not to move.
DF: Where was that – in the closet?
JA: No, it was um…
(DF reaches across and takes his tablet from Jodi and begins to draw Travis’ bedroom for Jodi)
DF: Here’s his bedroom, okay, and you got the long hallway to his bathroom, the sink. We have the closet here. Then we have the shower, then the bathtub right there, and then there’s the toilet right there. Okay. This is the sink. Then his bedroom is, well, actually there’s a closet door there. (DF pushes the table towards Jodi)
JA: Yes, exactly, and so his closet is kind of like this.
JA: So I ran this way, ‘cause they were…He was walking this way, and she was already right here. Umm… and then he stopped me here and he said, “Don’t move,” and uh… Travis was here, or somewhere right around,
and he left the room for a minute, and I didn’t have my stupid phone because it wasn’t charged, and Travis’ phone is downstairs and I didn’t know… His roommates I didn’t think were home at the time, so like I was trying to think if there was anyway I could call 911 or call or…or get out of the house.
There’s no way out except downstairs. His windows are…they’re two stories for one, and they’re just, they were hard to get to. He had stuff – here and stuff here and blinds and screens and window coverings and I mean… from the outside… and I just… Umm…she was over him and I just rushed her and I pushed her, and there was…
DF: There was what?
JA: Travis was bleeding everywhere.
DF: What was she doing to him, because he had been shot at this time, right?
JA: Yeah, but he was still alive.
DF: Mmm hmm.
JA: He was conscious even, like…
DF: Still talking…
JA: Oh, he wasn’t talking or saying much, but I could tell he was breathing. He seemed like he was breathing calmly, I think, he wasn’t like…He was just there. I can’t really remember. It was such a blur.
DF: Okay, and so you did what now? You pushed her?
JA: She’s a little bit bigger than me, not really in size but height. Umm…
DF: Then what happened?
JA: Oh, it didn’t really deter her.
DF: Did she have any weapons on her at all?
JA: Uh, yeah.
DF: What did she have?
JA: Umm…she…I thought she was the one with the gun, but maybe she had the gun, but he had a gun So either there were two guns or one gun. I don’t know.
DF: Well, she’s the one who shot him though, right? She was the one here and he was back here at the time when you saw him.
JA: I would think so, because, I mean, I do…I don’t know. I got hit here, somewhere. I just. I don’t know. “Cause when I was… when I woke up, he was screaming, and I saw her at this point, like right here, and walking. She must have been walking back this way, and I saw him sort of following, and that’s when he was like, “Finish.”
DF: Okay.
JA: And then I started running this way, and he stopped me, and he left the room for a couple of minutes.
DF: Why did he leave?
JA: Maybe… I don’t know. I don’t know.
DF: Okay, so what happened after you pushed her?
JA: Um…I got Travis, and he wasn’t like standing up really. He wasn’t really doing much, and he was… I was trying to get him… and she came back. I got him kind of far, like right here. She came back and uh…He was just…
He was starting to just get weaker and weaker, and this guy came back in, and she said that umm…She said… they needed to um….do me, too, because umm.. because I was there, and he was like, “No, that’s not why we’re here,” and…Um…
JA: He had my purse, which I had on the dresser here prior. Umm…
DF: And what did they do after this, after you guys reached this. Just try to stick with the incident from what was going on?
JA: She came after me, and he stopped her.
DF: Okay.
JA: And she didn’t get me.
DF: How was she going to get you? Did she have a weapon?
JA: She had a knife.
DF: Okay.
DF: You said she had a gun before.
JA: I don’t know if she had a gun. I…I think…’cause I am guessing. Umm…I know that he had a gun. I don’t know if she had a gun or not.
DF: So she was basically the aggressor?
JA: Yeah, unless he took a shot, too. I don’t know.
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DF: Then what happened?
JA: Um… they had an argument back and forth, and she wanted to kill me, and he didn’t. Umm…
DF: Why didn’t they kill you? Just because he said…
JA: He said that’s not what we’re here for.
DF: Did they say why they were there?
JA: No, but it was obvious they were there for him. They didn’t say why.
DF: So it seemed like they knew him, obviously.
JA: Yeah, but he didn’t seem to know them. I mean he was a little out of it, plus they had masks on anyway, but he didn’t express any kind of recognition.
DF: Well, he couldn’t talk.
JA: He was able to say, “Go get help,” and at one point he said, “Go to my neighbor’s house.” “Go to my neighbor’s house.” There was just like…there was just no way out of …
DF: Did you see them hurt him any more?
JA: Umm…
DF: Other than a gunshot?
JA: Um…she had a knife and I don’t know. He was bleeding everywhere. It was like… when she rushed me afterward, or she came back, I rushed her but she kind of came back at me. Umm…
DF: Why didn’t …
JA: Travis & I were right about here, maybe. I don’t know. Half way? I don’t know. Umm…and there was a little bit of a struggle with her and I. Umm…I was so scared.
I’m not a person who fights. Umm…I’m not a person who knows really about self defense. I took some classes once, but it was like eight years ago and I’ve never been consistent with it.
DF: Okay.
JA: Umm…so I wasn’t sure. I just knew I had to hold onto her hands because she had a knife.
DF: What hand did she have it in?
JA: She…she had it in this hand, but well, her right, so…
DF: Her right?
DF: What happened?
DF: So you didn’t see her hurt him anymore. He was just bleeding. Where did he end up?
JA: He um… When I tried getting him here, he said, “Go get help.” And when I tried…came back this way, pushed her, and he said, “Go to my neighbors” “Go to my neighbors,” and I wasn’t like, “No” but I wasn’t going to leave if I couldn’t leave without him.
I was trying. Umm I felt stupid already for trying to run this way. I was going to go to a phone, and he was like, “Come on” “Come on”. You know he was naked but I didn’t care. Just Come on. And he was like, I can’t. I said, Come on, and he said, I can’t feel my legs.
JA: And they wouldn’t let me be by him.
DF: Were you clothed at that time or were you also nude?
JA: Yeah, I was clothed.
DF: Okay.
DF: Are those the pants I showed you the other day on the camera?
JA: On…I don’t think I have pants like that. I don’t know. Umm…I’ve got a lot of clothes. I’m trying to remember the clothes that I took to that trip. Um… oh, I do have another pair of striped pants, and they’re gray though with a black stripe.
DF: Okay.
JA: I don’t think they were those. I don’t know.
DF: Okay. So what happened after that?
JA: Umm…
DF: They had a conversation about killing you, too, and you…and then they decided not to.
JA: She really, really, really wanted to.
DF: What happened then?
JA: From there they were … I was here, like his armoire whatever it’s called, but his TV was here. and I was right about here and I had to stay here and I was calling his name and they were like, “Shut the hell up,” Umm and I was just…I don’t know if I was crying. It was all just like… It was so weird.
Umm… he was going through umm…my purse, and he pulled out my wallet and he just took some cash. Umm I had though my cash stashed in the jeans I had worn, like a good chunk of it, like 80 bucks, stashed in four twenties in the back of my jean pockets which were in my backpack ummm but I had some cash in here, not all of it though. So he took that, though and um…
DF: What happened?
JA: He was...
DF: What was she doing?
JA: She was like right here that time.
DF: Doing what? He’s over here taking stuff from your wallet, uh…from your purse. You’re here. She’s down the hall.
JA: Yeah, she wasn’t far. It’s not a far distance. There was part of me I think that was just. I was sitting, and I was just like…I didn’t know what to say.
Do you beg for your life? Do you say, Who are you guys? I’m powerless, because I don’t have any way to stop them. They were just more powerful, so I figured…
DF: Okay. Well, Continue on. So once they took stuff from there, what did they do?
JA: Umm… she was…I don't know what she was doing, but she was arguing with him and talking with him and saying…
DF: What were they saying?
JA: She’s like, it wasn’t like super yelling. It was kind of like hushed, but intense like “You need to da da da da da,” and “Shut up! That’s not why we’re here.” Things like that. And…and uh…he grabbed my wallet, and he was looking through it. He just took the cash and put it in his pocket. He umm…got my registration out of my wallet and he said,
DF: What did he say?
JA: He said you must be that bytch from California.
DF: Mmm hmm.
JA: And he was going like this with my registration, and he said, he said…”You ever, ever, ever say anything about this,” he said they’ll do to my family the same way and me, and I didn’t care so much about me at that point. He said, “We need to leave and don’t you call anybody. Don’t say anything. Don’t you act like anything happened!” He’s like I’ll give you one chance, and she said, “She’s going to rat us out, she’s going to say something” and he’s like, “Shut up! You get one chance.”
DF: Was that when you left?
JA: He said, “Leave now,” and part of me didn’t want to leave. Travis wasn’t… was still alive. He was still... I could…He wasn’t moving a lot, but he was still alive. I could see that he was still…
DF: did you leave at that point?
JA: Umm…I left the room
DF: Where did you go?
JA: I went downstairs, but I didn’t have all my clothes.
DF: What did you leave there?
JA: Well, Travis said I had some stuff there. I didn’t see what it was. He said it was in his closet. He said there were clothes of mine, but all I had was my purse and my backpack. I left those and I went outside.
DF: Mmm hmm.
DF: And then what did you do?
JA: I wanted to get help. I … I just wanted to get help. He told me that if I didn’t say anything that I would be… that I wouldn’t even live to regret it but that I would regret it.
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Hi DF: No idea why they did this to him? You have to know something about it.
DF: He doesn’t get involved in things he’s not supposed to get involved in. He doesn’t do drugs. It doesn’t seem like a robbery, burglary…
JA: No, it doesn’t. I was wondering if they took my stuff to make it look that way, and they told me to leave, and, you know, umm…Travis usually keeps his cash in his wallet.
DF: So you didn’t see what happened to him then?
JA: I just saw that…
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DF: I know. You were probably standing above him when he was in the shower, and you shot him in the head.
JA: I was kneeling down beside him looking at the pictures.
DF: Jodi! And then you had a knife, and you stabbed him -- several times.
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JA: Okay. I’m just… If I had planned to hurt him in any way, I, you know, I am not the brightest person, but I… I don’t think I could stab him. I think I would have to shoot him continuously until he was dead, if that were my intention.
Again, and I would bring up the gloves again, but I would have to wear gloves. I mean I am not too worried about prints, because they are all over anyway, but I would never stab him. If, if, if I had it anywhere in me to kill him, the least I could have done was to make it as humane as possible, or quick, or something, you know, if any killing is humane, so to speak. I don’t mean it that way…I would just...like, he was still alive...
DF: Yes. Yes, he was. He was alive for awhile, and I knew that he had been shot first, and he was still alive and possibly tried to get away, maybe even tried to fight back.
JA: I think he was in shock. I just remember waking up and he was…
DF: But you didn’t see him fight back or anything did you? He just kind of collapsed there and....
JA: No, he was here (JA points at DF’s drawing of Travis’ bathroom, etc.) right outside of the shower...
DF: And then he…You pulled him this way and you tried to get away with him, but then he couldn’t go any further.
JA: He said he couldn’t move. He said he couldn’t feel his legs.
DF: And that was the last place you saw him. You said that he stopped and he kind of collapsed right there. She was standing there and he was over here, and it just doesn’t make any sense.
JA: He was still like able to move his…like, he was all…I guess he was all conscious up here sort of still. He wasn’t like on his legs or on his knees or on his feet. He wasn’t walking...
DF: He was crawling.
JA: Yeah, I’m trying to think how he got over there. He was sort of using his legs, but he wasn’t standing up.
DF: Yeah. If you’re going to continue on that road, I don’t think I want to go any further.
