Prosecutor Juan Martinez delivered his closing arguments to the packed courtroom, Yahoo News reported. Media on the scene said people lined up at 2 a.m. Thursday to get a seat in the gallery to watch the closing statements prepared by the prosecution against Jodi Arias, the 32-year-old charged with first degree murder against her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander.
Arias reportedly did not show emotion during the closing arguments. The judge earlier provided instructions to the jury that allowed them to consider the lesser charge of manslaughter, along with first-degree and second-degree murder. Arias faces a potential death sentence if convicted of first-degree murder in the June 2008 killing of Alexander in his Mesa, Arizona home.
The prosecution has depicted her as a vengeful and jealous ex-girlfriend while her defense has said she killed him out of self-defense. The Jodi Arias murder investigation has proven to be one of the most tawdry publicized trials in U.S. history. Arias initially denied any involvement in the killing then later blamed it on masked intruders.
Two years after her arrest, she said she killed him in self-defense. "This is not a case of who done it," Prosecutor Martinez told jurors during opening statements in January. "The person who done it, the person who committed this killing sits in court today, the defendant, Jodi Ann Arias."
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