suddenly, faraway places don't seem so...far away. ♪ jodi become travis' drug. he recognized how bad she was for him, but she kept showing up in his life and just like a drug addict, he kept letting her right back in the door. >> the trial is finally over. >> we the jury find the defendant as to count one first-degree murder, guilty. [ cheers and applause ] >> jodi arias, who brutally murdered her lover could face death herself. >> did you ever think she would do what she does? >> a steamy story of sex. >> we hang out, we have sex. >> lies. >> she tell as lie, believes the

lie. >> and the defendant -- >> tonight after one of the most sensational and bizarre trials ever, stories you haven't heard from her friends. >> you see any cuts on her? >> tiny. little cuts. >> and his -- >> he was very afraid of her, but every time he tried to break things off with jodi, she would threat ton kill herself. >> inside the jodi arias trial. >> this isn't a ride at disneyland, this was someone tragically murders. >> i'm lester holt and this is "dateline." >> and you would have noticed that. right? >> yes. >> it would be you that did it, correct? >> yes. >> the jodi arias trial never played as a murder mystery. jodi, after all, had admitted to 12 jurors in open court and a few million viewers on tv that

she was the one. who shot, stabbed and then stabbed some more, her former boyfriend and secret sex partner. >> as to count one, first-degree murder, guilty. >> why, then, did so many millions of trial followers stick around for the final act? [ applause ] >> and why did so many leave home and work to gather on the courthouse steps to await the final verdict? [ chanting ] >> tonight with new information and new interviews, we'll take an in-depth look at the case into why jodi arias became so obsessed with travis alexander and why so many of you became obsessed with this trial. >> hello. >> we start with this home video played for the jury. it shows travis holding court amid a circle of friends. look a little closer and you'll see a blond tenderly nestled in

his lap. that's jodi, in much happier times. when she and travis first started dating. no hint then of what was coming. >> we were excited for travis finding somebody that he was interested in. >> chris hughes was travis' mentor at work. that's him on the couch with travis and jodi. chris and his wife skye were there when the two met. >> when we met her that first night, we liked her. >> yeah. >> right off the bat, thought she was someone that would be a good match for travis. >> aaron dewey was roommate of travis. >> aside from the physical chemistry already there there seemed to be a lot of emotional chemistry right off the bat as well. >> jodi arias has been described as seductive, sexy, sultry, and travis alexander when they first met probably felt he was every bit her counterpart. he was a successful insurance salesman, handsome, charismatic.

dave hall worked with travis and was close to him. >> good friend, close friend? >> very good friend. >> best friend? >> you know, it's funny, because i've seen recently numerous people come forward and say, hey, he was my best friend, and -- that's just the type of guy travis was. he made everybody feel like you were his best friend. >> according to his friends, travis was more than a bit of a ladies' man, but this time, travis was out of his league. >> jodi became travis' drug. he was able to get something from her that he couldn't get anywhere else with the good, wholesome mormon girls that he typically dated here in arizona. >> which was, what? not just sex but crazy sex, or -- >> yeah. >> sex that -- >> over the top. over the top stuff. >> jodi used sex to control travis. at first tried to be like this good girl with morals and values, and then that didn't work. so then she turned on the sex. >> and that had travis, a devout

mormon, tied up in knots. breaking the church's law of chastity that is, having sex before marriage. serious stuff. mormons believe the sinner risks an eternity in hell if he or she fails to repent before death. the result seems to have been that travis kept his relationship with jodi in the closet. >> he wanted people to believe especially the girls that he was dating, he was still a virgin. that he was still worthy to have a healthy, long-term marriage with, with a good, mormon girl. >> so this was a guy leading a double life? >> yeah. >> jodi tried to resolve that conflict by converting to mormonism. only to find it wasn't good enough for travis. he summoned his will, and broke it off with her. the moral equation may have been cruel, but to travis, it was undeniable. jodi's lust, her willingness to have sex in all sorts of ways

before marriage might have made her the perfect secret girlfriend, but it simultaneously disqualified her as a wife. >> she was not going to be the one he was going to spend the rest of his life with, and he communicated that to her. >> that would make anybody feel pretty bad and pretty hurt. >> i think the way he put it was, we're going to be friends, but we both agree that it's time to start seeing other people. >> what travis kept secret from his friends was that he and jodi were still having sex. what he didn't keep secret were his concerns that jodi was stalking him. >> he was very disturbed by her behavior, but every time he tried to break things off with jodi, she would threaten to kill herself. >> clearly, jodi wasn't serious about sued, we know because at the time she was making those threats, she was prowling sales conventions and on the phone at night flirting with a guy named ryan burns. >> she seemed like a cool girl. we exchanged numbers. about two, three weeks after

that started talking on the phone. four, five times a week. >> during one of those calls, jodi promised a visit to ryan, and one morning in june, 2008, she came knocking at his door. he had no idea what had just happened at travis' house in arizona. and he didn't know jodi had been there just one day before. >> how did she look? >> looked fine. just looked -- normal. >> did you see any cuts on her? >> tiny. little cuts. she had a couple little bandages on one of her hands. there wasn't a moment where i thought, you know, are you okay? is anything wrong? we were laughing about simple, little things. she was, seemed totally into the moment. >> back in arizona, travis' friends found him dead. his home a bloody crime scene. and in the washing machine police found a waterlogged camera that would come to mean everything in this case. some of travis' friends, like

chris and skye hughes suspected jodi from the start. >> i knew in that very moment that jodi arias did it. >> he turned to me and said, jodi did this. >> ryan burns thought he nude jonude knew jodi. and she was no killer. >> i honestly thought no way. this girl wasn't even let me kill a spider on the wall because she didn't want to hurt god's creature. >> then you started hearing from other friends of yours and people who were friends with travis that they suspected her. >> right. people told me not to take her calls. not to talk to her. at that point, she had become either a very good friend that this is a horrible time to turn a back on her, or it was just the situation where, am i really talking to a murderer? >> aaron dewey wasn't sure what to believe. jodi, he said, played the role of the innocent perfectly. 13 days after travis' murder, she volunteered to talk to the mesa police. asking dewey for a ride to the

station. >> tell me what happened in the car that day. >> ironically, nothing out of the ordinary. she was acting like nothing was going on. >> and she came out and said what? everything's fine? >> we're good. let's go home. >> what else did she say about travis' murder? >> she claimed to know nothing about it. you know? she was saying she wasn't there. she hadn't seen him in months. >> that's the story jodi told police as well. and the one she stuck with for weeks. up until the day police took her away in handcuffs. and that's when jodi's story started changing. when we come back, jodi's bizarre encounter with detectives, and her last encounter with travis alexander. love and death caught on camera for all the world to see. >> involved mr. alexander in the show shower? >> yes. with the spark cash card

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a former boyfriend of hers, an individual that she was in love with. >> on january 2nd, 4 1/2 years after the slaughter of travis alexander, the prosecutor opened the first-degree murder trial of jodi arias by talking about a love that had gone very, very wrong. >> she rewarded that love by sticking a knife in his chest. >> juan martinez laid out his case for jodi's guilt, as detectives, technicians and analysts, one by one, took the stand and connected jodi to the crime. her hair and dna at the scene. >> so this hair that you examined, who did that match? >> the root matched jodi arias. >> a crime scene specialist testified she found jodi's bloody handprint on the wall.

martinez had that part of the wall brought in to court. >> what is it? >> this is the piece of wall that was cut out and collected as item number 77-lb. >> this is what we're looking at in this photograph? >> while it's still in the wall, yes. >> perhaps the most damning evidence came from this sony camera discovered in travis' washing machine. after weeks of work, technicians restored photos once deleted. >> and with regard to the items deleted, were there some that involved mr. alexander in the show shower? >> yes. >> what made these pictures key to the case had to do with a feature built into the camera. >> these images when you take them with this camera, em beds the date and time the camera happen set on it to the file itself. >> meaning for the prosecution, those photos along with the oaf eviden other evidence told a story. that jodi showed up at travis' home around 4:00 a.m. june 4,

2008. they had steamy sex until about 5:00 p.m. photographing each other as they did so. between 5:22 and 5:29, jodi took these time-stamped photos of travis in his shower. about one minute after this picture was taken, the repeated stabbing of travis alexander began. >> the county medical examiner testified that cuts on travis' hands help explain what happened as he was stabbed 27 times nearly decapitated, and shot in the head. >> i believe the wounds to the hands must have the occurred before the fatal injuries oather of the head or are the throat. >> at 5:31, the camera snaps what seems to be an accidental photo of the bathroom ceiling. the next photo taken at 5:32 shows travis on the floor bleeding profusely in the neck.

in the foreground is what looks like a woman's pant leg. according to the prosecutor, it could only be jodi's. brian burns testified telling the court the same story he told us about how jodi visited him in utah one day after killing travis. >> she got on top of me, pretty aggressively, and we were kissing. >> reporter: martinez then played for the jury powerful video of jodi lying outright to mesa police detective esteban florez just before her arrest. >> why won't you admit to it? >> i just can't. i didn't kill travis. >> you killed him. >> no. >> jodi, you did. >> i did not. >> an accusation tha would make many people crumble, but jodi persistently stuck to her story. >> were you in travis' house on wednesday? >> absolutely not. i was -- nowhere near mesa. >> what's so remarkable looking back at this police interview tape is that even in the face of

immutable evidence, jodi can lie seamlessly and deftly, and very creati creatively. because the next day, after being booked and charged with travis' murder, jodi had a completely different story to tell the police. admitting she was there that night. >> travis was screaming. >> but that masked intruders burst in and killed travis, and that she'd been too afraid to say anything. >> and -- i -- turned around -- there were two people there. one was a guy and one was a girl. >> and then possibly in an effort to provoke the jury, martinez played a clip from an interview jodi gave to "inside edition." >> no jury is going to convict me. >> why not? >> because i'm innocent and you can mark my words on that one. >> and it was through these videotapes the jury heard in jodi's own words how her story had evolved, but it's the

outtakes from these recordings, the parts the jury didn't see that may also give insight into how jodi operates. let's go back to the exchange between jodi and detective florez just before he confronted her with the photos from travis' camera. >> like, no. >> it's typical. >> yeah. >> if jodi was nervous, she didn't show it. maybe because a giggle and a head toss had worked on so many guys, so many times before. >> and christian, i live my life by the ten command answer and those of my rules. da, da, da, thou shalt not this or that, but does not say thou shalt not foreinicate so i usedo joke about that. >> and still jodi seemed completely unworried. she laughed. and sang, apparently to herself.

♪ i can't breathe until you're resting here with me ♪ >> facing murder charges many of us might think the world had turned upside down, but for jodi arias, it was a chance to get into a head stand, in yoga it's called salumba sheersason. a cure for whatever's ailing you. then finally before being held away, she made one last request. >> this is a really trivial question, and it's going to reveal how shallow i am. butting before they bug me, can i clean myself up a little bit? >> she wanted to look good, apparently. >> smeared your makeup, jodi. for this cheerful mug shot. in control, and out to win over and audience, no matter how big or small, which may explain why when the defense was ready to

put on its case, the first witness they called, was jodi arias. >> you may come forward and take a seat, please. coming up, jodi's new defense. self-defense, as she takes the stand and almost won't get off. >> we hang out. we have sex. >> when "dateline" continues. all business purchases. so you can capture your receipts, and manage them online with jot, the latest app from ink. so you can spend less time doing paperwork. and more time doing paperwork. ink from chase. so you can. all stations come over to mithis is for real this time. step seven point two one two. verify and lock. command is locked. five seconds.

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like the color of her hair, jodi arias' account of the death of her boyfriend changed over time. first, she told police she wasn't there. >> were you at travis' house on wednesday?

>> absolutely not. >> reporter: next that masked home invaders had killed travis. then in court came version number three. >> do you solemnly swear to tell the truth -- >> this time she swore she was telling the whole truth. >> did you kill travis alexander on june 4th, 2008? >> yes, i did. >> why? >> the simple answer is that he attacked me and i defended myself. >> having a client that's lied in the past makes it very difficult for a defense attorney. you are trying to play catchup the entire time, trying to prove that your client is credible. >> ulysses tried criminal cases but isn't part of the arias trial. he says the defense team was right to put jodi on the stand, as risky as it was,

to try to connect with the jury. >> they do need to have the jury feel some sense of sympathy, some sorrow for her. it was very important to humanize jodi. >> reporter: the defense started with the claim that jodi had suffered long-term physical and emotional abuse. first around the age of 7 from her parents. >> i think that's the first year my dad started using a belt. my mom began to carry a wooden spoon in her purse. >> reporter: jodi's parents who were there for much of her testimony won't say whether her claims are true. the defense theme of jodi as a victim continued with her accusations that she felt used and debased by travis alexander. >> what do you mean that you felt used? >> he gets a hotel room. i show up. we hang out. we have sex. i'm getting a lot of attention but only when we are engaging in sexual activity. i kind of felt like a

prostitute, sort of. >> the graphic sexual testimony goes to the heart of the question as to whether travis was physically and emotionally abusing her through the sexual relationship they had. >> reporter: the jury heard a recording jodi made, she said, at travis' request of a steamy phone call. >> you're mad. you make me feel so dirty. >> you are dirty. >> did you and travis ever videotape yourself while having sex? >> yes. >> and whose desire was for that to take place? >> at his. >> a defense expert who co-authored a book about battered women suggested e-mails from travis' friends to jodi show travis took advantage of women. >> they advised her to move on

from the relationship. that mr. alexander has been abusive to women. >> that testimony heard by millions and the jury was stricken by the judge. jodi's defense lawyers never called to the stand the author of those e-mails, chris and skye hughes, who say their words were twisted by the defense. >> it does not exist. abuse does not exist. >> what is it like to see your words used as a murder defense when the victim was your friend? >> it is gut wrenching. they are using our words to make travis look like somebody he absolutely you not. >> he called me a bitch and kicked me in the ribs. >> during her 18 marathon days on the stand, 11 under friend's defense questioning, said travis had become enraged and they argued over money. >> he went to kick me again and i moved my hand out. >> what happened after that. >> i screamed out and yelled out to my finger or hand or something to that effect. >> jodi showed the jury that she

had a misfigured finger that she claimed was the result of travis' outburst. whatever concern she may have had about violence she and travis didn't stop seeing each other. >> he seemed happy to see me. >> jodi came to travis' house in the early morning of june 2008. that day, the day he died, there was sex. a lot of it, she acknowledged. after all there was no denying all of the photos they took. >> we were trying out different poses. >> jodi herself described a happy, erotic, happy day, until travis' brand new camera slipped out of her hands. >> he was screaming i was a stupid idiot and he body slammed me again on the tile. >> jodi testified that she remembered travis kept a gun in his closet and ran to get it. >> i grabbed the gun. i run out of the closet. he was chasing me. >> she described travis lunging at her.

the gun going off without her even knowing it. she said that travis then kept coming, even with a bullet in his head. >> and he fell, got up and is screaming angry. and after i broke away from him, he said [ bleep ] kill you, bitch. >> do you remember stabbing travis alexander. >> i have no memory of stabbing him. >> do you remember dragging him across the floor? >> no. >> do you remember placing him in the shower? >> jodi had lied so many times bra that she must have hoped she'd get away with it one last time with the 12 people who mattered the most. the jury, but so many people watching on tv and the internet had by now heard enough of jodi's stories, that they had already reached their own verdict. coming up, the jodi arias

trial goes viral with its own twitter account, ticket scalpers and an unexpected new cable star. >> people ask you for your autograph? >> yes, they do. >> people want to take a picture with you. >> yes, they do. >> coming up next friday on "dateline." >> this is recorded with cameras. >> i see your get up. >> he's back. did you miss him? >> i know you did time in jail. >> no. >> chris hansen undercover in the wild world of the on-line classified. >> i know you are law enforcement. >> no, we are not. >> where anything goes. >> we told you they were dangerous. how do you justify that? >> this time around there are pills. >> this would violate fda rules. >> spills. >> that's not really you, is it? >> and chills. >> are you a vampire? >> yes, i am a vampire. >> it might make your blood run cold. how many vampires are there? >> there's a lot of us out there.

>> chris hansen back in the wild, wild web, and "dateline" is back with two-hour frimds at 8:00, 7:00 central. . the 2013 ram 1500 with best-in-class fuel economy. engineered to move heaven and earth. guts. glory. ram. the new ram 1500. motor trend's 2013 truck of the year. gives you 1% cash back on all purchases, plus a 50% annual bonus. and everyone but her... no. no! no. ...likes 50% more cash. but i don't give up easy... do you want 50% more cash? yes! yes?! ♪ [ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card gives you 1% cash back on every purchase, plus a 50% annual bonus on the cash you earn. it's the card for people who like more cash. ♪ what's in your wallet?

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i'm milissa rehberger. what's happening, gunfire at a new orleans mother's day parade, three injured. no word on what sparked the violence. o.j. simpson in court tomorrow to appeal for a new trial. sentenced to nine to 23 years in prison for armed robbery and kidnapping. and the warrior games in colorado today, prince harry. now back to "dateline." and a steamy four-month saga of sex, lies and videotape quickly made her trial the hottest show in town. every morning at daybreak,

people would line up, hoping to get a seat for a closeup look at moments like these. >> mr. martinez -- >> yes or no? my question is are you talking, yes or no? >> mr. martinez, are you angry at you? >> is that important to you, is that relevant to you? >> please refrain from laughing in the courtroom. >> one sold her spot in line to a late comer for 200 bucks. the judge unhappy to hear tickets to her trial were being scalped, ordered the money refunded, and this juror dismissed for reasons unknown returned to court the following day. apparently she was hooked on the action. >> i knew that my life was pretty much over but -- >> as were millions of people who just couldn't get enough of a story of boy meets girl, girl kills boy. >> bombshell tonight -- >> it wasn't just televised but streamed live, raw, unfiltered, across the internet.

>> people aren't content to just watch. they want to participate. they are doing research on the players. >> arizona republic reporter michael kiefer who's been writing and tweeting about the trial say many were ready with their verdicts long before the testimony was over. >> anyone who takes less than an approach of well, she deserves the death penalty and just deserves it now is considered biased. >> reporter: and any perception of bias for the defense, even by the defense witnesses, could bring a hostile reaction from jodi haters. this all became dangerously interactive. when the physchotherapist testified for the defense, supporting jodi's claim she had been sexually used by travis. >> what does he do? after he gives her the book? >> he tells her he is horny and they have oral sex. she performs oral sex on him. >> while laviolette's atlantic

was calm and measured, the vitriol was anything but. she was she was personally and professionally attacked and her book about why battered women stay with their accusers was hit with hundreds of on-line mud-slinging reviews. >> she got hundreds and thousands of those kinds of remarks over the internet. people calling her office, threatening her. they had to call the police. >> if i were to walk up to her in the hallway of the courtroom and say, you know, i don't like your testimony and i may hurt you. and i'm going to try to ruin your career, that's a felony. >> reporter: she wasn't the only target. michael kiefer reported that jodi's lawyer, jennifer willmott also receive threats. jodi herself also took to social media with a twitter account that drew more than 51,000 followers. she did it through a friend she met in jail. donovan became jodi's unofficial spokeswoman and twitter

administrator. you actually operate the twitter account. >> yes. >> but those are jodi's words. >> everything on there comes from jodi. those are her thoughts and opinions. >> jodi used twitter to sell her own original artwork and to make points she couldn't make on the witness stand. in one she needled prosecutor martinez. hmm. anger management problems, anyone? and another was more snarky, indicating that martinez was afflicted with little man syndrome. that comment has since been deleted. but all of the attention helped to elevate the public's persona of martinez, and once bulldog of a prosecutor and now a prominent co-star in the jodi show. just ask some of the trial tourists. the mostly women who traveled from around the country to

witness the trial firsthand. >> juan martinez, you never know what he will pull out of his hat. >> he is travis' voice and we admire him for that. >> oh, yeah. >> sisters amy marcum and dawn johnson both took the week off from their jobs in st. louis in hopes of getting a ringside seat here and maybe meeting some cable tv celebrities. >> once you go in to the courtroom it is so surreal like you have been seeing all of these people on tv -- >> and here they are in person. >> like hollywood. >> one of the stars the sisters were hoping to spot was katie wick. >> oh, dr. drew what a crazy day. >> reporter: every night, katie gives her take on the trial during hln's "dr. drew" show. >> i have a lot of respect and admiration for juan martinez. >> she is not an attorney but a regular spectator that caught the eye of a cable news booker, and voila. >> people want to take a picture

with you. >> yes. they do. >> to the audience fixated on the jodi arias trial you are a celeb. >> when i have people tell me is, katie, i lush that you're, not an average person. that in essence i am. i'm not going in as a lawyer or doctor. i'm just going in as a person. >> just a regular person in the jodi arias show. >> this is not "jersey shore" this isn't like, did you see it last night when jaywow popped the situation in the eye? this is life and death. this is a death penalty case. >> and america is reacting to it like a reality show. >> like it is a reality show. >> reporter: this reality show was about to get real. [ phil ]e joint pain and stiffness... accomplishing even little things can become major victories. i'm phil mickelson, pro golfer. when i was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, my rheumatologist prescribed enbrel for my pain and stiffness, and to help stop joint damage. [ male announcer ] enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events

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the jodi arias trial may have played like entertainment. the millions of devoted viewers hooked on the daily drama unfolding on cable. >> you may come forward and take seat, please. >> this wasn't a tv show. it was a murder trial. the stakes were literally life and death. >> what are you trying to say? >> am i allowed to tell you what i'm trying to say? >> looking back, the four-month trial really came down to this -- a showdown betweened bulldog prosecutor and the woman whose image changed at trial from sexy, wannabe photographer to plain jane admitted killer.

prosecutor martinez set the tone from the beginning of his cross-examination. he found a crack in jodi's trademark composure when jodi appeared to have a perfect memory of her sexual escapades but not of stabbing travis 27 times. >> i have no memory of stabbing him. >> at first, jodi gave as good as she got in sparring with the prosecutor. >> what factors influence you're having a memory problem? >> usually when men like you are screaming me or grilling me, or someone like travis doing the same. >> that affects your memory problem? >> it does. it makes my brain scramble. >> and then the matter of the gun that jodi used to shoot travis. she testified she found it at his house. >> now he's in the closet. >> martinch te martinez present

that a gun of the same caliber was stolen from the home of jodi's grandparents from california, while joad di was living there. >> you brought a gun from yreka, didn't you? >> no. >> the indication this was premeditated murder. after all of the lies and the tweeting by jodi arias, finally after days of cross-examination, prosecutor martinez seemed to break her down. >> you would acknowledge that that stabbing was after the shooting, according to you, right? >> yes. i don't remember. >> i'm not asking you if you remember, ma'am. i'm asking if you are acknowledging that it would be you that did it, correct? >> yes. >> so if he is being stabbed in the back, would you acknowledge at that point he's no threat to you. right? >> i don't know. >> well, he's already been shot according to you and he's facing away from you. how could he possibly be any threat to you?

i could only guess. i don't know what you are asking me. >> reporter: jodi's claim of self-defense was being whittled away. >> would you agree that you are the person who actually slit mr. alexander's throat from ear to ear? >> yes. >> would you also agree that you are the individual that stabbed him in the upper torso? >> yes. >> and you're doing all of this, according to your version of events -- you are doing this to an individual after you have already shot him. right? >> yes. >> reporter: jodi initially tried to lie her way out of this

jam. but was she now trying to cry her way out of it on the witness stand? >> she's manipulative. she's cunning, and i suspect she can be extremely seductive. >> forensic psychiatrist stephen pitt who's familiar with the case, but who has not examined jodi arias sees a woman good at manipulating others, but not so good with being rejected. i saw her diagnosed by the prosecution's expert witness as having borderline personality disorder. what does that mean? >> it could be the understatement of this particular case. they do not do well with rejection or abandonment. jodi arias is essentially the 21st century version of the character that glenn close played in "fatal attraction." >> if there was any time during the trial when jurors tipped their hand about how they felt about jodi arias it came over the course of two days when they

questioned her directly. arizona is one state where jurors can actually ask questions of the defendant. the judge reads them. >> did the police ever find your grandfather's gun? >> reporter: while the tone was not as biting as that of the prosecutor, those jury questions were overwhelmingly full of skepticism and disbelief. >> why did you place travis' body back in the shower? why not just tell the police the truth from the start? after all the lies you have told, why should we believe you now? >> the lies that i have told in this case are -- can be tied directly back to either protecting travis' reputation or my involvement in his death in any way. because i was very ashamed. >> reporter: and that's what this would all boil down to. all of jodi's lies. >> she was a chameleon. she read people really well, really well.

and she would adapt to whatever situation she was in. >> reporter: jodi's old friend aaron dewey. . she would reflect back to you whatever it was you wanted to hear. whoever it was you wanted her to be. >> reporter: jodi arias spent 18 days on the stand, an almost unheard of stint for a defendant in any murder trial. but was that part of the defense's grand strategy? keep jodi on the stand so long that jurors would never vote to execute someone they had gotten to know so well, in such intimate detail? phoenix criminal defense attorney ulysses has been following the arias case. >> i think that was the defense strategy. the longer we keep her on the stand, the more they hear from her they will hopefully ingratiate themselves with her to a certain extent and hopefully spare her life. >> jurors had four months to think about all the questions. just two days ago, they came up with the answers.

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as the end neared, the spectacle that was the jodi arias trial spilled out of the courtroom and off the flat screens and on to the street. >> did you kill travis alexander? >> this trial started with jodi arias admitting that she killed travis alexander. and yet, she testified, in her own defense, for weeks. as if she still thought she could talk her way out of trouble. >> you saw her crying on the witness stand. can anybody debate the reason she was crying is because she cries for herself? >> if there was one point juan martinez wanted to drive home in his closing arguments to the jury. >> she's an ornate liar. >> it was that jodi arias had spent the last four months running a con on them. >> you are going to buy the lies? are you going to believe what

she tells you? >> in his summation, defense lawyer didn't ask for an acquittal. even he seemed to acknowledge that jurors were likely to convict jodi of something. >> if ms. arias is guilty of any crime at all, it is the crime of manslaughter and nothing more. >> he pointedly reminded the jury this wasn't a reality show. that their decision shouldn't be about whether they approve of the woman whose sexual escapades have been part of their daily routine for four months. >> nine days out of ten, i don't like jodi arias. >> it is a phrase that resonated if not with the jury, his client who responded via twitter. nine days out of ten. that sounds about right. if you think it's strange that a murder defendant would laugh it up via social media even while a jury deliberates her fate, than you don't know jodi arias but of course, that was kind of the issue throughout this trial. who was she?

>> i don't know. >> look closely at jodi during cross-examination. no matter how much she sobs, while strategically perhaps covering her face, there seemed to be no tear drops falling from her eyes. forensic psychiatrist steven pitt is struck by jodi's ability to lie with confidence. >> that's a terrific sociopathic skill. she is able to tell a lie. she believes the lie and she's narcissistic enough and entitled enough to believe that she's so good she's going to pull the wool over someone else. >> if that's true, this jury didn't fall for it. in their assessment of jodi's state of mind. >> ladies and gentlemen, i understand that you have reached a verdict. >> their judgment that it was pre-med dated. premeditat premeditated. >> we the jury find the defendant as to count one first-degree murder guilty. [ cheers ] >> outside, the crowd erupted in cheers. >> justice for travis!

>> inside, a much different mood. jodi arias sat in silence as each juror was individually polled. this time her tears were definitely real and while travis' family quietly cried and hugged, his old friend dave hall took to the courthouse steps. >> i'm just glad that the jury realized jodi is a pathological liar and gave her what she deserves. >> while travis' friends were relieved jodi will be held accountable, they also held fast to their mormon faith. >> i'm required to forgive her. it's going to take me some time. >> forgiveness will come but it has nothing to do with her. it has to do with me. i feel i have forgiven jodi but along with that i'm grateful that justice was served today. >> and just after her conviction, the rarely silent jodi made clear what kind of punishment she'd like to receive in an interview with phoenix tv station ksaz. >> i believe death is the ultimate freedom.

so i'd rather just have my freedom as soon as i can get it. >> amp those words, the sheriffs department announced it was placing jodi on suicide watch. her family members left the jail that night in stunned silence. in the next phase of jodi's murder trial to determine if the level of brutality met arizona's death penalty standards was unexpectedly postponed until next week. no explanation. although the maricopa county sheriffs office confirmed that jodi had been transferred to a jailhouse psych ward indefinitely. and jodi's wisecracks on twitter have ended. her account taken down. maybe reality has finally hit jodi arias. that after being the center of attention for so long her show is finally coming to an end. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." join us again for "dateline" wednesday at 8:00, 7:00 central. i'm lester holt.

i'll have new details in the case of the three missing women found alive in ohio next on "rock center with brian williams." a polar bear mauls a woman. >> oh, my god. >> a half ton bull dives into the stands. a gorilla gets her hands on a toddler. the child's mother is terrified. the mother, she was screaming frantically at the top of her lungs. somebody do something, that's my baby down there. that gorilla has my baby. >> lions take down a baby buffalo. >> she's going for it. she's going for it. she got him. >> but the herd fights back. >> oh! >> in a world where animals and