'She slit his throat as a reward for being a good man': Prosecutors tell how woman murdered her ex-boyfriend by stabbing him 27 times in shower after break-up

Jodi Arias 'was obsessed with Travis Alexander, 30, and stalked him after he broke up with her and started dating someone else'

He was stabbed 27 times and was shot in the head in June 2008



Arias initially denied seeing him until police discovered naked photos of her on his camera taken on the day of his murder

A woman accused of brutally slashing and shooting her one-time boyfriend to death in his shower months after they broke up could be put to death for the heinous crime.



Prosecutors in Arizona began arguing today that 32-year-old Jodi Arias should receive the death penalty for the murder of her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander, who was killed in June 2008.

Alexander, a 30-year-old Mormon motivational speaker, was found stabbed 27 times, with his throat slit and with a bullet in his head at his home in Mesa, Arizona days after the savage attack.



'This is not a case of whodunit. The person who did this killing sits in court today and it is the defendant Jodi Ann Arias,' prosecutor Juan Martinez told the Arizona courtroom on Wednesday.



Arias, a photographer who had dated Alexander for nearly five months in 2007, has been in jail since her arrest. She has pleaded not-guilty to first degree murder.

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Her day in court: Jodi Arias has changed the timeline of events repeatedly but has most recently admitted that she did kill her ex-boyfriend but allegedly did so in self defense

Accused: Jodi Arias, 32, faces the death penalty after allegedly murdering her ex-boyfriend, right

But investigators and Alexander's friends maintain that Arias became bitterly jealous and 'obsessed' with him after the break up, and even stalked him in the months leading up to his death.



The prosecution is arguing that Arias killed her ex-boyfriend after finding out that he had moved on and planned to take his new girlfriend on a trip to Mexico.



'This love, well she rewarded that love for Travis Victor Alexander by sticking a knife in his chest. And he was a good man, well she slit his throat as a reward for being a good man,' Mr Martinez said.



The defense is painting an entirely different picture of Alexander, saying that his relationship with Arias was abusive and she killed him in self defense.



Travis Alexander and Jodi Arias were involved in a rough sexual relationship before the death of Alexander in June 2008

Happier times: She met Travis Alexander, a Mormon and motivational speaker, at a Las Vegas conference

'Had Jodi not been forced to defend herself, none of us would be here. In that one minute, had Jodi not chosen to defend herself she would not be here,' defense attorney Jennifer Willmott said.

The couple had met at a work conference in Las Vegas in September 2006 and began speaking on the phone every day. Court records show they exchanged as many as 82,000 emails.

They started dating in February 2007 and, because Alexander was a Mormon, Arias chose to be baptised into the church. But they broke up in June 2007, with Arias telling police jealousy on both sides was to blame.



In jail: Arias claimed she had nothing to do with the murder but later said it was out of self defense

In December 2007, Alexander began dating another girl and allegedly told friends that Arias became so jealous that she slashed the tyres on his car twice.

In June 2008, Alexander told friends he thought Arias might have hacked into his Facebook account and told her to stay away.

Yet on June 4, she visited his home and they had sex before he was murdered. She later told police that they had maintained a secret sexual relationship despite breaking up, ABC reported.



'There's nothing about her that I see in marriage material - or wife material,' Alexander had said, according to his friend, Dave Hall. 'But it's hard to say no to a woman that sneaks into your house, crawls in your bed and tries to, you know, seduce you.'

At first she denied being at his house the day he was killed, yet police found a camera in Alexander's washing machine containing graphic pictures of the pair having sex.



The water-logged camera, which belonged to Alexander, had been damaged in the washing machine, but the Mesa police crime lab was able to recover images, some of which had been deleted.

Among those deleted were pictures showing Alexander posing naked in the shower at 5.22pm, with the last picture showing him alive at 5.30pm. Later photos showed him bleeding while on the floor.

The camera also contained pictures of Arias posing naked on Alexander's bed at 1.40pm.

On June 9, his friends went to his upscale home after he had failed to return their calls. They found him dead in his shower and his body was ' well into the decomposition process'.

Troubled: Alexander's friends said she stalked him in the months before his death and slashed his tires

Missed: Alexander, a motivational speaker from Arizona, was found several days after the killing

Wounds show that Alexander attempted to fight back, court records show. An autopsy found he sustained 27 puncture wounds and one gunshot wound, with the bullet found in his left cheek.



Investigators also found a bloody left palm print with Arias' DNA on the bathroom wall. Her DNA was also found in hair recovered from a bloody wall, according to the Arizona Republic .

After initially claiming that she had not been at his home that day, Arias changed her story to admit she had been there - but had not killed her ex-boyfriend.

'I witnessed Travis being attacked by two other individuals,' she told Inside Edition. 'Who were they? I don't know. I couldn't pick them up in a police lineup.'

Scene: A grab shows Alexander's home in Mesa surrounded by police tape after his body was found Deceit: Police found a camera in Alexander's washing machine, pictured, that contained pictures of him having sex with Arias on the day of the killing. There were also pictures of his dead body She later changed her story once again, telling the court that she killed Alexander in self defense after he became angry when she dropped his camera. She claims he had been sexually and physically abusive throughout their relationship. 'It makes me sick because I know her true side,' Steven Alexander, Travis Alexander's brother, told ABC. 'And I ask people to please not buy into this sweet innocent personality that she puts on.' As well as the inconsistencies in her story, Arias' case has been plagued with difficulties with her legal representation. She asked to represent herself but when she submitted letters to the court that she claimed Alexander had written - saying he was a pedophile - they were found to be forgeries, and she told a judge she was in 'over her head'.

In court: Arias has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder but prosecutors want the death penalty

Her defense team was reinstated but in December 2011, her attorney, Victoria Washington, was granted a motion to withdraw from the case.

Jennifer Willmott, a death penalty-qualified defense attorney, had now been assigned to represent Arias. In Jnauary 2012, a judge denied a motion asking for the death penalty to be rejected.

Opening statements begin today, January 2.

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