As the murder trial of Jodi Arias continues, the psychotherapist for the defendant will take the stand again on Monday. This time; however, it is not the defense that is asking her to testify on behalf of Arias, but will be facing off against Arizona prosecutor Juan Martinez.
With apparent friction between the two, that was visible, during Thursday’s cross-examination, Martinez will hope to discredit her testimony in the hopes it would help him get a first-degree murder conviction. If convicted, Arias might face the death penalty.
The 32-year-old defendant is charged with murdering Travis Alexander. The defense contends that she is not a cold-blooded murderer but rather she feared for life as the reason she killed him. To prove that, her defense team called on Alyce LaViolette, a psychotherapist and domestic violence expert, who testified that Arias was emotionally and physically battered by Travis. Of course, this contradicts the prosecution’s theory that the slaying of Alexander was premeditated.
Instead of Arias being a victim of emotional and physical abuse, Martinez feels that she did plan ahead to shoot Travis in the head, cut his throat from ear to ear and stab him approximately 30 times in his Mesa, Arizona home back in 2008. The prosecution contends that Jodi was jealous of Travis’ interest in other women and after the couple had sex, she attacked him in the bathroom of his home.
Martinez repeatedly questioned LaViolette during cross-examination about the methods she used when determining that Jodi was a domestic violence victim. LaViolette was asked by Martinez her evaluation techniques by asking, “Basically, a clinical interview is you sitting across from the person that may or may not be a victim of battering and … you interview them?”
The prosecutor’s line of questioning prompted LaViolette to respond by addressing Martinez and asking him suddenly, “Mr. Martinez are you angry at me?”
As laughter was heard from the gallery, Martinez quickly replied, “Is that relevant to you … is that important to you whether or not the prosecutor is angry … does that make any difference to your evaluation whether or not the prosecutor is angry — yes or no?”
LaViolette replied, “It makes a difference to me the way I am spoken to and I would like you to speak to me the way I speak to you.”
Thursday’s cross-examination of LaViolette might have been a prelude of what is to come on Monday when Martinez calls her back on the stand to testify. Depending on how the testimony goes, it could very well determine the jury eventually handing down a not guilty or a guilty verdict.