Free Conviction: The Untold Story of Putting Jodi Arias Behind Bars by Juan Martinez

she survived the attack because the assailants were only there to kill Travis. Flores mentioned that Arias even attempted to cast herself in the role of heroine by saying she had fought against the female attacker even though the woman was armed with a knife.
    According to her revised tale, Travis was alive at the time she made her escape, and shortly before she fled, he had managed to ask her to go get help. When asked if she had called the police, Arias admitted that she had failed to contact anyone, claiming that her cell phone was dead, preventing her from using it.
    In checking out her story, police visited the rental car company in Redding, California, a city approximately 100 miles south of Yreka, where Arias rented a car for her supposed trip to Utah on June 2. The rental car employee, Ralphael Colombo, remembered the transaction.
    When police showed him a photographic line-up composed of six photographs of women, which included one of Arias smiling during the booking process as her photograph was taken, and five others with similar facial features to hers, he immediately recognized Arias and blurted out that her hair had been blonde when he rented the vehicle to her. Neither Flores nor I really understood the implications of Arias’ change in hair color at the time, but it would later became clear that dying her hair was part of her plan to enter and leave Arizona undetected.
    Colombo recalled that when he initially offered her a red car she declined and asked for one that was lighter in color, with Arias ultimately choosing a white Ford Focus. Not lost on any of the investigators was the fact that Arias drove for approximately an hour and a half to rent a car in Redding, although there were two other car rental agencies only minutes away in Yreka. But, Yreka is a small town with a population of approximately 7,500, so perhaps she figured there was less of a chance she would be recognized at the airport in Redding, where she could blend in as just another customer.
    Colombo told police that in addition to renting Arias the car, he had also been the one to clean the vehicle after it was returned. He remembered that the floor mats had been missing, and that there were stains resembling “Kool-Aid” on both the backseat and the front passenger seat, leading him to assume that kids had been in the car. He also expressed surprise at the odometer reading, which showed that she had driven over two thousand miles, because she had told him she would only be using the car locally.
    Arias remained at the Siskiyou County Jail until she was extradited to Phoenix, where she made her initial court appearance on September 6, 2008. Upon arrival at the Maricopa County Jail, she was brought before a commissioner who, based on my recommendation, set her bond at two million dollars. Five days later, Arias appeared for her arraignment and formally entered a plea of not guilty to the first-degree murder charge. The Office of Public Defense Services was appointed to represent her.
    The first time I saw Jodi Ann Arias was at a status conference on October 22, to discuss the progress of the case with the court. She was sitting in the jury box, where she looked out of place. She seemed somewhat small and frail, almost virginal in her black-and-white-horizontally-striped jail garb. I took note that a jury might find her sympathetic because of her seemingly unpretentious façade. It was hard for me to seehow all that violence could have come from this person. She didn’t look like someone who could have committed this type of killing—but then, no one does.
    Prior to Arias’ case, I’d tried ten death penalty cases in Arizona. Deciding that the death penalty should be sought is not a decision that is taken lightly. If the Maricopa County Attorney elects to seek the death penalty, the State must file a notice within sixty days of the arraignment informing the court and defense counsel of its decision. In this case I filed such a notice on