The Latest in the Jodi Arias Trial
BANFIELD: It looks like the Jodi Arias murder trial is having an effect on some other inmates when it comes to how they eat their meals. We reported this to you yesterday. They used to get two meals a day somewhere around 12 hours apart. That was given to us straight from the Maricopa County sheriff's office and now that office says we have to update the information we gave you because, about two weeks ago, trial inmates started getting an extra snack with a hoagie roll and a two-ounce cup of peanut butter. So all trial inmates and not just Jodi Arias are now getting food three times a day, not twice. That amounts to 3,000 calories per day. They are also allowed to buy snacks from the commissary like candy and soda and crackers. We reported to you yesterday the information that they gave us was that they were splitting her breakfast in two and making it into breakfast and lunch. And she'd been getting some headaches, she says, because of it, possibly. In any self-defense murder case, a defendant had pretty well have a good compelling reason for killing. In the Jodi Arias case, she might need even more than that. Somehow she has to convince the jury that she was so abused or so afraid of her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander, that is he had to stab him 29 times and shoot him in the head and run off and pretend like nothing ever happened. So her defense has put a domestic violence expert on the stand to discuss the level of abuse Jodi Arias says she suffered as a kid among other things. And I want you to hear Alyce Laviolette's testimony. You can hear her voice on the clip that you're about to hear in this tape. But the ladies you're initially see are Jodi's family memories in the gallery listening.</s>ALYCE LAVIOLETTE, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE EXPERT: I learned that in Jodi's family, there was a certain amount of physical discipline, some which I would consider went over the line, and some that didn't. When you leave welts on a child, and that was information I was given, that they were hit with spoons.</s>BANFIELD: "In Session's" Jean Casarez and Beth Karas, our correspondents, live in Phoenix, who have been covering the trial every day, join us. The domestic violence expert said that Jodi told her that she had agreed to all of the kinky things that Travis Alexander had demanded because of, quote, "loyalty and giving up what I want for people that I love." This is something that she said that had to do with her family. I guess the only question that I have at this point, and, Jean, I'll start with you, lots of people suffered corporal punishment and worse, but they didn't take to the level of reaction that Jodi Arias had. That's got to be a tough translation for a jury, I'm guessing.</s>JEAN CASAREZ, CORRESPONDENT, TRUTV'S "IN SESSION": I think what Alyce Laviolette is testifying to is that there is no formula, there is no mold that goes from abuse victim to abuse victim, that there is this continuum of abuse, that it begins with a honeymoon period and then it goes to some emotional abuse, but you're vested at that point so you stay in there. And remember, she is looking at e-mails and text messages and journal entries for much of her testimony. And in regard to emotional abuse, there are some entries from Travis Alexander that one could say was emotionally abusive toward Jodi. Now, she's going to have to rely upon Jodi for the physical abuse aspect, but the whole point here, Ashleigh, is the state of mind of Jodi Arias. It's not Travis. And although people are saying they're trying to create Travis as a very bad person, but the point is what is in Jodi's mind. And the defense wants, Ashleigh. The defense wants, when this case gets to the jury, an instruction saying you have to look at the state of mind of Jodi in that bathroom as a victim of domestic violence. That's what they want the jury to have to look at.</s>BANFIELD: OK, so, Beth Karas, jump in here because we have two issues that the domestic violence expert is answering to. First and foremost is the kind of violence that she said she suffered growing up and then the kind of violence that she said she suffered with Travis Alexander. I want to go back to the growing up part because I grew up in the '60s and '70s and the wooden spoon was part of everyone's vernacular or the belt or the brush or anything else of that ilk. And I just have to wonder how many jurors -- I'm not sure it's easy for you to tell, but how many jurors look for be about my anyone and have memories that that's just standard operating procedure and it doesn't make you a killer?</s>BETH KARAS, CORRESPONDENT, TRUTV'S "IN SESSION": Well, it is an older jury. There are 18 of them and six will be randomly selected as alternates, and we don't know what the final deliberating jury will be like. But I've spoken with a number of people around the courthouse, people who saw that testimony, and they said it sounds like what I experienced. It's not so bad. So maybe there will be some jurors that that are resonate with, they'll be on the same page with you. You know, the whole point about Alyce LaViolette's testimony is as to explain the overkill in the bathroom. What you just said having to -- did she have to kill him the way she did 29 stab wounds. It's really five of those wounds are defensive wounds and 24 are slices and stabs inflicted by her. But the other five to his hands. And she will explain rage. She will plain explain that Jodi Arias, I think, had this rage, this emotion that was coming out and she just couldn't stop. Almost couldn't stop. The jury, though, has to believe that she was truly abused otherwise this whole defense will fall apart.</s>BANFIELD: Oh, my lord, I have covered cases where we've talking the kind of abuse you can't imagine a child could even physically survive let alone emotionally survive and this doesn't seem to rise to any of those levels. But I want to go back to the defense witness, the domestic violence expert, who was on the stand talking about e-mails that she read through between Travis Alexander and some of his friends that seem to indicate he had some major issues with women. Have a listen.</s>LAVIOLETTE: They advised her to move on from the relationship that Mr. Alexander has been abusive to women. There was information about Mr. Alexander calling Miss Arias a skank and then acting like it was a joke.</s>BANFIELD: Jean Casarez, again, if we're talking about the level of abuse that would lead to the kind of rage that Beth just described, being called a skank in an e-mail or being treated by somebody who thinks that's appropriate language. I'm looking for the abuse here. Help me. Help me help you, Jodi. How much abuse, true abuse, are we hearing from -- so far from this expert?</s>CASAREZ: Well, I agrees if has to do with how it is assimilated into the person of Jodi. And there was definitely name calling toward Jodi from Travis in e-mails and calling her very, very bad things. The letter, though, that this witness got to summarize yesterday, actually it was critically important for the defense because Chris and Sky Hughes they are a couple that were like family to Travis Alexander. They had known him for five years. He's the one that they turned to, he turned to them and she got to summarize a letter that they had written to him saying you've got to let Jodi move on because you're not treating her well. You don't acknowledge her in public. You don't show her affection. And if my own sister wanted to date you, I would say no because of how you treat women. The jury heard that yesterday. And you know what that does, that corroborates Jodi Arias on the stand. Many of the things she said.</s>BANFIELD: I just keep coming back talk to me about serious abuse when you plunge a knife into someone 25-28 times and shoot them in the head. Now, I want to hear some serious abuse, because my Twitter account is meaner than those e-mails. Ladies, stand by for a moment. Jodi Arias is not the only person notorious at this point. The spotlight has also shifted to prosecutor. His rising popularity may even now be having an affect on the trial. We'll talk about it in a moment.