Murder of Travis Alexander

Travis Victor Alexander, a 30-year-old salesman and motivational speaker for Pre-Paid Legal Services, was killed at his home in Mesa, Arizona, on June 4, 2008, while showering. He sustained 27 stab wounds, a slit throat, and a gunshot wound to the forehead. A medical examiner testified that Alexander's jugular vein, common carotid artery, and trachea were slashed, that he had defensive wounds on his hands, and that the gunshot likely occurred after the fatal stabbing. His death was ruled a homicide.

Alexander and Jodi Ann Arias had met in 2006 and dated intermittently in a long-distance relationship between Arizona and California. Alexander missed a scheduled conference call on the evening of the murder, and concerned friends discovered his body in the shower on June 9, 2008 after entering his locked bedroom. Investigators recovered deleted photographs from a damaged digital camera found in Alexander's washing machine, showing sexually suggestive images of Arias and Alexander earlier that day, followed by a photo of Alexander in the shower and subsequent images showing him bleeding on the bathroom floor. A bloody palm print containing DNA from both Arias and Alexander was found in the hallway.

Arias initially denied being in Mesa on the day of the murder, then claimed intruders had attacked both her and Alexander, before ultimately stating two years after her arrest that she had killed him in self-defense following alleged domestic abuse. She was indicted by a Maricopa County grand jury on July 9, 2008, arrested six days later, and extradited to Arizona.

Arias's trial began with jury selection in December 2012 before Judge Sherry K. Stephens in Maricopa County Superior Court, with Juan Martinez prosecuting and L. Kirk Nurmi and Jennifer Willmott representing Arias. Arias testified for 18 days, describing alleged abuse and stating she killed Alexander in self-defense after he attacked her. The defense called a domestic-violence expert and a psychologist who diagnosed her with PTSD; the prosecution's rebuttal witnesses disputed these findings. On May 8, 2013, after 15 hours of deliberation, the jury convicted Arias of first-degree murder, finding unanimously that the murder was premeditated.

During the penalty phase, the jury determined Arias was eligible for the death penalty but deadlocked 8–4 in favor of death on May 23, 2013, resulting in a mistrial for sentencing. A second sentencing retrial began in October 2014; that jury deadlocked 11–1 in favor of death and a mistrial was declared on March 5, 2015. On April 13, 2015, Judge Stephens sentenced Arias to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. In June 2015, Arias was ordered to pay more than $32,000 in restitution to Alexander's siblings.

Arias's attorneys filed a post-verdict appeal in July 2018 alleging prosecutorial misconduct and prejudicial media coverage. In 2020, the appeals court upheld the conviction, finding that despite "egregious" prosecutorial misconduct, the verdict rested on "overwhelming evidence" of guilt; the Arizona Supreme Court declined further review in November 2020. The case drew extensive national media coverage, including televised trial proceedings and multiple dramatized adaptations.