Day 26. "Brain Damage and The Black Veil" Written by: Paul A. Sanders, Jr. The 13th Juror @The13thJurorMD (Twitter)

The Jodi Arias Death Penalty Retrial: A Juror’s Perspective

by The 13th Juror MD DAY 26

“BRAIN DAMAGE AND THE BLACK VEIL”

Picture, for a moment, that you are in a darkened movie theater. You are walking down an aisle while dim lighting cascades the walls just enough to light your path ahead. There is no one in the expansive room so may choose any seat you wish. You will stay in that seat until the end of the movie.

You sit down in the comfortable seat and watch the screen in front of you. There is no sound and you arrived after the opening credits have run. As you dig through your buttered popcorn, you attempt to figure out what is happening. You saw a bloody scene as you sat down and your mind searches the characters to learn what happened. You begin to assemble pieces. You look for clues. You wonder who is the good guy and who is the bad guy.

It is much the same with being a juror except that it is real life and there is no container of buttered popcorn. A juror does not know the movie that will play in front of them day to day. Each day, they are lambs to the law and fed what the court gives them.

It took a while for the jury to realize that they were going to stare straight into a movie of pure evil.

Juan Martinez waited patiently for Dr. Robert Geffner to get settled in the witness chair. Juan stood back by the prosecution table and waited as Dr. Geffner fumbled around with his papers, moved a pencil cup, straightened the microphone and turned in his chair to get settled in his seat.

The prosecutor of the Jodi Arias death penalty retrial was dressed in in a charcoal black suit with a blue shirt and mauve colored tie. He looked as his feet. In one hand, he had a stack of papers and the other rested easily in his pants pocket. Finally, he stepped forward after Dr. Geffner gave the jury a warm and welcoming smile.

“Sir, where we left off yesterday is we were discussing documents relevant to statements about an incident on January 21, 2008,” Juan Martinez began. “The defendant made some statements to psychologists a couple of years after she was arrested. You reviewed these voluminous documents?”

“Yes, I did,” Dr. Geffner answers.

“There is nothing written in the defendants journals that disclose anything of significance on that date, is there?”

“I don’t recall anything,” the Doctor says carefully. “The psychologists in this case reported pictures on the bed.”

Juan looks at him and holds up the papers in his free hand. “On February 3, 2010, the psychologist reported that these pictures were viewed on the internet. Right?”

“It was typed incorrectly.”

“The psychologist was wrong?”

“I’m assuming she typed it wrong,” he answered.

“Okay,” Juan agreed. “You’re assuming she typed it wrong. Let’s go ahead and look at her handwritten notes of another visit with the defendant on April 29, 2010. Let’s look at those. May I approach?” he asked the Judge without looking at her on the way to the witness.

“You may,” Judge Stevens answered.

Juan Martinez handed Dr. Geffner an exhibit and walked away from him saying, “Read it.”

The Doctor did not look at it. “I’m not sure that…”

The attorney cut him off abruptly while he was turning around. “Why don’t you take a look at it?” he commanded.

“I’m not sure what you’re getting at. It was mistake in…”

“Does it not say that the defendant saw the victim looking at pictures on the internet?” Juan asked succinctly, enunciating each syllable.

“Well, the hand written note does but…”

Juan stormed back up to him barely asking to approach when he had another document in hand. “This is the report from August 26 and August 27 of 2010. Look at the report on August 27,” Juan directed. Do you see the date?”

“Yes,” Dr. Geffner answered.

“It says that the defendant said she witnessed pictures on the bed. Doesn’t it?”

“Um, these were handwritten before I could get them typed…”

“Yes or no!”

“I think so.”

Juan walked up to the witness while getting permission, which was quickly granted. “Look at August 26, 2010 regarding the notes from the visit with the defendant. What does it disclose regarding this pornographic media?”

Dr. Geffner studies the paper and furrows his bushy eyebrows. “Hmm. There must be a mistake...”

Juan Martinez stepped a couple steps back and looked at him. “Why don’t you read it for us?”

“The note says that the pictures were reported to be from the internet?” he questions.

“That’s right,” Juan answers. “Why are the two reports different?”

“Um, I’m not sure,” he says looking at the paper closely.

“They are the same report but…”

“You made changes, didn’t you?” Juan Martinez asked.

“I guess I did. Maybe,” he answered.

Juan went back to the witness stand again in the same procedure and handed him still another document. “You wrote in regards to the conflicting information a note on the bottom of that page. Do you see that?”

“Yes.”

Juan paced as he read his copy aloud to the Doctor. “You wrote that you thought there were two different pornographic incidents. You postulated, that is to say asked questions, that the two different versions must have been two incidents. Right?”

“No, I don’t think so. Jodi Arias always told us it was pictures on the bed. Always,” he answered firmly.

“But you changed what you wrote on August 27, 2010,” Juan pointed out.

“That is because the psychologist who spoke with her made a mistake.”

“Let me correct you,” Juan interjected. “You are assuming she made a mistake, aren’t you?”

“Maybe….”

“You weren’t there for the interviews. You can’t know it was a mistake. You changed it because it was favorable to the defendant sitting in that chair,” Juan said loudly as he waved his paper filled hand in the defendant’s direction.

“I don’t think…”

“You changed the information because you are a hired gun, aren’t you?!”

Jennifer Willmott jumped up screaming ‘objection’ which barely countered the echo of the words ‘hired gun’ which then inspired the twentieth sidebar of the day.

The lawyers and Judge had their discussion, white noise enveloping the background of the courtroom. I took the opportunity to flex my hand and peer at the jury. I was looking for emotion and saw none. That does not surprise me because after being in the same seat on the DeVault Hammer Killing Trial, our jury was expert at not showing emotion.

Juan Martinez quickly changed gears and moved to the destruction of the reputation of Dr. Geffner. He artfully danced through a variety of court cases that Dr. Geffner had testified on and pointed everyone’s attention toward cases that had gone sour resulting in testimony being thrown out from Dr. Geffner.

One case spoke of his making an opinion on a domestic violence case without ever interviewing the father. Another brick was crushed when Juan pointed to case where his testimony was stricken on the basis of not having credibility because he had not gotten independent verification on opinions he rendered.

“Do you remember the Sepulveda case in Kansas?” Juan Martinez asked, moving on to a new case.

“Not off the bat,” he answered. He appeared to be searching his mind for something as he furrowed his eyebrows again. “Oh! A gunshot case. Yes, I think I remember that.”

“You are not a medical doctor, are you?” Juan asked, postured in his attack mode.

“Oh, no,” he answered.

“You didn’t go to medical school. Am I right?”

“No,” he answered. He turned to the jury and began explaining the process for his schooling and that his profession was different from a medical degree.

Juan waited patiently while he completed his paragraphs. I had the feeling he was letting the witness dig himself by talking further and further into the answer. The jury did not look interested and still Juan waited.

Dr. Geffner stopped and looked toward Juan Martinez. One could expect there was no air in his lungs after such a lengthy answer.

The pause was perfectly executed as Juan punctuated him with, “Are you done?”

“Oh, yes,” he answered with a chuckle.

“It says that you testified to the effects of brain damage caused by a gunshot wound and you rendered an opinion on its impact on motor functions of the brain. Am I right?”

“I think so,” he answered.

“Are you a psychiatrist with medical training?”

“No. I’m a psychologist.”

“And you testified as a medical expert, which you are not. Am I right?” Juan pursued.

Throughout the morning, Juan moved quickly from subject to subject and Dr. Geffner took every opportunity to talk to the jury and its rambling was sometimes numbing. Juan would wait patiently with one hand in his pocket, the other holding documents. When the Doctor would finish a long story, Juan would begin pacing, moving from one subject to another.

The movie played in front of the jury and the intensity picked up throughout the day. Many were taking notes and many watched with rapt attention. Their faces revealed no indication how they felt even during particularly heart wrenching moments
.
Juan returned the courtroom to the night that Jodi Arias was peeping in on the activities of Travis Alexander with another woman. He brought us to the back patio as she looked in on Travis kissing another woman passionately. A brassiere slipped to the floor. She slipped in through the back sliding door and Travis Alexander continued to kiss without realizing he was being observed intently.

Travis Alexander had no idea she was hiding somewhere. He had broken up with her months earlier. They had parted ways because Jodi Arias took liberties with Travis’ cellphone while he was sleeping. He did not take to it well and thought it would be the last he would see of her...and he had no idea he was being watched within the confines of his own home. Of course, nothing of note was mentioned on the timeline that everyone tired of seeing.

We went on a journey with Matt McCartney after he, too, had broken up with Arias. We felt like we were in the car with Arias as she drove almost two hours to hunt him down and confront him.

A short time later, we visited with the co-worker from Big Sur who had claimed in his testimonial that Jodi Arias was everything but a Mother Theresa. It was of particular note that he had claimed seeing a change in personality from Jodi Arias that was attributed to, according to Dr. Geffner’s forensic analysis, her relationship with Travis Alexander. The truth slowly rose to the surface revealing that Jodi Arias had just lost a house with Daryl Brewer and her life was further encumbered by financial problems.

We visited the night on the timeline that referred to the incident where Travis Alexander allegedly broke her left finger after giving her a body slam and kicking her in the ribs. The finger did not look very broken to anyone in the room when it was revealed that there were two conflicting stories she told to psychologists that claim two different dates of the incident. The Doctor remembered the date as January 22, 2008. There was clearly an issue on that ground because Arias boasts in her diary of having sex that night.

“Another psychologist talked about the same incident, didn’t she?” he asked Geffner.

“It appears so,” he answered.

“Let me go through February 5, 2008 where this female psychologist records that the defendant said she had been fired from Mimi’s Café, went home and got into a fight and then broke her finger. Right?”

Dr. Geffner studied his paper closely. “That’s what she reports.”

“Yes, it is,” Juan responds. He purposely walks to the prosecution table and picks up a diary and puts it on the screen for the jury to see. One can see her handwriting in both black and blue ink, separated by days. Juan quickly flips the pages and opens the book to February 5, 2008. He presses the book open so the page curls do not blur the image of her document.

“Let us look at this together. It says, and you can read along with me,” Juan speaks to Geffner, “I love him truly. I want the best for him. I got fired from Mimi’s Café today. I am very surprised and loved that job. I had two complaints and wasn’t smiling, etc. Did you hear that?” he asks the Doctor when he finished.

“Ah, yes.”

“I do not see anything in the diary about her breaking her finger. Wouldn’t that be significant to note for the day?” Juan asks piercingly.

The knife drove deeper with the conflicting dates and wounded further in the fact that no documentation existed that it ever happened.

The Doctor spent a lot of time trying to differentiate between dating and officially dating. He dug himself a hole he could not climb out of when he said that someone officially dating did not necessarily mean they were boyfriend and girlfriend. The Jury would eventually argue this piece by dates and it would be clear to them when they were dating despite the intangible opinions of the Doctor.

We moved back to the bedroom of Travis Alexander and the masturbation story. Juan walked us through the diary of Arias where she claimed on the alleged date of the incident that, “Travis is beautiful on the inside and out.”

Juan paced furiously in three to four steps chunks and would turn around and fire the next question. “Her writings are not consistent with your timeline, are they?”

“Well,” Dr. Geffner said as he directed his attention toward the jury. “maybe not all the time. In a forensic evaluation, you have to look at a lot of pieces to find where they fit.”

“What if the piece of the puzzle was untrue? Would that affect your opinion?”

“The masturbation of little boys?” Dr. Geffner asked back.

“Yes!” Martinez barked.

The Doctor was almost offhand in his comment when he said, “Well, by itself it is not a major part of the evaluation.”

There was not a moment delay in Juan Martinez’ response. “Then, why are you here? Are you here to smear the name of the victim, Travis Alexander?!”

Judge Stevens called the Court for recess while Jennifer Willmott was still screaming her objection. The echo of Juan’s voice had reverberated off the walls and into the valley of the jury box. The victim made his appearance in the ratiocination of the words of Juan Martinez and the resulting impact would resonate with each juror as they went to lunch.

“You indicated that the test results that were based on defendant interviews and that there is a consistent diagnosis of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome).” Juan began, after the courtroom resumed an hour later with Dr. Geffner seated on the stand.

“Yes,” he answered, sounding refreshed. “It was consistent on most of the examinations.”

“What is the triggering event?” Juan Martinez calmly asked.

“There were two events, actually. The first is noted in 2008. The death of Travis Alexander was a triggering event. The other was her relationship.”

“Yes,” he answered quickly. “Didn’t the psychologist who gave the examination write something on the bottom of that first page?”

Dr. Geffner inspected his sheet of paper. “It reads June 4, 2008 as the day of the murder being one event, domestic violence and her incarceration.”

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” Judge Stevens suddenly said to the jury. “I’m going to ask that you go back to the jury room for a five minute recess.”

The lambs to the law stood up resolutely and made their way out of the courtroom. Everyone watched them quietly and many of us wondered what had pulled things to a halt since many of us did not recall hearing an objection.

Once the jury room door was closed, Juan looked toward Dr. Geffner. “You said on these tests that defendant responses were in a normal range, right?”

“Yes.”

“The defendant provides the answer, right?,” Juan asked in a softer tone than he had in front of the jury.

“That’s right,” Geffner agreed.

“The defendant was previously examined by Dr. Samuels. One of the tests that you have is his PTSD examination as Exhibit number 540. In this case, Dr. Samuels filled out the examination,” Juan explained. “Can you see that on the front page, there are four boxes and Dr. Samuels has one box marked based on what the defendant said? Do you see that?”

“Let me look,” the Doctor answers as he studies the page. “I see that.”

“May I approach?” Juan asks as he walks toward the witness with his papers in hand. Kirk Nurmi and Jennifer Willmott get up and quickly follow until all the attorneys are at an informal sidebar in front of Geffner. There is no white noise so many can discern the words being discussed in low tones.

Dr. Geffner starts flipping through papers while Juan is pointing something out in the paper in his hand. “Look at number five, Doctor. Do you see that? The box is marked that it is the root cause of the PTSD diagnosis. Do you see that?”

“Yes, I do,” he answers.

“That result is based on a false statement. It’s on all the tests the defendant took,” Juan said. “All of them.”

Dr. Geffner frowns. “That could be a problem. In our profession, at least, it’s a serious problem…”

“The other forty nine questions are based on the result of this question. But, the answer to this question is a lie,” Juan Martinez tells him. “That’s proof of “fooling” the examiner.”

The attorneys discuss the issue and it’s hard to hear but a few words. Judge Stevens asks the attorneys what they will do about the problem. The Doctor interjects saying that the tests cannot be shown on the screens or to the media because they are copyright protected.

“How do you plan on asking the question?” Judge Stevens asks Juan Martinez in a low voice.

He rubs his forehead for a second as he works out the problem. “I don’t have to show the questions. It is a visual. There are a number of questions I can ask without showing the test.”

“Can you only reveal one question?” Judge Stevens asks him.

“We could do that,” Juan answers.

Judge Stevens calls Randy, the Bailiff to the bench and gives him some instructions. He leaves the bench and walks around the courtroom and turns off every monitor and screen that normally project displayed evidence papers, leaving the main screen in front of the jury as the only one illuminated for a display.

The Judge releases Randy to get the jury and they march into the jury box as the courtroom waits, standing at attention. The screen in front of the jury features a page with four boxes and a corresponding line next to them. It looks like a “result” cover page.

“With regards to exhibit number 540 and PTSD,” Juan begins with his attention toward the Doctor, “There are five categories that note the root of where PTSD exists with the victim based on how the defendant responded, right?”

“That’s right,” the Doctor agrees.

“This examination was done by Dr. Samuels on January 15, 2010. There are forty nine questions whose answers depend upon the questions in numbers one through five. Am I correct?” Juan Martinez asks.

“Yes?”

“The questions ask the person taking the test which is the cause of the most stress in their life. They have a selection to choose which include an accident, a disaster of some kind,” Juan explains as he enumerates with his fingers, “a non-sexual assault by someone they know, a sexual assault by someone they know and a non-sexual assault by someone they don’t know. Is that my understanding how it works?”

“Yes,” Geffner answers. “The person giving the test would base his conclusions on which of the five is chosen.”

“It was determined, based on what the defendant answered, that her PTSD was most likely due to category five. The event is her saying she was most bothered by a nonsexual attack by someone she did not know. Right?”

Geffner studies his paper. “Yes. The event that bothered Miss Arias the most is a nonsexual assault by someone she did not know.”

“Which goes to say that this event could not have been triggered by Travis Alexander according to her answer. Am I right?”

Geffner nods but not very quickly. “This answer…”

Juan Martinez finishes his thought by saying, “…is based on the black masked Ninja story. Am I right?”

“Yes,” Geffner answered.

“Which negates the rest of her test results because all of it is based on a lie, isn’t it? She had a different story at the time, didn’t she?” Juan pointed out without looking at Arias behind him.

“Objection!” Willmott yelled.

Judge Stevens dismissed the jury and they all gathered for a sidebar while Randy walked around the courtroom and turned all the monitors and screens back on. When he finished, he nodded toward the Judge and she called the jury back into the room.

Juan Martinez waited patiently while they settled in their seats. He walked over to a projector and slid a copy of the familiar curvy handwriting of Jodi Arias on the screen for the jury to see. He looked toward Dr. Geffner and then at the screen displayed.

The court was silent as he began to read a card that was received by “Mumms”, the grandmother of Travis Alexander and addressed to the family…

He read the written words as the jury listened quietly. The visual came to life in different ways to different people. The words struggled to keep up with the picture painted in the mind. It was the voice of a killer. It was the voice of something cruel and heinous. And, within this grand lie, Travis Alexander struggled to live in his final moments.

“…at this point, things are blurred and confusing. I have to tell the truth of this story. I was sitting on the floor and looking at pictures when I heard a popping sound. Travis was seated next to me and when I woke up, two strangers were there. I was confused. I didn’t know where I was when a male had a gun to my forehead. There was a female standing over Travis and I couldn’t do anything.”

Juan Martinez voice carries in phrases, paint strokes assembling a painted picture.

In that picture, there is a grandmother holding a card and reading it. She is dressed in black with a veil coming down from the front of her hat. She is reading the card as a vase of Lily’s are in the hallway waiting to be brought to the funeral of Travis Alexander. Her hands shake as she reads and tries not to cry. The week since his horrible murder has felt like it has aged her a hundred years. She cannot stand and sits down with the card in her hand and continues reading.

“I don’t know where I got the energy but I knew we had to escape. I couldn’t hear Travis and despite my being injured, I gathered my strength and rushed at the female attacker and she fell over Travis. I said, “Travis! Travis! Come along!” but he couldn’t. He was bloody and he was injured. He was too weak to get up. He told me to get help but I could not hear him very well. I pulled at him to get him out of there…”

Juan’s voice read as the court watched in silence with visuals coming together in the attempts to translate what was real and not real in the minds eye. Where was the truth in the lie?

“…and the masked lady came at me with a knife. I don’t remember if I struggled or felt pain but my body had become tingly. I know she got me at least once. There was blood everywhere. We struggled for I am not sure how long. I threw her off me. I could hear Travis screaming somewhere. She came back at me. I heard her argue with the man that they should do me, too. I was in the bedroom and Travis was in the bathroom curled up on the floor…”

The jury watched and listened intently.

Juan continued reading. “…They opened my purse and they were digging around for something inside. I had my registration in my purse because I took all my valuables out my car. I didn’t want anyone to steal anything and it was in my purse. The man looked at me but I could only see his eyes as his face was covered in a black mask. He looked at me and told me that he knew where I was and where I lived. He said they would find me and kill me. I ran downstairs to get away. I could hear them behind me and then I got away…”

He paused and looked away from the screen. Juan looked at Dr. Geffner. “Sir, isn’t this the traumatic event that the diagnosis was based upon?”

“I’m not positive,” he answered with a soft voice.

“Wasn’t the diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress syndrome based on false information?”

The Doctor did not need to answer the question. Travis Alexander and “Mumm’s” had answered the question through the black eyes of a killer in her written word. They had made their appearance in the words of Juan Martinez as he read the card given to the family from the depths of hell…

The juror is like the person who sits in an empty theater and watches a movie with no credits and no sound. The lights come on but the juror has no one to talk to. Having no choice, the juror leaves the theater and walks into an empty hallway. He leaves the theater and walks home with only thoughts of the movie turning over and over in his or her head. It is isolating and a great secret to bear.

For the weekend, the juror will do all he or she can do not to think of the representation of this cruel consciousness of guilt and the woman who hides behind a black veil. They will try to avoid thinking of the final screams of this victim, Travis Alexander. They feel only the surface of the pain that the family suffered at his horrific loss.

There will be a time this weekend that each of sixteen jurors will begin to reach into their soul and start to understand the importance of the responsibility to both the victim and the family. There will also be a time when they are alone in their thoughts.

The thought of Travis Alexander will settle in their mind when they least expect. One may be getting ready to go to bed. Another might be driving somewhere. Another juror may be in a grocery store standing in the vegetable section. Still another may be sweeping the garage when the feeling ferments and settles in each of their minds…

Each one, at that unexpected time, will be overcome by emotion. The tears will run down the face without control. The sadness will envelope them…

Later, when the tears have dried, they will slowly realize that they may have seen evil and lack of compassion in its most stark and naked vehemence. They will understand the great weight of responsibility to do the right thing and each will wonder what strength they must draw from…

Travis Alexander will not leave their heads…and that is exactly what Juan Martinez wanted to happen.

“Every good relationship that develops as a result of this Trial is the
manifestation of the Spirit of Travis Alexander.”

Justice 4 Travis Alexander…

Justice for Dale…

Paul A. Sanders, Jr.
The 13th Juror @The13thJurorMD (Twitter)