Jodi Arias Defends Herself In Murder Of Travis Alexander

Jodi Arias, accused of murdering boyfriend Travis Alexander, gave her testimony in court on Wednesday, claiming she killed him in self-defense.

Arias, 32, admitted that she killed Alexander, but claimed to not remember stabbing her slain boyfriend 27 times after shooting him. “I just remember dropping the knife and being very freaked out and screaming,” Arias testified. She alleges that the gun she used to shoot Alexander was his (the prosecution believes she stole it from her parents' Yreka, Calif., home before visiting Alexander), and that she grabbed it from the top shelf of his closet when she felt threatened by him. "The gun went off, I didn't even mean to shoot, I didn't know my hand was on the trigger,” Arias said in court.

Arias asserted that she doesn’t remember the act of stabbing Alexander, dragging his body into the bathroom or placing him in the shower. After she realized what she had done, she said, “I just couldn’t believe what had just happened and I couldn’t rewind the clock and take it back.” Instead of calling the authorities, Arias threw the knife in the dishwasher and disposed of the gun in the desert.

After rinsing Alexander’s blood off of her hands with bottled water from her car, she continued to the home of Ryan Burns. Burns, who testified earlier in the trial, said that the suspect was affectionate with him the day after she killed Alexander. Arias agreed, testifying that she kissed and cuddled with Burns because, “I felt safe right there and, I figured, I just wanted to seem normal like I didn’t just do what I just did.”

Prior to the tragic end of June 4, 2008, Arias claims that she and Alexander began taking photos and videos of themselves having sex after she arrived at his Mesa, Ariz., home at 5 a.m. Throughout the morning, she reported that Alexander repeatedly would get angry with her – for the scratches on the discs that held pictures of them, and for dropping his camera. The last time he flew into a rage, Arias claimed, he flew at her “like a linebacker” and caused her to take action to defend herself against him.

The chain of events Arias presented in court on Wednesday was revised from past versions of her story. Initially, she claimed to have had no involvement in Alexander’s murder. Then, she insisted that two masked intruders broke into the house, killing Alexander and almost killing her. Arias will face the death penalty if the jury finds her guilty of pre-meditated murder.