Jodi Arias Trial: Psychotherapist Alyce LaViolette Cross-Examined By Juan Martinez

Jodi Arias’s psychotherapist, Alyce LaViolette, was back on the stand Monday facing a tough line of questioning from Arizona prosecutor Juan Martinez.

On Thursday, Arias’s defense team wrapped up their direct examination of LaViolette, a psychotherapist and domestic violence expert. Her diagnosis and testimony attest that Arias was both physically and emotionally battered by her late boyfriend, Travis Alexander. LaViolette claims to believe that Arias killed Alexander out of fear for her own life.

The notion that Arias suffered from domestic violence by the hand of Alexander is at the crux of the alleged killer’s defense. Martinez and the rest of the prosecution have been trying to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Arias went to Alexander’s house that day in 2008 with the full intent of murdering him. The defense maintains that she killed him in self-defense – shooting him in the head, stabbing him nearly 30 times and cutting his throat from ear to ear in an emotionally charged state that the defendant can’t recall.

In his cross-examination, Martinez asked LaViolette about the methods she used to determine whether or not someone is a victim of domestic violence. In order to present her findings to the jury, LaViolette displayed her “Continuum of Aggression and Abuse” chart, but admitted that it was not a main diagnostic tool with Arias.

Charging forward, Martinez shed doubt on LaViolette’s credibility as a witness, exposing that her resume indicates that she was a keynote speaker at a conference that listed a different official keynote speaker than her. Although LaViolette refused to admit she misrepresented herself, claiming that she was the “keynote breakout speaker,” she conceded that she was not on the official schedule.

Back to the matter of Arias, LaViolette explained that she studied text messages and emails between Arias and Alexander to help inform her opinion. Again, Martinez looked to weaken her testimony, citing a previous statement of hers that claimed 90% of all communication in the clinical world was non-verbal. Ultimately, Martinez was trying to make the point that basing her opinion off of written communication can’t be expected to provide accurate conjecture.

Martinez’ cross-examination of LaViolette is ongoing.