Jodi Arias: The defense rests its case

• Arias%27 attorneys had apparently counseled her not to address the jury%2C but she wanted to anyway.
• Judge Sherry Stephens told Arias she could not allocute out of earshot of the press and public.
• Closing arguments begin Tuesday and may continue more than one day before the case goes to the jury.

The defense in the Jodi Arias death sentencing retrial unexpectedly rested its case Monday in Maricopa County Superior Court, leaving nothing but closing arguments before the jury decides whether Arias goes to death row or spends the rest of her life in prison.

Arias herself seemed about to defy her attorneys' apparent advice not to allocute — that is, make an unsworn final statement of remorse and explanation to the jury — until she was told by Judge Sherry Stephens that she could not make that statement in a closed courtroom as requested.

In May 2013, Arias, 34, was convicted of first-degree murder for killing her sometime lover, Travis Alexander, 30, who was found dead in the shower of his Mesa home. He had been shot in the head, stabbed nearly 30 times, and his throat was slit.

But the jury that found her guilty of the murder was unable to agree on the life or death sentence, so a new jury had to be impaneled in October 2014. Over the last five months, the jurors have listened to endless testimony as to whether Alexander was sexually, physically and emotionally abusive to Arias and whether he trolled the Internet for pornography and social media for sex partners.

Prosecutor Juan Martinez, meanwhile, portrayed Arias as a compulsive liar and questioned whether she was as mentally ill as the defense claimed.

Testimony was expected to continue this week. Defense attorneys Kirk Nurmi and Jennifer Willmott had listed three repeat witnesses who were expected to testify further about computer porn and sexual abuse.

But for the entire morning, Martinez and the defense attorneys were back in Stephens' chambers or locked in discussion at the judge's bench, with their conversations masked by a white noise machine.

Two jurors were dismissed without explanation, leaving 14 of the original 19 who were seated in October. Only 12 will ultimately deliberate Arias' fate and future.

In mid-afternoon, the defense placed two documents clarifying minor points on an overhead screen for the jury to read for themselves.

One was a deposition from Arias' aunt saying she had found Arias' cell phone in her father's car and gave it to Arias' mother, who gave it to her attorneys. The phone contained a recording of a steamy phone-sex conversation that was played during both trials. Martinez had repeatedly questioned where it came from, since Arias had reported the phone stolen.

The second deposition was from a woman who claimed that Alexander was living in the California home of a Mormon bishop at a time the bishop said he wasn't.

Not a word was spoken about the documents by any of the attorneys.

Then Nurmi rested the case, and the jury was sent out of the courtroom.

Stephens turned to Arias, saying she understood from Arias' attorneys that Arias was not going to make a statement to the jury.

"That is not correct," Arias said.

When Stephens pressed further, Arias informed her that she wanted to allocute, but would only do so if the press and public were excluded from the courtroom. Stephens refused, citing an Arizona Court of Appeals ruling stemming from closed-court testimony at the end of October. Arias took the stand for two days, but The Arizona Republic, 12 News and other media successfully appealed to the higher court to stop the secret testimony.

Stephens offered to send the press and public to another room to watch the allocution over closed-circuit TV. But Arias was insistent that she address the jury in private or not at all. Stephens denied her request.

Defendants have the right to speak to the jury to beg for their lives, express remorse or explain their actions. But defense attorneys sometimes counsel them not to speak for fear of "opening doors" — that is, raising issues that had otherwise been excluded from trial, or so as not to unfavorably impress the jury and cause them to bring back a death sentence.

"Juan Martinez has a reputation for being a devastating rebuttal debater," said David Derickson, a defense attorney and former Maricopa County Superior Court judge who has no relation to the Arias case. "Why would you want to let someone with that ability be the last person to comment on something that was blurted out after the rest of the case was so carefully vetted by the defense attorneys?"

Tuesday morning, Stephens will read instructions to the jury, and the attorneys will make their final arguments, which could take more than one day.

Then the case at last will go to the jury.