LAURIE ROBERTS

Jodi Arias juror is a Nancy Grace groupie?

Laurie Roberts
The Republic | azcentral.com

It's Day 2 of the Jodi Arias trial and already there is trouble.

Two jurors have been dismissed. One, for a family issue. Another, because she's a groupie.

Jodi Arias speaks to defense attorney Jennifer Willmott in the Maricopa County Superior Court room of Judge Sherry Stephens in Phoenix, Wednesday, October 22, 2014, as the penalty phase retrial continues. Arias was found guilty of first degree murder in the death of former boyfriend Travis Alexander, but the jury hung on the penalty phase, life in prison or the death sentence.

It seems Juror No. 9 approached a reporter this morning to ask her if she's Nancy Grace.

Let me say that again. A juror entrusted with making a decision on whether Jodi Arias lives or dies is wandering around the courthouse in hopes of meeting TV crimebuster Nancy Grace.

One wonders how many Juan Martinez groupies might also be lurking there in the jurors' box.

This sentencing trial is expected to last three to six weeks and already we are down to 16 jurors. At the end, Martinez will need 12 in order to sentence Arias to death.

Any bets on how long until there's a mistrial?

While we wait, the cash register continues to ring madly. As of Oct. 1, Maricopa County taxpayers have ponied up $2.6 million to defend Jodi Arias – nearly a million of that since prosecutors opted for this do-over in pursuit of a death sentence. That $2.6 million is in addition to whatever prosecutors have spent in their ongoing effort to dispatch her to death row. A spokesman has told me they won't release the total until after the trial.

If it gets that far.

Until then, we are left to wonder how it is that a juror is so star crazed that she's looking for Nancy Grace. And how it is that that same juror turns out to have a relative who knows Arias.

I've long wondered how Judge Sherry Stephens could find 18 people who are impartial enough to decide Jodi Arias' fate. Now we know the answer. She didn't.