Picture Perfect

A Camera Captures A Forbidden Romance, But Will It Also Expose A Killer?

(CBS)  When Jodi Arias arrived in Phoenix in September 2008, she once again found herself in front of a camera; and apparently, once again, she wasn’t very shy.

With her trial not scheduled for at least a year, Jodi held a press conference from jail to plead her case in the court of public opinion.

"There's a lot of forensics suggesting that I was, you know in the house," she tells reporters. "The evidence is very compelling. But, none of it proves that I committed a murder. None of it proves that I committed a crime. What it does substantiate is what I did tell detectives.”

It was only after her arrest that Jodi finally shared her story of the intruders with Mesa Homicide Detective Esteban Flores. But, he says, "None of the evidence indicates anything like that was possible."

To prove it, Flores showed Jodi one of the photos recovered from Travis’ camera. But she says that same photo clearly shows she's innocent.

“I can't really remember the whole image, but I do remember blood. And I do remember skin. And I do remember someone else's leg," she tells Maher. "I'm assuming it's the woman, because the pants were black. And the guy was wearing blue jeans.”

But Flores doesn’t see it quite the same way. He says there is a foot in the photo,
but there's no way of indicating whose it is.

Jodi may be focused on that foot, but investigators say it’s actually Jodi’s hand that tells the rest of the story. During his investigation of her trip to Utah, witnesses reported to Flores that Jodi had arrived with cuts on her fingers.

“She shows up in Utah and she had gauze on two or three fingers," says Chris Hughes. “And our friend says to her, 'Hey, what happened to your fingers?' And without skipping a beat, she just says, 'Oh, yeah, you know, I'm a bartender and I cut myself all the time.'"

Flores says that the cuts are just more evidence that Jodi's entire story is a lie.
He says there's "absolutely no evidence, whatsoever" to support her theory that two people attacked her and Travis.

The state prosecutor charges Jodi with first-degree murder. In order to make his case, he will have to convince a jury of two very important facts: that Jodi had a reason to kill Travis and that reason was premeditated.

“You are 100-percent certain that she got in her car in California and drove to Arizona with the intent of killing this man?” Maher asks Flores. His reply is “Yes."