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Jodi Arias Trial: Arizona woman charged in ex-boyfriend's death says she can't recall most of killing

Jodi Arias appears for her trial in Maricopa County Superior court on Jan. 9, 2013, in Phoenix AP Photo/Matt York

(CBS/AP) PHOENIX - Jodi Arias testified Wednesday that she has no recollection of stabbing her former lover, nor does she remember if she slit his throat or whether she even shot him at his house nearly five years ago.

Arias, 32, spent nearly eight days on the witness stand recounting one event of her life after another in precise detail. But she drew a blank Wednesday when she was pressed about how she killed Travis Alexander, noting there was a "huge gap" in her memory from that day in June 2008.

She said she remembers getting in a fight with Alexander, shooting at him as they tussled, putting a knife in the dishwasher and disposing of the gun in the desert as she drove from Arizona to California.

"I knew my life was pretty much over," she told jurors.

"Do you remember stabbing Travis Alexander?" her defense lawyer asked.

"I have no memory of stabbing him," she said.

Arias said the fight started after she accidentally dropped a digital camera while taking provocative photos of Alexander in the shower of his Mesa home. She said he flew into a rage, body-slammed her and chased her around the house.

Arias said she grabbed a gun from his closet, and that it went off while they tussled. She wasn't sure if it hit him.

"He was angry at me and he wasn't going to stop," she said. "It was like mortal terror."

Prosecutors said Arias planned the killing in a jealous rage, and friends of the victim have said outside court that she is making up stories about him and his supposed sexual deviance.

Arias changed her story several times during questioning with detectives and during TV interviews after the killing. She initially told police she knew nothing about the killing, and then later blamed it on masked intruders. She eventually settled on self-defense. On Wednesday, she was asked why she didn't dial 911 after the killing.

"I was scared. I couldn't imagine calling 911 and telling them what I had just done," she said. "I was scared of what would happen to me."

Arias' inability to remember key facts of the killing stood in stark contrast to her previous testimony on the witness stand. She recalled the type of flavored coffee she ordered at Starbucks, exact dates of sexual encounters and road trips, and in-depth accounts of stories from 10 years ago when she was just a teenager.

But as questioning finally turned to the killing, she recalled very little.

She later explained how she left Alexander's home and immediately began planning an alibi, leaving a voice mail on his mobile phone and traveling to see a friend in Utah after disposing of the gun in the desert to "throw the scent off for a little while."

"I was just trying to act like myself," she told jurors. "I just wanted to seem like normal, like things were OK, like I didn't just do what I just did."

Complete coverage of Jodi Arias on Crimesider

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