Premeditation: Article I- the Hair color.

On 3/6/15,  the Arias sentencing phase ended with a hung jury.  The final decision was 11 for the DP and one hold out for life.  Per the interview with the other jurors,  the hold out believed Jodi's mental status was a mitigating factor.  Per the other jurors,  the hold out stated "But she is not normal"  when they discussed their reasons to put her to death despite her BPD diagnoses.  If the other jurors' statements are true,  it means two entire juries failed to believe Jodi's story of a physical abuse related self-defense claim.  Arias needed the jurors to believe physical abuse existed in order for her to have reacted with such brutality and lethal force against her 'friend'  of 19 months.  She failed.

 In the end, Arias did not win.   In her attempt to paint Travis as a physical abuser who was also a pedophile Arias failed miserably.   Two entire juries did not believe her;  the majority of trial watchers saw right through her lies.  Common sense and reason won out over the manipulation of a murderer.

Despite her failure, some of Jodi's supporters are clinging to the hope that Arias will be granted an appeal, there will be a new trial, and Arias will eventually gain her freedom.    The evidence of premeditation will always remain,  and it will always convict.  Evidence of premeditation is not one factor;  it is a combination of many.

One factor of premeditation the State presented was evidence Arias dyed her hair during the June trip.  Jodi claimed she did not dye her hair during the trip, and many of her supporters believed her.  However, it is not what the evidence suggests.   Pictures paint a 1000 words.


3-10--2008  Jodi went to Roswell.   Jodi was platinum blonde and had been for many years.

3-11-2008 Jodi still had her bleached blonde hair in Oklahoma.

 3-16-08 STILL PLATINUM BLONDE

3-18-2008  Journal "I am at the briefing now...  we got back from our road trip late Sunday night (3-16-2008),  actually Monday morning about 2 am. On the way back we stopped and saw Canyon de Chelly National Monument"

Jodi's testimony: "I dyed my hair on  3-20-08. I never went back to blonde --- this first time it didn't take very well,  so I did it one more time.  It was sort of like a dirty brown - like a medium brown.  It was not what I was going for,  I wanted it darker" 


Jodi described the color of her hair before the second process as "medium brown."  However,  some people might describe it as a shade of  "auburn blonde."

Jodi as an "auburn blonde"

5-10-2008  

5-15-2008  Jodi 

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Jodi had bleached her hair for many years.   Color fades on dyed hair.  This is especially true for bleached hair, and extra steps are needed to make the color last longer.    Permanent hair dye fades within 4-6 weeks; the time is sooner for bleached hair.  If Jodi dyed her hair to a "dirty brown/ medium brown"  on March 20th,  then by June 2nd it would have been much lighter as noted in the above picture.

Jodi rented a car on June 2nd.  The car rental agent was provided a photo line-up of several dark-haired women:

He picked Jodi out of the line-up but added "she was blonde."  He did not say "platinum blonde"  or "auburn blonde."   He only said blonde,  which Jodi's hair could be considered to be after the dark dye faded away.

Some of Jodi's supporters have suggested that the car rental agent was mistaken and had only remembered her driver's license.  However,  the car rental agent spent a lot more time in a face-to-face conversation with Jodi than he did when he looked at her driver's license.The rental car agent had an at least 15-minute long face-to-face interaction with Arias.  His normal practice was to speak with his customers and get to know a little about them.  During their face-to-face time, he asked her about herself and where she was going. He tried to match her with a car, offered a red car,  and she refused.

Jodi's hair color in her driver's license was very similar to her hair color in May,  2008:

 The rental agent spent less than a minute looking at Arias' driver's license. He spent at least 15 minutes looking at her face and found her to be pleasant and friendly.  Which image is more likely to be remembered a couple of months later?  Is it a brunette Arias during a 15 minute + face-to-face interaction who was friendly, pleasant, and refused a red car or the blank stare of a brief look at a still picture?

In June,  photos show Arias' hair color was the same color as her brother's hair.  The photos she took on June 3rd do not show any areas of lighter hair streaks.  However,  a black and white photo she took on May 25th does.  The evidence supports that as of May 25th,  Jodi had not yet dyed her hair for the second time.  If she did,  her black and white hair color should have matched her brother's hair color, and the lighter streaks would have been absent.

When she was asked what color her hair was when she left Pasadena in the evening of June 3rd,  Jodi alleged it was "auburn brown."


KN - What color was your hair when you left Pasadena?
Jodi "Kind of like an auburn brown I would say."
The photographic evidence shows when Jodi left Pasadena her hair was dark brown, about the same color of her brother's hair in the May 25th black and white photo.   Jodi took three pictures of herself on June 3rd, 2008. 

Arias dyed her hair sometime after the May 25th photograph was taken.  The evidence gathered from the rental car agent's statement about Jodi being blonde supports she dyed it between June 2nd and June 3rd.   Several hours are unaccounted for between the documented time of her car rental and the next documented stop as noted in the receipt evidence. It provided enough time for Jodi to have dyed her hair back to brown after leaving the car rental agent.   Jodi also spent the night at Matt's house which provided another opportunity for her to dye her hair.   She had plenty of time and opportunity to dye her hair prior to the June 3rd pictures.

THE  TIME LINE OF HAIR COLOR  

When Jodi dyed her hair the second time,  she was not dying hair bleached free of color.  She was dying hair that already contained some dye to provide undertones.  However,  the color still would have faded some after a few weeks.  The result would have been a less rich brown:

 Jodi Arias claimed, "I didn't stop to dye it along the way."    Bull-hockie!  Jodi dyed her hair twice.  The first was prior to the April 08 pictures that show her as the "dirty brown/ medium brown"  color she didn't like.  The second time she dyed her hair it was much darker without the blonde  highlights as noted in the 6-03-08 photographs.  The highlights can be detected in the May 25th, 2008 black and white picture.  They would not be there if she had dyed her hair from auburn blonde to brunette.   There is no mistaking her as a blonde in the 6-03-08 picture and the rental agent spent a lot more time talking to her face-to-face then the time it took to verify her identity with her driver's license.  Other than Jodi's statement,  all the evidence supports she dyed her hair during the trip.

During her initial arrest interview with Detective Flores,  Jodi brought up the subject of her hair color.   Flores implied that Jodi was spotted in AZ by neighbors.  Jodi vehemently stated she was not there.  In order to convince Flores,  she made the statement the neighbors only knew her as a platinum blonde and implied they would not have recognized her as a brunette.  Jodi's statement provided some insight to the detectives as to the steps she had taken to hide her presence in AZ.  It demonstrated Jodi gave the situation some thought about how to avoid being detected indicating an act of premeditation.

Jodi's changing her hair color is only a portion of the evidence that supported she premeditated the murder of Travis Alexander.  On it's own,  it has little effect but when combined with the other steps she took it paints a picture of someone who was trying to operate under the radar and hide her presence in Arizona.