Guilty of grisly murder, Jodi Arias auctions 'one-of-a-kind' item--spectacles she wore at trial
Jodi Arias was found guilty last year in the grisly murder of her onetime boyfriend, Travis Alexander, with the help of two key sets of evidence:
- Photos she apparently took of the crime scene and then forgot in a camera found in the washing machine at his Arizona home.
- A 2009 interview with 48 Hours, in which she told a tall tale, as she later admitted, about what really happened, contending that masked intruders committed the crime.
Arias claimed at trial that she acted in self-defense as she shot Alexander, stabbed him more than two dozen times and nearly decapitated him by slashing his throat from ear to ear. The jury didn’t agree, convicting Arias of first-degree murder, but then deadlocking on whether she should get the death penalty.
At this point, as her resentencing looms in the capital case, she is not only selling artwork being marketed on a website under her name but trying to auction off the eyeglasses she wore during the much-publicized Maricopa County trial.
The starting bid for the spectacles, described as a “one-of-a-kind piece of history,” is $500, a page on her website explains, and the website states the money will go to an unidentified charity in Phoenix. Participants will be required to pay a $250 registration fee to show their good faith, but the money will be refunded after the conclusion of the auction, the site says, to those who didn’t submit the winning bid.
The Daily Mail and KFYI have stories. ABC News notes that profits from art auctioned before Arias’ murder trial last year went to pay trial-related expenses, including travel costs for family members.
Meanwhile, Arias initially decided to represent herself at the resentencing, but has changed her mind. The 34-year-old will be represented by counsel as a new sentencing hearing begins Sept. 29, the Arizona Republic reported last week,
The auction ends Sept. 24, so Arias presumably must intend to wear a different pair of eyeglasses, or none at all, when she goes before the new jury.
