Lead detective creates furor when he admits “grave mistake” during JODI ARIAS request for mistrial in the bombshell murder case.
Despite a shocking confession from one of the leading case detectives that he had made a “grave mistake” during previous testimony, murder defendant Jodi Aria ‘ request for a mistrial was refused by the court judge Thursday.
As grisly crime scene photos showed earlier this week, there was no doubt that Travis Alexander was stabbed in the back, had his throat slit and was shot in the face – however, the exact sequence of the gruesome events has now been thrown into doubt – and although it doesn’t warrant a mistrial, it could mean the difference between life imprisonment and a death sentence.
RadarOnline.com reported that the evidence suggests that Alexander was shot first, then attacked with a knife, but testimony by medical examiner Dr. Kevin Horn disputed that sequence of events, and on Thursday, Detective Esteban Flores finally admitted he made a grave mistake when asked at an August 2009 hearing which potentially deadly wound was inflicted first and replied “gunshot.”
Jodi, now 32, stands accused of shooting Alexander, a 30-year-old motivational speaker in the face, stabbing him 27 times and slitting his throat from ear to ear in his Mesa, Arizona home in June 2008.
“I had spoken to Dr. Horn the day before in a short conversation and discussed mainly what kind of pain the victim would have been through and if he suffered, and very briefly the sequencing,” Detective Flores, a 19 year vetof the Mesa Police Department, told the Maricopa County court.
“The sequencing wasn’t very important at that time.”
When asked by defense attorney Kirk Nurmi if it is important to give accurate testimony, he replied humbly: “Yes, of course.
“It was not inaccurate, it was mistaken… I am not a doctor,” said Flores. “If I gave that testimony, it was a misunderstanding of what Dr. Horn told me.”
Throughout the proceedings that saw the respected detective being scolded by prosecuting attorney Juan Martinez, Arias sat looking frail and demure in new librarian-esque glasses, a brown short-sleeved top, brown pants and green floral blouse.
The defendant appeared to be a far cry from the defiant woman the court saw in a clip from her Inside Edition jailhouse interview, where she said, “I can’t imagine slitting somebody’s throat.”
