Arias Trial; Compare the receipts and the monetary transactions

[DAWN TREADER]

Once Jodi Arias returned the rental car what car was she driving around town in? I thought her Infinity had been repo'd?

 

[IcarusAscending]

If Jodi had indeed taken US-93 North from Mesa, AZ to the Hoover Dam in 2008, something to note is that the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge was not available to her. The bypass bridge was completed in 2010, so in 2008, if Jodi had chosen US-93, that choice would have required that she travel OVER the dam, as Old US-93 used to run right over the Hoover Dam.

If that was the case, she would have been traveling on the north side of the two-lane road that runs on top of the Hoover Dam, putting her close to the Lake Mead side of the dam as she crossed.

It would have been a bit awkward, but the speed limit on the dam in 2008 was low (15 mph), so chucking a .25 caliber gun out of the passenger window, past the sidewalk and over the guard rail would have been possible. If successful, the gun would have landed in Lake Mead. I don't know how deep Lake Mead is at the point where it abuts the north side of the Hoover Dam, but its maximum depth is 489 feet.

It was the middle of the night on Thursday, June 5th when Jodi traversed the Hoover Dam, so she would not have been able to park in a visitor center and walk across to dump the gun, etc.

Having written all of that, we don't really know for sure that Arias crossed the Hoover Dam. She stated in her testimony that she encountered a police checkpoint near the dam, but who knows if that's the truth?

However, the shortest distance between Mesa, AZ and Mesquite, NV (where it is documented that she filled the gas tank) is via US-93, over the Hoover Dam, so that's why I'm confident she traveled US-93 after murdering Travis in Mesa, AZ. Yes, Jodi wanted out of AZ as soon as possible, so it's possible she traveled I-10 West to US-95 North (to I-15 North), but she didn't have unlimited gas at her disposal, so my thoughts are that she took the most direct route via US-93 North from Mesa and right over the Hoover Dam to Mesquite, NV (402 miles).

Or she could've chucked the gun in the desert, as stated.

I just found this information on the Internet:

Quickest Route

The quickest route from Phoenix to Las Vegas is just over 287 miles from the center of the city and it takes about five hours, according to Mapquest. The first step is to get on the Aqua Fria Freeway which makes up a major part of the beltway around Phoenix. Take the freeway to Sun City, which is northwest of Phoenix. From there, take US 60 North to Wickenburg, where you can pick up US 93.

Speed Limits

US 93 is a two-lane, rural highway for most of its length. The advantage of traveling along this route is that the speed limit is 65 miles per hour for most of the trip. That means you’ll be able to make good time between Phoenix and Las Vegas outside of the populated areas.

And this additional information about Old US-93 from a travel website:

US 93 is a wide dual carriageway for most of its length, as befitting the main route between Arizona and Nevada, but for a short distance either side of Hoover Dam it became a steep, narrow, two lane road with a 15 mph speed limit.

 

[IcarusAscending]

Once Jodi Arias returned the rental car what car was she driving around town in? I thought her Infinity had been repo'd?

I believe you might be correct about the Infiniti having been repo'd, but she definitely possessed a car, because her testimony has included statements to both the defense and the prosecution as to how unfit her car was for long-distance travel (which is why she rented on 6/2/2008, according to her).

 

[sumbunny]

JA claimed her infiniti was a gas hog, so she rented a more economical car for her trip

 

[Jenni]

Here's the information I could get from the testimony and the receipts shown on the screen:

Budget *- Redding; 6/2/08, 8:04 am; MasterCard 2015 6/2 8:04 2834

Shell/Syskiou Food Mart - Yreka - 6/2, 5:37 am, Matercard 2015, Fuel $15.00

MacDonald's - Lodi, CA - 6/2, 7:32 pm; fries, water

Valero - 6/2, 8:41 PM - Mastercard 2015

WAMU - Monterey - 6/3, 10:10 am; deposit 400 cash, acct 8006

WAMU - Monterey, 6/3, 10:11 am, deposit 300 cash, acct 7148

WAMU - Monterey - 6/3, 10:15 am, deposit 100 cash, acct 7148

Walmart - Monterey/Salinas ? - 6/3, 3:22 pm (facial cleaner x2, brown hair color x2, 5 gal kerosene container), paid cash $45

CVS - Pasadena, CA - 6/3, 8:31 pm

Starbucks - Pasadena, CA - 6/3, 8:41 pm, Mastercard 2015, $10.85

Arco - Pasadena, CA, 6/3, 8:42 PM, Mastercard 2015, 8 gallons $35.06

Arco, Pasadena, CA, 6/3, 8:46 PM, 9.59 gallons, $40

Arco, Pasadena, CA 6/3; 2.77 gallons

In and Out Burger - Sparks, NV - 6/6, 10:38 am, mastercard $3.37

Tesoro, SLC Utah, 6/6 3:57 am, Mastercard 2015, 10.6 gallons, 41.18

Tesoro, 6/6 , 4:05 am, fuel $36.98, mastercard 2015, 9.58 gallons

Flying J - Winnemucca, NV- 6/6, mastercard 2015, 12 gallons,$ 49.91

7-11- Sparks, NV, - 6/6, 10:34 AM, 5 gallons, MasterCard 2015

Valero, Redding CA, 6/7 12:28 PM, Mastercard, gas $40

Budget - Redding 6/7 1:08 pm

Why would Jodi buy water when she testified that she had a case of water from Costco in her trunk? McDonald's would have given her a courtesy cup of ice; instead she paid for a small bottle there?

 

[Linda7NJ]

Why would Jodi buy water when she testified that she had a case of water from Costco in her trunk? McDonald's would have given her a courtesy cup of ice; instead she paid for a small bottle there?

I'd pay for cold water,

I don't believe she had a case of water in her trunk. I think she's a liar.


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[Puffin]

States Exhibit #237.004, Valero, 6/02/08 8:41pm, MC 2015

Do we know what this receipt is for and what the location of the Valero was?

 

[Jenni]

I'd pay for cold water,

I don't believe she had a case of water in her trunk. I think she's a liar.


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Jodi said she used a bottle from case in trunk to wash off.

 

[Linda7NJ]

Jodi said she used a bottle from case in trunk to wash off.

Yeah, Jodi said....

Means nothing to me. She's a liar that lies about even irrelevant things. So why would I believe she did that?

It's far more likely ... She showered standing over Travis's body. There is zero blood outside that master suite. How did she get out the door? Walk down the stairs, touch washer dryer..?

She was clean when she locked his bedroom door behind herself on her way out.




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[IcarusAscending]

Jodi said she used a bottle from case in trunk to wash off.

I guess it's very possible that she purchased the water somewhere during her travels.

If she did, indeed, purchase a case of water from Costco, it could've been anywhere along the route--perhaps in Salinas, when she was at the WalMart, etc. The Salinas stop took place the day after the McDonald's in Lodi...

 

[IcarusAscending]

Do we know what this receipt is for and what the location of the Valero was?

I've been DYING to figure this one out!

I found a photo of the receipt online. The header of the receipt reads "Valero Country Store." This is a Valero gas station/mini mart. She most likely purchased gas.

First thing to remember is that this receipt is from 2008, so who even knows if the Valero Country Store she visited then is still in operation...

But assuming that the Valero Country Store is still in operation, there is a Valero located on I-5 in Gustine, CA, which is 79 miles south of the McDonald's in Lodi, CA. This particular Valero is located just north of the highway exits for CA-152, which is the route Jodi would have taken to travel from Lodi, CA to Monterey, CA.

(She took I-5 South from Redding, and since she is documented as having been at McDonald's in Lodi at 7:32 PM, the most reasonable route from Lodi to Monterey, where she spent the night at Matt McCartney's, is via CA-152.)

Google Maps approximates the trip from Lodi to Gustine to take 1 hour and 11 minutes. If she made a purchase at McDonald's at 7:32 PM, and a gas purchase at Valero Country Store in Gustine at 8:41 PM, this matches up pretty much exactly (give or take).

But here's what I really wanna know...

Why did Arias choose to travel from Redding to Monterey via the town of Lodi? It's a somewhat peculiar choice. Most people would take I-5 South from Redding to I-680 South to Route 101 South. Route 101 South would take Jodi right into Monterey.

Instead, Jodi chose to stay on I-5 South beyond Sacramento, and then take CA-152 West into Monterey.

Her choice added 30 minutes to her trip.

This route does not create a huge delay--and she wasn't yet "on the run," so she perhaps wasn't in a hurry--but it's still a bit unusual.

Furthermore, in her telephone conversation on June 25, 2008 with Detective Flores, she discusses her road trip in some detail. We're all well aware that she lied to Detective Flores on myriad occasions, but the lies she told him in this particular phone conversation were amidst truths, and so I wonder if the lies don't indicate something very important.

In the telephone conversation, Jodi told Flores that her own car was in poor mechanical condition, so she decided to rent a car. She said she picked up the rental in Redding, and was driven there by her future sister-in-law.

Upon picking up the car, she then "went back" to her brother's house to nap, as she had been up all night. Jodi doesn't state which brother, and she doesn't state where that brother lives.

She continues by telling Flores that she got on the road (after the nap) and visited friends in Santa Cruz, first, and later visited friends in Monterey, where she spent the night.

Okay, since she's still an innocent woman at this point in her trip, why would she feel the need to state that she visited friends in Santa Cruz (a coastal community) when she really took I-5 South from Redding and ended up at McDonald's in Lodi at 7:32 PM that evening? Santa Cruz and Lodi are not near each other. It's a lie that only makes sense if she needed to hide something about having been in Lodi, or having been along I-5 South in the Sacramento area.

Incidentally, she picked up the rental car at 8:04 AM on June 2nd. And she purchased $15.00 in gas in Yreka at 5:37 AM, before departing Yreka with her sister-in-law for Redding. If Jodi was simply going to go back to her brother's house and take a nap after picking up the rental car, why would she not just continue sleeping in Yreka and pick up the rental car later in the day on June 2nd? I suppose it's possible that her sister-in-law was only available to drive Jodi to Redding at a certain hour of the day...

Anyway, the drive from Redding to the McDonald's in Lodi takes 3 hours. Jodi rented the car at 8:04 AM and she is documented as having been in Lodi at 7:32 PM. That's a span of 11.5 hours to drive just 3 hours. What happened during the other 8.5 hours???

Yes, she said she napped at her brother's, but I'm not sure I'm buying it...

Again, why the heck was this monster in Lodi at 7:32 PM?

And why state she visited friends in Santa Cruz?

What is she hiding so early in her trip???

 

[IcarusAscending]

Yeah, Jodi said....

Means nothing to me. She's a liar that lies about even irrelevant things. So why would I believe she did that?

It's far more likely ... She showered standing over Travis's body. There is zero blood outside that master suite. How did she get out the door? Walk down the stairs, touch washer dryer..?

She was clean when she locked his bedroom door behind herself on her way out.




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I'm prone to believe the very same thing.

The bruising on his legs, ankles and feet aren't because she "danced on him," as some have hypothesized, but because she had to walk over him several times as she made her way in and out of the shower, after she had stuffed him in there.

She most certainly dragged him into the shower with her hands under his armpits, Jodi leading the way. If she was leading the way, then she entered the shower stall first--and the only way out was to climb over him.

And yes, she probably showered over him after that, stepping on his shins, ankles and feet in the process.

Investigators have stated that Travis' slaughtered body had been cleansed, but the more accurate scenario may be that the cleansing of Travis was simply a byproduct of Jodi having cleansed herself over him.

(Is anyone else feeling the urge to listen to James Taylor's "Shower the People" right now?)

 

[Puffin]

Unless I overlooked something, she had to have stopped for gas before making the gas purchase in Pasadena with the gas cans. She couldn't have made the drive from Redding to Pasadena (not even including the side trips) on one tank of gas.

Maybe that's what the stop at the Valero Country Store is for.

Most car rental companies rent you a car with a full tank of gas. The rental receipt shows the following:

Fuel out: 8/8
Fuel in: 0/8

http://s1303.beta.photobucket.com/u...ered/237001-6_zpsb514bf8f.png.html?sort=3&o=5

Anyone think this means 8 gallons?

 

[Smelly Squirrel]

Yeah, Jodi said....

Means nothing to me. She's a liar that lies about even irrelevant things. So why would I believe she did that?

It's far more likely ... She showered standing over Travis's body. There is zero blood outside that master suite. How did she get out the door? Walk down the stairs, touch washer dryer..?

She was clean when she locked his bedroom door behind herself on her way out.

Yeah, she didn't want to admit to showering next to him.

 

[IcarusAscending]

Unless I overlooked something, she had to have stopped for gas before making the gas purchase in Pasadena with the gas cans. She couldn't have made the drive from Redding to Pasadena (not even including the side trips) on one tank of gas.

Maybe that's what the stop at the Valero Country Store is for.

Most car rental companies rent you a car with a full tank of gas. The rental receipt shows the following:

Fuel out: 8/8
Fuel in: 0/8

http://s1303.beta.photobucket.com/u...ered/237001-6_zpsb514bf8f.png.html?sort=3&o=5

Anyone think this means 8 gallons?

Yes, it's assumed that the purchase at Valero Country Store at 8:42 PM on June 2nd was for gas. I'm sorry if I wasn't clearer in my previous post regarding this receipt.

Regarding the rental car receipt, the "eighths" refer to the gas tank level. 4/8 would mean the car was rented or returned with one-half of a tank. 1/8 would mean the car was rented or returned with one-eighth of a tank of gas. Etc.

The receipt shows 0/8 upon return, implying that the car had been returned with an empty gas tank, but as I wrote in an earlier post, this might've been a mistake on Budget's part, as 30 minutes prior to having returned the car on June 7th, we know (from a receipt) that Jodi purchased $40.00 worth of gas from a Valero in Redding, CA.

If that $40.00 gas purchase was not for the rental car (but instead, for the car that transported her back to Yreka, where she lived at the time), then Budget would very likely have charged Jodi for the cost to fill the tank on the rental car. I haven't come across an image of the entire rental car receipt, so I don't know if the $233.97 Budget rental charge on her Washington Mutual account included the cost to fill up the tank of the Ford Focus.

 

[Donnareit]

I think the reason this 3rd can is an issue for her is it goes to premeditation (she purchased it to ensure no fuel purchases would occur between Pasadena and Nevada), a 'smoking gun' of sorts, and it also will ruin her credibility on the stand now that she has lied about it. :banghead: :jail:

The 3rd gas can is being argued for the same reason her hair color and the license plates matter -- was she trying to avoid any evidence that she planned to go to Mesa all along. Pre-planning equals premeditation.

 

[Soliloquy]

Or maybe "Adios" lol

or Arias. The first letter is an A. I cannot tell what it says, but it kind of looks like "A of ....."

Are you sure it doesn't say "Idaho" with a cursive capital I? Was one of their trips for the 1000 Places to See in Idaho and this could be her reimbursement for half? I don't know if anyone has tracked all of the places she testified that they visited.

 

[jojomonkey]

I guess it's very possible that she purchased the water somewhere during her travels.

If she did, indeed, purchase a case of water from Costco, it could've been anywhere along the route--perhaps in Salinas, when she was at the WalMart, etc. The Salinas stop took place the day after the McDonald's in Lodi...

It's kind of a non-issue with me and I don't think it's that relevant to the case, but it would be interesting to know if she even has a Costco membership at all. If she does, more than likely it would be via her ex and he is still paying her membership dues. Or, there may have been a case of water at her grandparents house, or exes house, and she just decided to steal it.

 

[IcarusAscending]

I just telephoned the gas station at 1699 W. North Temple in Salt Lake City, UT.

Yes, gas is available 24/7, with a credit card.

And no, the convenience store is not presently open 24/7.

However, the convenience store USED to be open 24/7. I asked when they changed their hours of operation. The young man with whom I spoke informed me that he has worked at that location approximately 6 months, and he believes that perhaps 1 month prior to his start date, they stopped operating the convenience store 24 hours per day.

So, in 2008, the convenience store was likely open at 3:57 AM, when Jodi filled up the gas tank and 3 gas cans. If pressed about the $19.65 transaction on her Washington Mutual bank statement, I'm betting that Jodi will simply say that she purchased Bugles, Funyuns and beef jerky.

The thing is, Jodi didn't respond to Martinez' assertion that she filled a 3rd gas can in Salt Lake City. She just froze. Nurmi said, "Objection! That transaction could've been for anything!", but Jodi didn't say anything, which I found very atypical (and very telling).

 

[IcarusAscending]

It's kind of a non-issue with me and I don't think it's that relevant to the case, but it would be interesting to know if she even has a Costco membership at all. If she does, more than likely it would be via her ex and he is still paying her membership dues. Or, there may have been a case of water at her grandparents house, or exes house, and she just decided to steal it.

Agreed. I'm not hung up on the water; a poster had asked why Jodi paid for water at McDonald's in Lodi, CA when she allegedly had a case of water in her trunk.

Again, if she did, indeed, have a case of water in her trunk, she could've purchased it at any Costco along the way.