Jodi Arias Must Overcome Her Lies If She Testifies This Week

What Jodi Arias Must Do When She Takes the Stand

But those taped police interrogations also show Arias lying easily and determinedly, denying that she was even in Arizona when Alexander was killed. She drew a map for Flores to show how she got lost on her way to Utah -- not Arizona -- to see Burns. She said the reason why her phone was off during the time of Alexander's death was because she lost it and its battery died. She later found the phone, she said, under the passenger seat of her car.

When Arias was cornered by evidence that she was at Alexander's house -- including dated photos of them nude on Alexander's bed -- she curled up in her chair and told police that a masked couple, a man and a woman, killed Alexander and took down information from her driver's license on where she and her parents lived.

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In yet another example of what could be perceived as her ability to lie and lack of remorse, Arias drove straight from Alexander's house to Burns' home in Utah where they chastely kissed and cuddled. When Burns asked about cuts on her hands, Arias said she broke a glass at a bartending job.

"Jodi is not a sympathethic person," McDonald said. "It was an act of savagery. Look at the description of how she left him dead in the bathtub for days and within 24 hours was in bed with another guy in Utah."

McDonald said he expects the defense to try to convince the jury that Arias must have been faced with extraordinary and threatening circumstances to kill Alexander.

"How can we create an excuse for her? I think the best way is to have jurors look at her and say she is incapable of it, that something must have happened to provoke that violent outburst," he said.

"It's my understanding that they have some evidence that this guy was using her, so the challenege I think is one, to focus on personality, show likeability. And two, to show this guy a jerk," McDonald said. "Tough with his family loading into the courtroom every day, riveted with emotion. That will be hard."