Prosecution: Previous Jodi Arias attorneys at fault if porn deleted

On Monday, attorneys for Jodi Arias filed a motion alleging that the prosecution had committed gross misconduct by secretly deleting thousands of pornographic files from victim Travis Alexander's computer while it was in police custody in 2009.

On Wednesday, Deputy Maricopa County Attorney Juan Martinez struck back, saying in his own motion that if any pornography was on the computer, it got there through computer viruses.

And if anything was deleted, Martinez claimed, it was deleted by Arias' former defense counsel.

June 19, 2009, is the date that current Arias attorney Kirk Nurmi noted in his motion as the time when the massive deletions took place.

And on that day, Martinez wrote, Arias' first defense team, Maria Schaffer and Greg Parzych, went to the Mesa Police Department to view "a number of electronic items seized during the investigation, including the victim's Compaq Presario computer."

"If the history was altered, it was changed by defense counsel, not the state," Martinez added.

Martinez was present when the attorneys examined the electronic items, he acknowledged in court.

Schaffer, who has represented many high-profile defendants, including "Serial Shooter" Samuel Dieteman and 1991 "Temple Murderer" Johnathan Doody, told The Arizona Republic that she was "livid" at the allegation, but would not comment further.

Martinez also wrote that the hard drive was found to have 24 viruses and 17 malicious malware items. He also noted that some of the dates when porn sites were reportedly accessed were after Alexander was already dead.

And during a hearing Wednesday in Maricopa County Superior Court, Martinez reasserted that police forensic analysis had detected no pornography on the computer.

In Wednesday's hearing, Nurmi said that his analysis of the computer was ongoing and that he was not ready for an evidentiary hearing. He asked for two or three days of expert testimony later in the month.

"There is a plethora of evidence being uncovered by the expert," Nurmi said.

Meanwhile, Judge Sherry Stephens granted Martinez's motion asking that no witnesses be questioned about pornography on the computer until it is sorted out.

The presence of pornography, especially child pornography, matters because Arias claimed that Alexander was attracted to young boys.

Martinez thoroughly drubbed the idea in Arias' first trial and denounced her as a liar.

Outside the courthouse on Wednesday, Alexander's sister Samantha, a California police officer, told Channel 3 TV's Mike Watkiss, "My brother had a virus on his computer. That's all it is.

"I'm not supposed to talk to the media," she said, "but I would say that it is hogwash. I have been in law enforcement for 12 years, and if my brother was a pedophile, I would be the first to point it out. No way."

Alexander was found dead in the shower of his Mesa home in 2008 with a bullet in his head, a slit throat and nearly 30 stab wounds.

Arias was convicted of his murder in May 2013, but the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on whether she should be sentenced to life of death.

A new trial to consider the sentence began Oct. 21. It was stalled last week when several media outlets appealed Stephens' decision to allow witnesses for Arias to testify behind closed doors.

The Arizona Court of Appeals placed a stay on any secret testimony pending further argument on its constitutionality at the end of November.

It was unclear whether the trial would go forward Wednesday morning, given the misconduct allegations and Nurmi's unwillingness to call out of order witnesses who were not afraid to testify in public.

But Stephens brushed aside a motion by Nurmi to exclude TV cameras from the courtroom because they had videotaped his mitigation specialist during a hearing last week. And she ordered him to call a witness.

He called psychologist L.C. Miccio-Fonseca, who specializes in "unusual sexual proclivities," to talk about the "dynamic" of Alexander's and Arias' relationship.

The psychologist concluded that Alexander was able to be intimate only sexually with Arias, not socially, and often treated her badly in public by keeping their relationship secret.

"Once the bedroom door is open, Mr. Alexander does not feel connected to Ms. Arias," she said.

Miccio-Fonseca will resume her testimony today.