Killer Girlfriend: The Jodi Arias Story Read Online Free Page A

get-rich-quick scheme
     through a company called Prepaid Legal. He gave her a magazine and DVD about the company,
     and Jodi paid it no mind. She tossed the materials aside in a storage closet and forgot
     about them.
    Months later - as things were falling apart with Darryl in 2006 - Jodi was cleaning
     out the closet and stumbled upon the Prepaid Legal discs. She watched and became intrigued
     by the concept.
    The technical term for the company’s structure is “multi-level marketing.” The best
     comparison is Amway. Generations of Americans are familiar with the aggressive sales
     tactics of Amway workers, who sign up sales people for the product and ask them do
     the same to draw in other prospective clients. Prepaid Legal had a similar structure
     for its sales force, and Travis was one of its rising stars.
    Jodi’s first big introduction to the company was on a trip to the MGM Grand in Las
     Vegas in September 2006 for a Prepaid Legal convention that attracted thousands of
     people from all over the U.S. and Canada.
    She carpooled to the event from California with two other Prepaid Legal devotees.
     After a couple days of chilling by the pool and meeting new people, Jodi and her friends
     had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.
    They settled up their check and were waiting outside the restaurant when Jodi saw
     a man from the corner of her eye. They exchanged looks.
    His brisk walk and confidence stood out amid the crowds of people, the cacophony
     of slot machines and the smell of stale cigarette smoke.
    This guy is going somewhere, literally and figuratively, she thought. She was a little
     taken aback when he extended his hand to introduce himself.
    “I’m Travis Alexander.”
    They immediately had a connection, and Travis gave Jodi his undivided attention as
     they walked through the casino and chatted. After exchanging some small talk and tidbits
     about Prepaid Legal, Travis invited her to an executive banquet that night.
    He was an executive director at the time, entitling him to exclusive tickets to the
     event that Jodi could not have gotten given her newbie status in the organization.
    The affair was intoxicating to her. She was no stranger to high-end dinners, but
     for most of her life, she was the one serving the meals, not receiving them.
    On top of that, the discussion of wealth was a little dizzying for Jodi. To succeed
     at Prepaid Legal, you needed to be an aggressive salesperson — always closing, the
     mantra goes - and the company wasn’t shy about heaping honors on the most successful
     employees.
    If you make $100,000 in a year, you get a ring. Pull in $250,000 and you get a diamond
     embedded in the ring. A half-million dollars and you get two diamonds.
    It was a fun weekend for Jodi as she was introduced to a guy who clearly was into
     her. She and Travis talked about his love of Ultimate Fighting Challenge and the San
     Francisco 49ers. Even though Travis grew up in Southern California, where the San
     Diego Chargers and the Raiders were popular, he rooted for San Francisco because Steve
     Young was the star quarterback. Young is a Mormon who starred at BYU and is actually
     a descendant of Brigham Young.
    They parted ways after the weekend but made sure to exchange numbers to meet up again,
     even though Jodi was still living with Brewer in what she said was a platonic arrangement.
     They talked on the phone for hours on end in the month or so that followed, then decided
     to meet up in Ehrenburg, Ariz., along the California-Arizona border, to see each other
     in person. Travis was living in Mesa at the time, and Jodi was still in California,
     so Ehrenburg was a good meeting point.
    They went to a movie in nearby Blythe, Calif., watched game shows on the TV in their
     hotel room and had dinner at Sizzler.
    They also hooked up for the first time.
    They started kissing from the minute they walked into the hotel room. It escalated
     to grinding on each other fully clothed - what Jodi called