U.S. Jury finds Jodi Arias guilty of first-degree murder

A U.S. jury has found a 32-year-old aspiring artist guilty of first-degree murder for having shot her ex-boyfriend with a gun and stabbed him 27 times. Her trial has become a sensation in the U.S. due to her accounts of oftentimes X-rated details of her life, perjuries and artwork in prison.

After receiving the verdict, she created more controversies by saying in an interview that she would "prefer to die sooner than later” and that “death is the ultimate freedom.”

Jodi Arias was indicted on charges of brutally murdering Travis Alexander in June 2008. An Arizona jury found her guilty of first-degree murder Wednesday.

Investigators said that Arias, who had suspected her boyfriend’s “infidelity,” committed the premeditated murder over jealousy. However, the defendant changed her testimonies several times during the course of the investigation and trials. First, she claimed that her ex-boyfriend had been murdered by an intruder wearing a mask, arguing that she was innocent. Two years after her arrest, she said that Alexander suddenly attacked her right after an intercourse and that she shot him to defend herself. She also denied that she stabbed him with a knife.

In the latest trial, she said she was a victim of abuse by her parents in an attempt to seek sympathy. For 18 days, she gave vivid descriptions about her abused childhood, ex-boyfriends who mistreated her and shocking sexual intercourses with Alexander.

However, a series of decisive evidence surfaced, including her grandparents’ testimony that their gun, which was the same kind that was used in the murder, had been stolen a week before Alexander’s death. Finally, she admitted that she was guilty. Her lawyer claimed that she was suffering from psychiatric problems such as amnesia but the jury did not buy the claim.