William Arias- Jodi Arias’ father

Jodi Arias, convicted of first-degree murder of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander, addressed the jury yesterday at Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix, during the penalty phase of her murder trial. Arias asked jurors to give her life in prison instead of death penalty for the sake of her family.

Arias told the jury that she planned to use her time in prison for positive things like donating her hair to be made into wigs for cancer victims, helping establish prison recycling programs and designing T-shirts that would raise money for victims of domestic abuse.

“I’m asking you to please, please don’t do that to them. I’ve already hurt them so badly, along with so many other people,” she said. “I want everyone’s healing to begin, and I want everyone’s pain to stop.”

Arias admitted killing boyfriend Travis Alexander and said it was the “worst thing” she had ever done, but insisted she did it in self defense. She added she even considered suicide after Alexander’s death but didn’t do it because of her love to her own family.

“To this day, I can hardly believe I was capable of such violence. But I know that I was,” she said. “And for that, I’m going to be sorry for the rest of my life.”

“I loved Travis, and I looked up to him,” Arias said. “At one point, he was the world to me. This is the worst mistake of my life. It’s the worst thing I’ve ever done.”

Arias’ mother, father and sister watched from the other side and cried. William Angelo Arias is Jodi’s father. In a police interrogation by Detective Esteban Flores, the lead investigator on the case, William Arias said:

“She was a strange person … after she left the house, she just kind of got a little strange.  She was really friendly.  Sometimes she’d call real sweet, and 10 minutes later, she’ll come and call in a rage, you know, just screaming at my wife.  She did that over the last year and a half.”

Watch the video below.