Sky Hughes, who along with her husband Chris Hughes was a member of the church and a friend of Alexander's, told Velez-Mitchell that Travis had told Jodi, "I want you to know that I respect you, and I don't want you to regret anything and let's move slowly." Sky and Chris, who defended Alexander's image during the trial in response to Arias' claims that he brutalized her.
Arias, who was living in Yreka, Calif., and Alexander talked all the time long distance and would rendezvous in different cities, but he's said to have kept her at arm's length when she was around his friends. While they were obviously having a sexual relationship, Alexander seemed to be conflicted between his faith, which frowned on premarital sex, and how he was actually living his life—and he would take it out on her. In texts and emails to Arias he called her a "slut," according to a New York Daily News excerpt from Exposed.
Alexander eventually started dating someone else locally, but stayed in contact with Arias. In a recording played at trial that Arias made of a phone conversation they had about a month before the murder, he tells her he wants to tie her to a tree and do things to her (using more explicit language). She had taken a number of graphic nude photos of the two of them, some of which ended up being used as evidence.
According to Shanna Hogan's Picture Perfect: The Jodi Arias Story, Alexander told his friend Taylor that he had broken it off for good with Arias, telling her, "I never want to see you again. This is it." Asked if he was worried about what Arias might do, Alexander said, "No. She's crazy but she's harmless."
Ultimately, the murder was practically caught on camera.
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