Pool / Pool / Reuters

George Zimmerman, seen here during a hearing in April, goes on trial this month. Jurors will be identified by number but will not be sequestered.

Prosecutors in the Trayvon Martin shooting case have informed the court of a new exhibit that they claim shows defendant George Zimmerman once applied to become a police officer.

A filing by prosecutors this week included a description of an application from Zimmerman and a rejection letter from the Prince William County Police Department, but no explanation of what they plan to do with it.

NBC has not confirmed that the description is accurate. The filing said the police department was in Maryland, though Prince William County is in Virginia. The police department in Virginia could not immediately confirm Zimmerman had applied for a position there.

The new filings also suggest that the prosecution plans to make an issue out of Zimmerman's membership at a Florida martial arts gym, which bills itself as "the most complete fight gym in the world."

It's unclear how prosecutors plan to use that against the neighborhood watch volunteer, who says he was defending himself when he shot 17-year-old Martin on Feb. 26, 2012, in Sanford, Fla.

Zimmerman, 29, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and his trial begins with jury selection on Monday.

In other filings this week, the defense asked Judge Debra Nelson to restrict prosecutors from using certain terms, such as "vigilante" and "wannabe cop."

The defense also want limits on the use of the phrase "profiled." Prosecutors have alleged that Zimmerman, who is white of Hispanic descent, profiled the black teen before the deadly confrontation.

The judge has not ruled on the motion. She did, however, agree with the defense that jurors names should be kept private, known only to the court and the lawyers and referred to by number in public.

The defense also wanted the jury pool to be sequestered, but Nelson ruled that "such drastic measures are unnecessary."

Editor's note: George Zimmerman has sued NBCUniversal for defamation in civil court, and the company has strongly denied his allegations.

More than a year after the killing of Trayvon Martin touched off a national furor over race, guns and Florida’s expansive self-defense laws, the man who shot him to death is going to trial.

George Zimmerman, of white and Hispanic descent, claims Martin attacked him and that he acted in self-defense. 

Courtesy of Sybrina Fulton

Trayvon Martin in an undated family photo.

Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder. The trial, which begins Monday with jury selection, is expected to last more than a month.

Here’s a look at the key figures in the trial.

Trayvon Martin: The 17-year-old was walking back from a convenience store on the night of Feb. 26, 2012, wearing a hooded sweatshirt and carrying an iced tea and Skittles, when he became involved in an altercation with Zimmerman. Martin was killed with a single gunshot inside a gated community where his father’s girlfriend lived. Tall and lanky, a lover of sports and music, he was described by his family as quiet and respectful and by former teachers as creative and curious. Defense lawyers have offered a less flattering portrayal, releasing text messages in which Martin expressed interest in guns and discussed marijuana and being suspended from school.

Pool / Pool / Reuters

George Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Trayvon Martin.

George Zimmerman: The former neighborhood watch volunteer dialed 911 frequently to report suspicious activity. He called again the night of Feb. 26 and told the dispatcher: “This guy looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something.” Zimmerman, 29, grew up in northern Virginia and at one time aspired to be a police officer, according to a neighbor there. Court filings have suggested that the prosecution may try to make an issue out of his membership at a Florida martial arts gym.

Joe Burbank / AP file

No-nonsense Florida Judge Debra Nelson is presiding over the trial of George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin.

Judge Debra Nelson: In pretrial hearings, the jurist has shown she runs a tight ship and isn’t afraid to let lawyers know when she thinks they’re out of line. “She’s tough but fair,” said defense lawyer Bryce Fetter, who has gone before her many times. “She’s very, very smart. And she’s the boss.” Nelson, 59, a former prosecutor and civil litigator who has been on the bench for 14 years, is the third judge in the Zimmerman case -- appointed after the defense claimed the previous judge was biased against them.

Red Huber / Orlando Sentinel file

Chris Serino, right, was the lead investigator for the Sanford Police Department.

Chris Serino: He led the Sanford Police Department’s initial investigation into the shooting and his conflicting statements about the probe have drawn scrutiny. Serino authored a report that first recommended Zimmerman be charged with second-degree murder and was later revised to say manslaughter, court documents show. Last summer, Serino moved from his job as a detective to an overnight patrol shift at his request, a Sanford police spokesman said. He’s also hired a private attorney, Jose Baez, best known for representing Casey Anthony.

John Raoux / AP file

Benjamin Crump is representing Trayvon Martin's family.

Benjamin Crump: Martin’s family hired the Tallahassee lawyer, who had handled several wrongful death cases against police, two days after the teen was killed. He’s been front and center ever since and is credited with helping to transform Martin’s death into an international cause. The 43-year-old attorney – who “overcame very humble beginnings in North Carolina,” according to his firm's website — also negotiated a settlement with Zimmerman’s homeowners association.

Pool / Getty Images

Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda is leading the prosecution of George Zimmerman.

Bernie de la Rionda: After she was named special prosecutor, State’s Attorney Angela Corey turned to one of her most seasoned assistants to run the Zimmerman case. In nearly 30 years as a prosecutor, the Jacksonville-based de la Rionda has handled more than 250 jury trials and secured the death penalty some two dozen times. The 56-year-old prosecutor – whose parents sent him from Cuba to Florida when he was 4 years old – has not been reluctant to express annoyance or anger during pre-trial hearings. He is being assisted by fellow homicide prosecutor John Guy.

Joe Burbank / Pool via Getty Images file

Mark O'Mara is representing Zimmerman.

Mark O’Mara: The veteran defense lawyer was hired just hours before the special prosecutor announced she was filing a second-degree murder charge against Zimmerman, whose previous attorneys withdrew. While this is O'Mara's highest-profile case in 30 years of private practice, he was already well-known in the Orlando area as a television legal analyst during the Casey Anthony trial. The 57-year-old has not shied away from the spotlight – or social media, which he’s used to promote a legal defense fund for his client and press the self-defense claim. His co-counsel is Don West.

NBC's James Novogrod and Tom Winter contributed to this report.

Editor's note: George Zimmerman has sued NBCUniversal for defamation. The company has strongly denied his allegations.

U.S. Marshals Service via Reuters

Jury selection begins Tuesday in the trial of accused Boston mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger, seen here in a 2011 booking photo.

As the trial of alleged Boston gang boss, FBI informant and former fugitive James "Whitey" Bulger begins with jury selection Tuesday, Steve Davis is looking for three things: answers, justice and eye contact.

"He will not turn back and look at any of us," Davis complained Monday night after Bulger, wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, sat stony-faced through a lengthy pre-trial hearing.

"What a coward."

Davis's sister, Debra, was allegedly strangled by a bare-handed Bulger in 1981 because she planned to break up with his partner, Steven "The Rifleman" Flemmi. That's one of 19 slayings the 83-year-old Bulger is accused of in a 33-count indictment that includes racketeering, extortion, weapons and money-laundering charges.

Tipped off by a rogue FBI agent that he was about to be indicted, Bulger fled Boston in 1995. Two years later, the FBI admitted he and Flemmi had been top snitches against rivals of their Winter Hill Gang, although Bulger still denies it.

Courtesy Steve Davis

Debra Davis is one of Whitey Bulger's alleged murder victims. Her brother, Steve, plans to attend the trial.

With girlfriend Catherine Greig in tow, Bulger eluded capture until 2011 when an Icelandic beauty queen in Santa Monica, Calif., realized the low-key neighbors she knew as Charles and Carol Gasko were two of America's most wanted.

A parade of lawmen — and lawbreakers — will begin taking the stand against Bulger next week, and victims' families will be listening closely, hoping for revelations about which gangsters and G-men may have helped or protected him.

"I think it’s also going to fill in a lot of the blanks," said Patricia Donahue, whose husband, Michael, was gunned down in 1982 while giving a ride to an acquaintance who was allegedly on Bulger's hit list.

"I want to hear it all," said Davis, who is working on a book titled "Impact Statement" about the case.

That volume will join nearly a dozen published books about Bulger, who was raised in the tough Boston neighborhood known as Southie and allegedly built an empire of gambling, drugs and loan-sharking while his younger brother, William, was becoming one of the most powerful politicians in Massachusetts.

Hollywood has also been entranced by the blood-soaked saga. Whitey was one inspiration for the Jack Nicholson character in Martin Scorcese's "The Departed," and Johnny Depp reportedly just dropped out of a deal to portray him in a new biopic.

The trial, which could last three months, is expected to open like a summer blockbuster, with dozens of reporters and as many as 300 spectators showing up each day to watch.

"For Boston, it's as big as a Gotti trial," said Anthony Cardinale, a defense lawyer who has, in his words, "represented a lot of the Italians that Bulger was a rat against."

But legal experts say that while the trial may feature gripping accounts of brutal crimes and sizzling cross-examinations, there may not be many bombshells.

"The judge has ruled out Whitey Bulger's defense that he was authorized by a federal prosecutor to commit the crimes that he's alleged to have committed. That was really what was going to be new," said Boston defense lawyer Harvey Silverglate, who has been closely following the case.

"The rest is painfully familiar to those of us in Boston."

Bulger's lawyers have said he will testify, though many legal analysts believe that since he can't mount his so-called immunity defense — that he was given a free pass by the government — he won't risk opening his mouth.

"The only surprise will be if he decides to take the stand, but I don't think he will," Cardinale said. "He's an extreme narcissist and if he takes the stand, he'll be made to look like a fool."

The prosecution said in filings that its case includes more than 1,000 exhibits and 82 possible witnesses.

The most graphic testimony is likely to come from a trio of former Bulger cronies who cut plea deals with the government: Flemmi, who is serving a life sentence for 10 murders; Kevin Weeks, who did five years and wrote a memoir; and John Martorano, an admitted hitman who was released after serving 14 years behind bars.

Bulger's team is certain to zero in on those witnesses' credibility and question whether they were given any breaks in exchange for selling out a former confederate, but Cardinale doesn't think jurors will raise their eyebrows too high.

"These allegations are well-corroborated. These confessed murderers all said the same things and they said them at different times. All of these cases have been laid out to a fare-the-well, and litigated up, down and sideways," said Cardinale, referring to victims' wrongful-death suits against the FBI.

The defense, meanwhile, has named 78 potential witnesses, including a raft of Boston journalists, some of whom have written books about the case. Other bold-faced names on the government's list are FBI director Robert Mueller, former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld and federal judge Richard Stearns; all were federal prosecutors in Boston during Bulger's reign.

If Bulger testifies, the Boston Globe reported, he will have two goals in mind: convincing the public that he was never an informant and denying that he killed Debra Davis and another female victim. In a letter to a friend, he said killing women was against his personal code.

Donahue believes that Whitey as witness may be the only way she'll learn the full extent of the feds' involvement with him.

"I would love for him to take the stand," Donahue said. "If he's going down, he may want to take the government with him. Whether or not you believe him, that’s a different story. But it would be interesting."

She said she is banking on a life sentence for Bulger, which a conviction on any two counts could get him.

"He always liked the good life," she said. "I'd like to see him rot in prison so I could say, 'How's the good life now, Whitey?'"

O.J. Simpson, making a long-shot bid for a new trial, testified Wednesday he had no idea that any of his companions were armed when they went to a Las Vegas hotel room to retrieve memorabilia that he claims was stolen from him.

“I would not have imagined in my wildest dreams that these guys would have guns," Simpson said on the stand during a court hearing that will determine if he gets a new trial.

Simpson is serving nine to 33 years after being convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping for the 2007 confrontation. Among his claims is that he didn't know a weapon was used and he got bad legal representation at his trial.

During his first few hours on the stand, the former football star recounted a boozy day with friends at the Palms hotel, where he was staying for a friend's wedding, capped by a chaotic face-off with the memorabilia dealers at the nearby Palace Station.

He said guns never came up as he and the other men discussed going to the dealers' room to size up the merchandise, that he didn't see anyone pull a gun inside the room, and that his pals later denied a weapon was shown before they left with some items.

"I was kind of stunned," he said of his mental state after he walked into the crowded hotel room and surprised the sellers, who thought they were meeting an anonymous buyer. "I was looking at stuff I hadn't seen in 10 years."

Asked about audiotape on which he is heard saying that the dealers shouldn't be allowed out of the room, Simpson said his intent was legitimate.

"If they don't want to give [the items] to me, I want them arrested," he said.

Earlier, Simpson testified that he had been drinking steadily before the clash and was so tired he missed a golf game and wanted to take a nap.

He said he had been drunk enough the night before that “I wouldn’t have gotten behind the wheel of a car.” He then had “a Bloody Mary or two” at a midday breakfast, and kept drinking by the hotel pool, he testified.

“I had a joke: ‘My doctor says I should never have an empty glass’ is what I would tell the waitress,” he said.

Simpson, 65, appeared grayer and heavier than he did when he was sent to prison. Wearing jailhouse blues and shackles on his legs, he occasionally chuckled as he calmly answered questions from his appeals team.

He famously did not take the stand during the sensational 1995 trial at which he was acquitted of killing his ex-wife and her friend.

He also did not take the stand during the robbery trial five years ago — a decision that will be key in arguments that lawyer Yale Galanter gave him bad advice during the 2008 robbery trial.

Simpson told the court that he wanted to testify in his own defense and always assumed he would, but Galanter wouldn't commit to that strategy.

"Late in the trial he said he didn't think I should testify, that they hadn't proven their case... that there was no way I could be convicted," he said. "I had to trust his judgment on that."

He said Galanter told him that he "could not be convicted" and squelched suggestions from another lawyer that he take the stand and explain what happened that night.

Under cross-examination, Simpson agreed that he had been told by the judge that he had the right to testify on his own behalf.

He also testified that Galanter knew about his plan to got to the Palace Station to see if he could reclaim the memorabilia and that the lawyer said, "You have the right to get your stuff" as long as he wasn't trespassing.

He told Galanter that if he found a suit he wore during the 1995 trial, he planned to "burn it," and the attorney insisted that he bring it to him instead.

Simpson said he wanted to reclaim the memorabilia — including items that vanished after his murder trial — because it belonged to his children and his family, “not some guy selling at a hotel room in Vegas.”

The mementos, he said, included commemorative footballs, old pictures with presidents and a picture of himself with former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, “before we heard about J. Edgar Hoover and the tutus and stuff.”

Galanter is expected to testify during the hearing, which is schedule to continue through the week.

If Simpson doesn’t prevail at this proceeding, which legal experts say is a long shot, he must serve five more years in prison before he is eligible for parole.

This story was originally published on Wed May 15, 2013 1:06 PM EDT

Jurors who convicted Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell of first-degree murder said Wednesday it was wrenching to sift through the gruesome evidence that he delivered three babies alive and then killed them.

“It was business as usual for him,” juror David Misko told reporters outside the courthouse where Gosnell was sentenced to a third life term as part of a deal that allowed him to avoid the death penalty.

The panel deliberated 10 days before finding Gosnell guilty of three counts of first-degree murder for snipping three babies’ spinal cords after botched late-term abortions, along with more than 200 lesser charges.

The three jurors who spoke Wednesday said photos of the babies were the most compelling, and sickening, evidence.

Juror Sarah Glinski said that because she does not have children, she was able to emotionally detach to some degree, but the photos forced her “to admit that this kind of evil exists in this world.

”Misko said it was also difficult to look at Gosnell, 72, in the courtroom.

“He just sat there for the past eight weeks, smirking,” he said.

Two of the jurors said they believed Gosnell had opened his clinic in the poor West Philadelphia neighborhood intending to help young women in dire straits, as the defense contended.

“I think somewhere, something went wrong perhaps in his mind that made him do these things to these children that were born alive,” said Glinksi.

Juror Joseph Carroll said he believed that over the years the clinic became an assembly-line operation.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell and his lawyer, John McMahon, before Judge Jeffrey Minehart, in Philadelphia, on May 15.

“He started out as a good practice doctor but eventually just became a money-generating machine,” Carroll said.

Carroll feels Gosnell wasn’t the only one to blame, saying women who had gone to the clinic knowing they were more than 24 weeks pregnant should have been charged, too.

“I really believed that they didn’t care,” he said. “They didn’t want a child and they found a service that was going to rectify that situation.

"Gosnell could have faced the death penalty for the babies’ deaths, but in a last-minute deal with prosecutors, he agreed to waive his right to appeal in exchange for life without parole on two of the first-degree murder counts.

On Wednesday, he was sentenced to a third life term for the third baby’s death, as well as the death of a 41-year-old patient who overdosed on anesthesia and dozens of other lesser charges.

His defense lawyer said he was convicted in the public’s mind before trial because of a grand jury report that described the clinic as a “house of horrors” splattered with blood, staffed by unlicensed workers and filled with broken-down equipment.

McMahon said Gosnell cut a deal with prosecutors to avoid putting his six children through a death penalty phase, not because he believes he committed a crime.

"Dr. Gosnell truly believes in himself and things he's done but at this point, the jury has spoken ... He's resigned and accepted his fate,” McMahon said.

McMahon said Gosnell knows he “bent the rules” by performing abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy, which is prohibited under Pennsylvania law, and admits to other mistakes.

“He recognizes he did things wrong," he said.

But his client, he said, is not a murderer."He believes what he did was not homicide. He believes he never killed a live baby," McMahon said.

"Dr. Gosnell is far from a monster and this was not a house of horrors."Gosnell still faces a federal trial in September on allegations he wrote fraudulent prescriptions for pain pills. McMahon said he "probably" will make a deal on those charges.

Pool / REUTERS

Defendant Jodi Arias listens to defense attorney Kirk Nurmi make his closing arguments during her trial at Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix on Friday.

The murder case against Jodi Arias is now in the hands of the jury.

A judge in a Phoenix courtroom passed the reins to jurors Friday, instructing them to consider charges of first- and second-degree murder or manslaughter against Arias in the shooting and stabbing death of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander, 30.

The start of jury deliberations Monday comes at the end of a lurid 17-week trial that mixed kinky sex and grisly violence straight out of a pulpy paperback.

Arias, 32, a slight, soft-spoken defendant who admits she killed Alexander but claims self-defense, faces life in prison – potentially even the death penalty – if the eight men and four women on the jury find her guilty of premeditated first-degree murder.

Jurors may also find Arias guilty of second-degree murder if they don’t believe she planned the gruesome killing. If she is convicted on that charge, Arias faces up to 25 years in prison.

Closing arguments focused as much on the facts of the gruesome killing as they did on the Arias’ polarizing personality.

Lead prosecutor Juan Martinez described Arias on Thursday as a liar who “attempted to manipulate” the jury.

“She scammed [Alexander],” Martinez told jurors. “Are you going to allow her to scam you?”

The defense on Friday asked jurors to look at the case and his client with unjaundiced eyes – even if they don’t like her.

“It’s not about whether or not you like Jodi Arias,” said Kirk Nurmi, Arias’ defense attorney. “Nine days out of ten, I don’t like Jodi Arias. … But that doesn’t matter.”

“Fear, love, sex, lies and dirty little secrets,” Nurmi said repeatedly Friday, according to The Associated Press. “Each one of these aspects of the human condition plays a prominent role in the relationship that Jodi Arias shared with Travis Alexander.”

Prosecutors say that on June 4, 2008, Arias drove a thousand miles from Yreka, Calif., to Mesa, Ariz., where she showed up at Alexander’s home. She had rented a car, dyed her hair, and powered down her cell phone – all allegedly to make her harder to track and harder to spot.

Arias and Alexander had broken up after a furtive affair. Alexander, according to his friends, was a well-to-do salesman who liked to play the field – despite his membership in the Church of Latter-Day Saints, which disapproves of premarital sex.

Friends said that even though Arias converted to Mormonism for her beau, he nevertheless ended their relationship and started seeing other women – including one woman with whom he may have planned a vacation to Mexico.

Arias didn’t take the break-up well, according to Alexander’s friends, who testified for the prosecution. They say Arias stalked Alexander and slashed his tires.

Prosecutors say it wasn’t long before Arias’ jealousy took on a murderous edge.

After Arias showed up at Alexander’s house, they fell back on old habits and had hours of sex. But their rendezvous climaxed in shocking bloodshed.

Arias has admitted that she shot Alexander in the face, stabbed him more than 30 times and slit his throat.

Arias initially denied any involvement and later blamed the killing on masked burglars. But two years later, Arias reversed her version of events and said she killed Alexander in self-defense.

During the sensational trial, Arias testified in her own defense. She told the jury that Alexander subjected her to repeated physical abuse. However, no evidence or testimony was presented during the trial to corroborate Arias’ allegations of abuse.

Arias said that the day she killed Alexander began with sex play — each took raunchy photos of the other — but spiraled into violence when she accidentally dropped his camera and he attacked her.

Nurmi told jurors that the prosecution’s theory that the murder was premeditated “doesn’t make any sense.”

Nurmi said that Arias had many other chances to kill Alexander.

“But she didn’t,” Nurmi said, according to the AP.

Nurmi told the jury that his client has lied on a various occasions. But he said that lying isn’t the focal point of the trial.

“Nowhere, nowhere in your jury instructions are you asked to convict Jodi Arias of lying,” he said.

Dateline producer Joe Delmonico contributed to this report. Dateline has been covering the Jodi Arias trial from the start. After the verdict, watch for an hour-long report on the case, with new interviews and new information you won’t see anywhere else.

She's "attempted to manipulate you.”

That’s what the prosecutor told the jury Thursday, as closing arguments began in the most watched murder trial of the year: the Jodi Arias case.  It’s been going on for 17 weeks, with a made-for-TV mix of kinky sex, horrifying violence, and, at the center of it all, a slight, soft-spoken defendant who admits she killed her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander.

The question for jurors is: Why?

Rob Schumacher / Pool via The Arizona Republic and AP

Defendant Jodi Arias listens to prosecutor Juan Martinez make his closing arguments during her trial at Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix on Thursday, May 2. Arias is charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing and shooting death of Travis Alexander.

The prosecution, led by Juan Martinez, tells it this way:  On June 4, 2008, Jodi Arias drove a thousand miles from Yreka, Calif., to Mesa, Ariz., where she showed up at Travis’ home.  She’d rented a car, dyed her hair, turned off her cell phone—apparently to make her harder to identify, her movements harder to track. Her mission, prosecutors say: murder.

Arias and Alexander had broken up after a hot but secretive affair.  Alexander, according to friends, was a successful salesman who liked the ladies.  He was also a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints whose Mormon religion disapproves of premarital sex.

Travis’ friend Aaron Dewey, who knew them both well, told Dateline’s Josh Mankiewicz:  “Jodi became Travis’ drug.  He was able to get something from her that he couldn’t get anywhere else with the good Mormon girls that he typically dated.”  Soon, Arias said on the stand, she was acting out Alexander’s every pornographic fantasy.

But while Arias may have been a hot girlfriend, she was not, apparently, Travis’ idea of a good Mormon wife.  Friends said that even though she converted to his faith, he broke up with her and began dating—chastely, he told her—other women.

According to Alexander’s friends, who testified in the trial for the prosecution, Arias apparently didn’t take it well.   Alexander’s friends say she stalked him and slashed his tires.  The prosecutor argued that she eventually killed him.

The killing was shocking in its violence.  After a day of sex, Arias admitted, she shot Travis in the face, stabbed him more than 20 times, and slit his throat from ear to ear.

At trial, Arias testified she killed Travis in self-defense.  In her opening statement defense lawyer Jennifer Willmott told the jury,  “Jodi had to make a choice. She would either live or she would die.” 

Arias testified in her own defense—a marathon 18 days on the witness stand.  She told the jury that Alexander demeaned and sometimes abused her throughout their relationship.  She testified that the day she killed him started off with sex play—each photographed the other—but ended in violence when she dropped his camera—and, she claimed, he attacked her.

Her testimony: “He lunged at me and we fell…. And I got up and he's just screaming angry and after I broke away from him he said [I’ll] ‘f------ kill you, bitch.’”

She tearfully testified that she had no memory of stabbing Travis. 

Arias’s sensational testimony made this case a TV and Internet event.  A Twitter handle in her name, @JodiAnnArias, run by a friend had more than 35,000 followers at last count.

But only 12 people ultimately matter… The jurors who will decide her fate.  Today, in closing arguments, prosecutor Juan Martinez told them: “This individual, the defendant, Jodi Ann Arias, killed Travis Alexander.... . Even after slashing his throat from ear-to-ear, none of you will convict her. Taking a gun, shooting him in the face. Absolutely none of it was her fault. It`s Travis Alexander`s misfortune. Everybody else is wrong."

“She scammed him. Are you going to allow her to scam you?.”

The defense is expected to present closing arguments on Friday. The jury will consider a wide range of possible verdicts, including first-degree murder, second-degree murder, manslaughter, and not guilty.  If Arias is convicted of first-degree murder, the jury will also have to decide whether she deserves the death penalty.

Dateline has been covering the Jodi Arias trial from the start.  After the verdict, watch for an hour-long report on the case, with new interviews and new information you won’t see anywhere else.

Related content:

• Jodi Arias' 18 days on witness stand could save her life: experts

   

David Wallace / AP

Defendant Jodi Arias, right, talks to her attorney, Jennifer Wilmott during her trial at Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix on Thursday, April 11, 2013.

A friend of the Arizona woman at the center of one of the country's most high-profile murder trials says she has been tweeting for Jodi Arias since February.

Though the accused murderer has no access to a computer or cell phone in her Phoenix jail cell, close friend Donavan Bering told NBC News that she has actually been tweeting on Arias' behalf based on telephone conversations they have nearly every day.

The account has been used to mock both the prosecution and pundits who have weighed in on the case that has dominated the national media.

"He who tries to establish his point by much yelling shows that his reasoning is weak," @JodiAnnArias tweeted on April 7, a likely nod to prosecuting attorney Juan Martinez.

Another tweet from the account read, "Hmm... Anger Management problems anyone?"

Martinez, who grilled Arias when she took the stand last month, has become nationally known for his fiery style in the courtroom. Arias has admitted to the killing of boyfriend Travis Alexander in June 2008, but maintains the killing was in self-defense.

Bering met Arias while in jail herself, NBC News has confirmed. She was first identified by local Phoenix Fox station KSAZ. The woman has been a common sight in Maricopa County Superior Court, often sitting next to Arias' mother. 

Bering has been an ardent supporter of Arias throughout the trial, so much so that her life has been threatened, she says.

"I just want people to know I won't stop supporting Jodi and her family," Bering told NBC News' Dateline. "I have the right to talk for her and my life shouldn't be threatened."

The case has been the a staple topic on HLN, which has received much of the scorn of Arias on Twitter.

"HLN is an acronym for Haters Love Negativity," the account tweeted last month.

The Arias twitter handle also responded to HLN commentator Nancy Grace, who tweeted a photo suggesting Arias was giving the middle finger during her trial. "Actually, Nancy, that finger was for you. Have a nice day," the Arias account tweeted.

Maricopa County sheriff's spokesman Christopher Hegstrom said authorities are not happy that Arias may be telegraphing tweets from prison, but there is nothing they can do to stop it.

"We don't like it, but at this point she has not been convicted of anything and has the right to make phone calls."

Most days, Arias has about 16 hours where she is free to be out of cell and could make collect calls. Although the phone calls made from the Estrella jail where she is being held are recorded, discussing possible tweets would not likely have raised any red flags, according to Hegstrom.

Arias’ attorneys didn’t return calls for comment.

Along with taking swipes at those who have been mean to Arias throughout the trial, the Twitter account is also promoting her art.

"eBay has banned all listings of my artwork. The silver lining in making my art more difficult to obtain is that it keeps increasing in value," it posted on Feb. 22.

MIAMI — Pretrial hearings in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals have been delayed to address the mysterious disappearance of defense legal documents from Pentagon computers, military officials said on Thursday.

The defense lawyers said their confidential work documents began vanishing from Pentagon computers in February and that there was evidence their internal emails and internet searches had been monitored by third parties.

They want all the hearings in both death penalty cases halted until the issues have been satisfactorily addressed.

A weeklong hearing was scheduled to start on Monday in the case of Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, who is charged with masterminding an attack that killed 17 U.S. sailors aboard the USS Cole off Yemen in 2000.

That has been pushed back to June 11, the judge overseeing the war crimes court at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base said in an order on Thursday.

Defense lawyers said they also would ask the judge, Army Colonel James Pohl, to delay a week of pretrial hearings set to begin on April 22 for five prisoners charged with plotting the Sept. 11 hijacked plane attacks.

Navy Commander Walter Ruiz, who represents 9/11 defendant Mustafa al Hawsawi, said "three to four weeks' worth of work is gone, vanished."

He said what appeared to be a computer folder of prosecution files had turned up on the defense lawyers' system, though none of them had opened the files.

The chief defense counsel for the tribunals, Colonel Karen Mayberry, ordered military and civilian defense lawyers on Wednesday night to stop using their government computers for sensitive information or drafts of their work.

"I'll be filing a hand-written motion very shortly to ask for an abatement of the proceedings," in the 9/11 case, said defense attorney James Connell, who represents defendant Ali Abdul Aziz Ali.

In another case, system administrators were searching files at prosecutors' request and were able to access more than 500,000 defense files, including confidential attorney-client communications, the lawyers said.

That incident involved an appeal on behalf of Ibrahim al Qosi, a Sudanese prisoner who had finished his sentence at Guantanamo and gone home, they said.

Defense lawyers said their files began disappearing after a February hearing during which intelligence agents outside the courtroom cut the closed-circuit feed that was broadcasting the proceedings to spectators and journalists. The judge ordered technicians to dismantle the system that allowed them to do that.

During that hearing, the Guantanamo detention camp's legal advisor also disclosed that what appeared to be smoke alarms in the rooms where defense lawyers met with their clients were actually microphones. He said private attorney-clients conversations had not been monitored, a claim met with skepticism by defense lawyers.

Human Rights First, a longtime critic of the Guantanamo tribunals, called the latest disclosures "absolutely outrageous."

"This is just further evidence that the military commission system is a sham and that all terrorism trials should be held in real U.S. federal courts on U.S. soil, where the rules are clear, defendants' rights are respected and the verdicts will have credibility," said Daphne Eviatar, who has monitored the tribunals for the rights group.