Jodi Arias Juror Fell in Love With Her During Trial, Claims Prosecutor

More than two years after Jodi Arias was convicted of first-degree murder for the 2008 death of her boyfriend, Travis Alexander, one of the case’s prosecutors — Juan Martinez — claims in his upcoming book, Conviction: The Untold Story of Putting Jodi Arias Behind Bars, that one of the jurors fell in love with the now-convicted murderer.

While Martinez fails to specify who the juror is in his forthcoming memoir, an alternate juror named Tara Harris Kelley tells the Daily Mail she has “no doubt” the love-struck juror in question is foreman Bill Zervakos.

Bill Zervakos. (Screengrab courtesy of ABC)

According to Kelley, Zervakos secretly wanted to acquit Arias and was one of the jurors who fought so she wouldn’t be subjected to capital punishment (she was instead sentenced to natural life behind bars earlier this year).

“When we would go into the judge’s chambers, which was once a week, he would always make eye contact with [Arias] and do the same when she left,” Kelley tells the Daily Mail. “He said he was a womanizer early on and that made me concerned he was going to be attracted to her…I honestly think he wanted to find her not guilty but…he found her guilty because he had to because of the evidence that was there. When it came to the death penalty phase — that was his way out.”

On June 9, 2008, when friends discovered Travis’ dead body, he had sustained 27 to 29 stab wounds, his throat had been slit and he suffered a gunshot wound to the head.

Zervakos previously denied being romantically attracted to Arias, telling the Daily Mail, “I worked very, very hard to keep it strictly analytical, from a non-emotional point of view.”

People celebrate when Jodi is found guilty of first-degree murder.

When questioned about Martinez’s forthcoming book, the head juror added, “He’s going to write what he wants to write.”

In April, Arias was sentenced to natural life in prison — meaning she has no possibility of release — after two juries failed to reach a decision regarding the death penalty.

The sentencing came shortly after the 35-year-old admitted she “remembered the night [she] put the knife in Travis’ throat.”