Lifetime
Donavan Bering and Tracy Brown, former cellmates of convicted murderer Jodi Arias.
In a new Lifetime special, Jodi Arias’ former cellmates Tracy Brown and Donavan Bering are speaking out about their relationship with the convicted murderer. Ahead of the special, Heavy spoke with Bering over email about her time in prison getting to know Arias, what her impressions were of the convicted murderer and whether she thinks Arias is guilty or if it really was self-defense. Here’s what she had to say.
Bering Says Arias Is a ‘Cold-Blooded Killer’
Arias was found guilty of the 2008 murder of Travis Alexander in 2013. Arias stabbed Alexander 27 times and then shot him in the head and claimed self-defense. But her cellmate Bering says that was absolutely not what happened.
“There was no self-defense. She is a cold-blooded killer and would do it again,” wrote Bering.
She also detailed for Heavy the nature of her and Brown’s relationship with Arias, which Brown says in the promo for the special, “People were convinced that we had a threesome.” But that wasn’t true either.
“We were cellmates of Jodi’s for six months. Our friendship lasted until about 2016,” explained Bering, adding that she actually started to communicate with Arias’ mom, Sandy Arias, during that time, which shed a lot of light on the true person Arias was.
It Was Bering’s Relationship With Sandy That Opened Her Eyes to Jodi’s True Nature
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“When I started speaking to her mom way more than Jodi, I started seeing stuff that didn’t add up … like the stories of her relationships [and] how her parents treated her. … She didn’t really care about anything or anyone but herself. You crossed her in any way, and you suffered,” said Bering, adding, “She didn’t know what a true friend was, only someone to use to get what she wanted.”
When asked for an example of a time when she crossed Arias and what the repercussions were, Bering wrote, “I refused to post on Twitter her parents’ financial situation with their new business. I changed the password where she couldn’t get in. She wrote a letter to my wife in prison and had one of her supporters in the U.K. post stuff about me online.”
Jodi Arias Today
Recently, Arias petitioned for a new trial due over claims of prosecutor misconduct on the part of Maricopa County prosecutor Juan Martinez. Martinez was found to have behaved inappropriately in three capital murder cases, with the Arizona Court of Appeals ruling that during Arias trial, Martinez did exhibit a “pattern of intentional misconduct” that “saturated the trial. But despite that, the court denied her petition because it ruled that she was convicted based on her guilt and not because of Martinezs misconduct, according to USA Today.
Martinez has since been disbarred, but Arias remains in prison. She is a resident of the Arizona Department of Corrections #281129, which is located at Arizona State Prison Complex in Perryville. According to RadarOnline, in 2016, a call between Arias and rapper Lefty leaked to the media in which she can be heard saying, “If this is what it is like to be hated, then keep hating! I’ve had so much love coming in my direction I can’t even respond to it now.”
Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret airs Saturday, August 8 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Lifetime, followed by Jodi Arias: Cellmate Secrets at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
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