The trial of Jodi Arias, the 32 year-old manipulative sociopath charged in the 2008 stabbing and shooting death of Travis Alexander, her 30 year-old boyfriend, is mercifully drawing to a close. The prosecution has presented a strong case that she planned the attack on Alexander in a jealous rage after he wanted to end their relationship and prepared for a trip to Mexico with another woman.

The prosecution alleges that Arias stole the .25 -caliber gun used in the attack from her grandparents’ home where she was staying in Yreka, Calif., two days after a heated text-message exchange between Arias and Alexander. In that exchange, Alexander described her as a “sociopath” and “evil.” Arias denies taking her grandparents’ gun, which disappeared a week before the killing. It has never been found.

She then rented a car at an airport in Northern California. The rental car agent offered her a red car, but she refused because she thought that color might attract tickets. Arias then obtained three gas cans in California that she filled up in Pasadena, and also turned off her cellphone before she reached Arizona, thereby illuminating any proof that she had been in Arizona at the time of Alexander’s murder. If you’re driving to another state, do you by cans and fill them with gasoline or do you stop at gas stations along the way?

Arias initially denied any involvement in the killing then later blamed it on masked intruders. Two years after her arrest, she said she killed Alexander in self-defense.

She claims that he was physically abusive in the months before she killed him, once choking her into unconsciousness, but she kept seeing him because she was in love. No evidence or testimony was presented during the trial to corroborate her stories that Alexander was violent or owned a gun — the same gun she says she used to shoot him.

Alexander suffered nearly 30 knife wounds, was shot in the forehead, and had his throat slit. Clearly, this was a crime of anger and revenge.

Arias’ palm print was found in blood at the scene, along with nude photos of her and the victim from the day of the killing.

She claims Alexander attacked her after a day of sex, and that she ran into his closet to retrieve a gun he kept on a shelf and fired in self-defense––but she has no memory of stabbing him.

Arias admitted that she tried to clean the scene of the killing, dumped the gun in the desert, and worked on an alibi.

Her lawyers will present their closing arguments Friday. Hopefully, the jury will quickly return with a verdict of first-degree murder.