The once-budding love interest of Jodi Arias testified Wednesday that he had a heated make-out session with her just a day after her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander was stabbed and shot to death.
"We were talking and we kissed ... Every time we started kissing it got a little more escalated," Ryan Burns, a former love interest of Arias and co-worker at PrePaid Legal Services testified during day four of her trial.
Burns claimed the couple never removed their clothes during the encounter and that he "never touched her breasts or anything."
GRAPHIC CRIME SCENE PHOTOS: (Article Continues Below)
Travis Alexander - Jodi Arias Crime Scene And Trial Photos
Prosecutors said Arias, a 32-year-old photographer from Yreka, Calif., went to Alexander's Mesa, Ariz., apartment on June 4, 2008, and shot and stabbed the 30-year-old man, before driving to Utah to visit Burns.
Burns testified he first met Arias at a PrePaid Legal convention in Oklahoma in April 2008. Alexander was also at the convention, he said.
Burns acknowledged that he knew who Alexander was, but did not know him personally. "[Jodi and I] spoke at the event. [I] talked to her a little bit [and we] got to know each other a little bit and I asked for her number," Burns said.
A few weeks after that initial meeting, Burns and Arias began chatting on the phone three to five times a week. Toward the end of May, he and Arias made plans for her to visit him at his home in West Jordan, Utah, he testified.
According to Burns, Arias was several hours late when she arrived there June 5, 2008. She told him that she had gotten lost and had stopped to rest. Arias had cuts on her hands when she arrived. "She had two small bandages on a couple of her fingers," Burns testified.
Arias explained away the injuries by saying she worked at a Margaritaville restaurant, and had broken a glass and cut her finger, Burns said. He also testified that Arias' hair was blonde when he met her, but was brown when she came to visit him.
Arias followed Burns to a business meeting after they met up. While en route, she was stopped by police because the license plate on her vehicle was upside down. She attributed this to kids she said were messing around with her car, Burns said.
After the business meeting, Arias and Burns went back to his house and watched a movie, during which they had their first passionate encounter, he testified. "Eventually, we stopped," Burns said. "I didn't want to go any further."
Later that night the couple attended a meeting for PrePaid Legal Services and then went to a restaurant with business associates. Burns said Arias seemed fine and did not indicate anything was wrong, although she did seem shy around other people.
"She was fine, she was laughing about simple little things like any other person. I never once felt like anything was wrong during the day. With a crowd she was a little awkward in social areas, but one-on-one she was very talkative and excitable," Burns testified.
After the dinner, the couple went back to Burns' home and took a nap. When they awoke, things again got heated, he said. "She got on top of me pretty aggressively and we were kissing. She was right on top of me," Burns testified. He said this intimate encounter, like the previous one, stopped shortly after it began.
The prosecution then questioned Burns about Arias' strength, in an apparent effort to show she would have been strong enough to kill Alexander. Burns said she was fit and had "close to a six-pack."
"[She's] a lot stronger than she looks," Burns testified.
Arias, according to Burns, left his home at about 1 a.m. to return to California, and they continued to talk after her visit via phone and instant messaging. At one point, Arias confided in Burns that she had sex with Alexander and that she thought Alexander was cheating on her. The prosecution admitted some of the couples' online conversations into evidence, including one in which Arias told Burns she had been cheated on twice before and had "trust issues" with Alexander.
Following Burn's testimony the jury recessed for lunch. He is expected to be called back to the stand when court resumes.
If convicted, Arias could face the death penalty.
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