A Budget Rent A Car franchise owner testified Wednesday that he rented a car to Jodi Arias a few days before her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander was killed.
Ralphael Colombo says a “gentleman” was with her, but he didn't know who the man was. In a phone call played for the jury earlier in the trial, Arias told Mesa, Arizona, police Det. Esteban Flores that her future sister-in-law took her to rent a car, but she did not mention whether her brother was there, too.

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Receipts show Arias was in Redding, California, on June 2, 2008, where she rented a white Ford Focus from the Budget rental car office, which Columbo (pictured above) owned.

Colombo said Arias requested a light colored car that wouldn’t “stand out.”
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Colombo testified that he thought Arias was using the car locally, but she returned the car with more miles on it than he expected. He also said the car was returned without all the floor mats, and that some of the seats were stained with what appeared to be red Kool-Aid.
Earlier in the week, prosecutor Juan Martinez showed the jury receipts seized from Arias’ grandparents' home that indicate that after renting the car, Arias drove to southern California. There are no receipts between a stop in Pasadena on June 3 and June 6 in Salt Lake City. Alexander was killed June 4 in Mesa, Arizona.
Soon after Alexander’s body was found in June 2008, Arias told police she was not involved in Alexander's death. She later changed her story and told investigators that she witnessed two intruders break in and kill him. She eventually admitted to killing Alexander, saying it was in self-defense.
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