AUSTIN, Texas: The homicide trial of a Texas girl charged within the May 2022 taking pictures dying of rising skilled bicycle owner Anna “Mo” Wilson has ended with a responsible verdict and a 90-year jail sentence.
It took jurors solely two hours to convict Kaitlin Armstrong on Thursday and simply over three hours to resolve her sentence on Friday.
Investigators stated Armstrong fled the U.S. shortly after Wilson was killed and underwent cosmetic surgery in an try to evade authorities.
“Find her guilty of shooting Mo Wilson in the heart and the head and taking away this prodigy at the age of 25,” Travis County Assistant District Attorney Rick Jones advised the jury in closing arguments. “Justice for Mo Wilson.”
Wilson — a Vermont native and former alpine skier at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire — was an rising star in gravel and mountain bike driving when she was killed in a good friend’s condominium in Austin. She had been making ready to take part in a Texas race that she was among the many favorites to win.
In the hours earlier than she was killed, Wilson went swimming and had a meal with Armstrong’s boyfriend, former professional bicycle owner Colin (*90*), with whom Wilson had a quick romantic relationship months earlier.
Investigators say Armstrong gunned down Wilson in a jealous rage, then used her sister’s passport to flee the U.S. earlier than she was tracked down and arrested at a beachside hostel in Costa Rica.
Armstrong legal professional Rick Cofer pressed jurors on the dearth of a witness to the taking pictures or video proof, and stated Armstrong had been unfairly portrayed “as a jealous psycho.”
“Kaitlin Armstrong has been trapped in a nightmare of circumstantial evidence. How do you prove a negative?” Cofer stated, urging the jury to reject an “easy” story of a jealous lover.
“It’s a simple case, a beautifully easy story,” Cofer stated. “But it’s wrong.”
Here’s a take a look at what occurred within the trial:
There had been no witnesses to the taking pictures or movies that place Armstrong within the condominium when Wilson was gunned down on May 11, 2022. Prosecutors constructed their case on a decent net of circumstantial proof.
(*90*) testified that he needed to cover Wilson’s telephone quantity from Armstrong below a pretend identify in his telephone. Two of Armstrong’s associates stated she advised them she wished to — or might — kill Wilson.
Vehicle satellite tv for pc information, phone-tracking information and surveillance video from a close-by residence confirmed Armstrong’s Jeep driving across the condominium and parking in an alley shortly earlier than Wilson was killed. Data from Armstrong’s telephone confirmed it had been used that day to trace Wilson’s location through a health app that she used to chart her coaching rides.
Investigators additionally stated shell casings close to Wilson’s physique matched a gun Armstrong owned.
Jurors heard the frantic emergency name from the good friend who discovered Wilson’s physique, noticed the grotesque police digital camera footage of first responders performing CPR, and heard audio from a neighbor’s residence surveillance system that prosecutors stated captured Wilson’s last screams and three gunshots.
Police interviewed Armstrong, amongst others, after Wilson was killed. The day after that interview, Armstrong bought her Jeep for greater than $12,000 and headed to Costa Rica, the place investigators say she had cosmetic surgery to vary her nostril, and she or he modified her hair color and style.
Armstrong evaded seize for 43 days as she moved round Costa Rica making an attempt to ascertain herself as a yoga teacher earlier than she was lastly caught on June 29.
Armstrong went to Costa Rica as a result of she was an harmless one that was “scared” not simply of the investigation but when another person she knew might have been the killer, Cofer stated.
“Was she scared? What do you think?” Cofer requested.
The jury additionally heard about one other escape try by Armstrong, on Oct. 11, when she tried to flee two corrections officers who had escorted her to a medical appointment exterior jail. Video confirmed Armstrong, in a striped jail uniform and arm restraints, operating and making an attempt to scale a fence.
She was shortly recaptured and faces a separate felony escape try cost.
Armstrong’s attorneys spent only some hours presenting her protection Wednesday. When requested by her lawyer in entrance of the decide and with the jury out of the room, Armstrong declined an opportunity to testify in her personal protection.
In their opening statements and through cross-examination of prosecution witnesses, protection attorneys accused police of a sloppy investigation that too shortly centered on Armstrong as the only real suspect.
Armstrong’s attorneys even have tried to boost doubts amongst jurors by suggesting another person might have killed Wilson, and asking why prosecutors so shortly dismissed (*90*) as a suspect.
But a police analyst testified that information monitoring on (*90*)’s motorbike and telephone present him touring away from Wilson’s condominium instantly after dropping her off, and present him taking a telephone name at or close to his residence across the time Wilson was killed.
Armstrong’s attorneys have tried to select at that information as unreliable and imprecise, and drilled into the dearth of witnesses or video of the taking pictures. Someone else might have been driving Armstrong’s Jeep or had her cellphone when each had been close to the homicide web site, her attorneys stated.
They additionally referred to as an professional on forensic metallurgy, William Tobin, to attempt to debunk as defective the firearms and tool-marking strategies used to match the bullets to Armstrong’s gun, saying they’ll result in “false positives” and shouldn’t be used to find out guilt or innocence. Tobin acknowledged he didn’t assessment the proof on this case.
(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)
