Kaitlin Marie Armstrong, 35, used to be declared to blame of murdering Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson via a jury of her friends on the Blackwell-Thurman Legal Justice Middle in Austin, Texas on Thursday.
The deliberations took simply two hours sooner than Pass judgement on Brenda Kennedy learn the to blame verdict to the courtroom with out a obvious response from Armstrong.
The following segment of the trial can be sentencing. Armstrong, who pled now not to blame to first-degree homicide fees, faces as much as 99 years in jail.
She additionally faces a separate criminal fee of seeking to break out from custody, inflicting physically damage, for a failed break out remaining month. If convicted, she faces an extra twenty years in jail.
Wilson used to be a a hit gravel racer on an upward trajectory, having gained the distinguished Unbound Gravel tournament in 2021.
She used to be in Austin for the Gravel Locos race and getting ready to protect her Unbound identify when she used to be discovered fatally shot in a pal’s condo in Austin, Texas on Would possibly 11, 2022. The scoop used to be devastating for her circle of relatives, pals and the gravel neighborhood.
Amid the outpouring of improve, fellow gravel racer and organiser Rebecca Rusch described Wilson as “all mild and laughter” and “gifted, clever, delicate, rapid, targeted and sleek”.
After a six-day inquiry, police issued an arrest warrant on Would possibly 17, 2022 for Armstrong, who fled the rustic the use of her sister’s passport, flying to Costa Rica. She used to be apprehended 43 days later and taken into custody.
Armstrong’s trial started on November 1, 2023, with the State offering 8 days of testimony from witnesses together with Armstrong’s boyfriend Colin Strickland, who used to be the remaining particular person to look Wilson alive.
Wilson and Strickland had a short lived romantic dating right through a breakup between Armstrong and Strickland in 2021, and a couple of witnesses testified to Armstrong being jealous of Wilson.
Testimony steered that Armstrong used Wilson’s Strava information to trace her.
The Protection took simplest at some point to argue in Armstrong’s favour, arguing {that a} neighbour’s safety digital camera that captured pictures of her Jeep on the homicide scene at the night time of Wilson’s demise confirmed no pictures that Armstrong used to be provide.
Investigators discovered DNA strongly related to Armstrong on Wilson’s motorbike which used to be discovered within the trees close to the homicide scene along with bullets that had been deemed a fit to a gun that Armstrong possessed.
In keeping with KXAN, Prosecutor Rickey Jones pointed to the proof in his ultimate arguments as evidence of Armstrong’s guilt, announcing, “Nobody else on this planet fired from [that pistol] and had their DNA on the scene. Nobody else on this planet left the scene of the homicide in Kaitlin Armstrong’s Jeep two mins after the homicide.”
Armstrong’s lawyers Rick Cofer and Geoffrey Puryear argued that she were “caught in a nightmare of circumstantial proof” in a case “in response to assumptions, affirmation bias and a loss of direct offence”.
