Prosecutors Beget Audio of Cyclist’s Frosty-Blooded Like Abolish
They told the jury they’re going to hear Anna Moriah Wilson’s final moments, allegedly on the hands of a jealous yoga teacher.
Photo Illustration by The Day by day Beast / Travis County Jail
Prosecutors on Wednesday laid out new particulars of their waste case against Kaitlin Armstrong, including the allegation that the yoga teacher stood over elite cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson and fired a third and final shot into her heart—and the revelation that it became as soon as captured on audio.
“The final ingredient Mo Wilson did on this earth became as soon as weep in fear,” Travis County Assistant District Licensed authentic Rickey Jones told jurors in opening statements.
“You’re going to hear those screams.”
As the prosecutor spoke, Armstrong sat silently on the protection desk, with Wilson’s family and Armstrong’s father on the again of her within the packed gallery of the Texas courtroom.
Prosecutors portrayed Armstrong as a girl consumed with jealousy that her boyfriend, cyclist Colin Strickland, had secretly maintained a friendship with Wilson after a transient trudge. They told jurors that Armstrong ambushed Wilson correct nine days after she snooped on Strickland’s messages. In later messages, Armstrong learned that they had been rendezvousing earlier than an Austin gravel trot.
Armstrong went to the Austin dwelling where Wilson became as soon as staying with an awfully good friend, shot her twice within the top, and then stood over her and attach the final bullet in her heart, Jones said.
After the Would possibly well well perchance 11, 2022, waste, Armstrong allegedly took drastic steps to proceed, selling her automobile, fleeing to Costa Rica, and spending thousands on plastic surgical treatment. Her disappearance spurred an international manhunt for 43 days till she became as soon as captured in June 2022. If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of up to ninety nine years in detention middle.
Her attorney, Geoffrey Puryear, urged jurors on Monday to spend general sense throughout the expected two-week trial. In an strive to hurry holes within the prosecution’s evidence, he claimed the jurors would be proven “unscientific” files that doesn’t pork up the DA’s case.
“I are looking out out for to focus on what you didn’t hear about. You didn’t hear that no longer one take a look at saw Kaitlin Armstrong allegedly commit this waste,” Puryear added in his transient birth statements. “Now not one. In consequence of there isn’t one.”
Jones, nonetheless, walked jurors thru an intensive timeline that he said would order Armstrong murdered Wilson, known within the biking world as “the winningest lady within the American off-avenue scene,” in a jealous rage.
The prosecutor outlined to the jury that Armstrong and Strickland started relationship in 2019 and rapidly turned industry partners. And whereas the 2 broke up several cases and dated folks, they persevered to stay together and maintained access to 1 yet any other’s messages and electronics.
Right thru a form of breaks, Strickland rapidly dated Wilson in October 2021 after meeting her at a biking event. The transient trudge infuriated Armstrong and precipitated her to name and confront Wilson, Jones said. Her exasperate led Strickland to change Wilson’s title on his phone to defend his friendship from Armstrong.
Prosecutors said that whereas Strickland became as soon as on a day out to California on Would possibly well well perchance 2, 2022, Armstrong considered his messages and appeared up photos of Wilson on her phone. That became as soon as correct days earlier than Wilson arrived in Austin to quit with her friend, Caitlin Money, earlier than the scheduled gravel trot.
On the evening of the waste, Strickland invited Wilson to switch swimming at Deep Eddy’s pool nonetheless told Armstrong he became as soon as correct running errands.
Strickland dropped off Wilson at Money’s dwelling spherical 8:30 p.m. A minute later, surveillance footage reveals Armstrong’s 2012 Jeep Cherokee in an alley next to the downtown Austin condominium, Jones said. The waste took place spherical 9:13 p.m., in step with a Ring doorbell cam and the condominium’s terror system.
On Tuesday, Money testified about strolling into her condominium condominium to search out Wilson covered in blood and lying on her again on the floor of the lavatory. Her 911 name became as soon as played to jurors, who heard her crying because the dispatcher gave instructions.
“Her mind is leaking,” Money says within the seven-minute name. “Don’t stop,” the dispatcher responds.
Martin Salinas, a inclined Austin police officer who first responded to the scene, testified on Wednesday that he noticed no forced signs of entry at Money’s condominium. Jones told jurors that Armstrong’s DNA evidence became as soon as also found on Wilson’s bike, which became as soon as discarded within the bushes about 20 yards from the condominium.
The subsequent day, investigators went to Strickland’s dwelling to ask him about Wilson’s final moments. He admitted to spending the evening with Wilson and confirmed the automobile considered within the Ring footage became as soon as his female friend’s Jeep. Investigators also found a 9mm handgun on the dwelling, which Strickland said he sold Armstrong earlier than the waste.
Right thru her police interview, Armstrong might perchance well perchance no longer indicate why her automobile became as soon as attain the waste scene and denied any files of her boyfriend’s friendship with Wilson.
“I did not beget any thought that he saw or went out with this lady… as of no longer too lengthy ago,” Armstrong said, in step with her arrest affidavit.
Police regarded as her a particular person of hobby nonetheless she became as soon as released on story of an birth misdemeanor warrant for allegedly skipping out on a Botox bill became as soon as no longer legit. Moments after she left the police, prosecutors allege, Armstrong took action to realize her ranking away. She supplied her Jeep for $12,200 and flew to Unique York. Utilizing a credit ranking card and her sister’s title and passport, Armstrong then boarded a flight to Costa Rica.
There, she frail several diversified names and underwent a $6,425 beauty course of, Jones said. For over a month, Armstrong stayed beneath the radar in Costa Rica by staying in hostels and educating at various yoga establishments. Whereas on the trot, Armstrong also saved tabs on the investigation, Jones said.
Investigators learned of Armstrong’s quandary after she took a bus from San Jose to Jaco Seaside, where she left a paper scuttle with one of her aliases. She became as soon as arrested at Don John’s Resort in Saint Teresa on June 30, 2022. Police came across two passports and a plastic surgical treatment receipt in her hostel lock box.
Armstrong is also facing separate costs after trying to flee custody correct earlier than her trial. The Travis County Sheriff’s Save of business said Armstrong became as soon as a fugitive for approximately 10 minutes on Oct. 11 when she ran from two deputies who escorted her to a medical appointment. She became as soon as taken to Dell Seton Scientific Center for treatment after the incident.