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Simply days earlier than Kaitlin Armstrong allegedly stalked and murdered skilled bike owner Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson in Texas final 12 months, her live-in boyfriend, Colin Strickland, who had a previous fling with the sufferer, requested her to cease coming to his personal professional races.
The transfer may have been a attainable “set off occasion,” in keeping with one skilled, revealed throughout cross-examination Monday because the protection group’s potential technique begins to emerge.
“They could be going for making an attempt to get some form of lesser cost on the idea that he made her loopy, within the sense he set her off, and he knew that she was unstable to start with, so he needed to know the end result could be unhealthy,” mentioned Linda Kenney Baden, a high-profile protection legal professional. “Possibly the jury will convict her of one thing much less. That is the place I believe he is going.”
Wilson, a 25-year-old fellow professional who was 10 years youthful than Strickland, had beforehand attended among the similar occasions, they usually had a sexual relationship for about two weeks within the fall of 2021 whereas he quickly cut up with Armstrong.
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Kaitlin Armstrong listens to opening statements in the course of the first day of her trial on the Blackwell-Thurman Legal Justice Middle, Nov. 1, 2023, in Austin, Texas. Armstrong is charged with homicide in reference to the capturing dying of professional bike owner Anna Moriah Wilson. (Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman through AP, Pool)
Armstrong’s trial started final week. She is charged with gunning Wilson down after the California resident visited Austin forward of a race and went to dinner and a public pool with Strickland.
On his second day of testimony, Strickland, 36, appeared combative in his responses to Armstrong’s protection legal professional, Rick Cofer,
He used the F-word in court docket and disputed the characterization that he bought paid for being in style within the gravel racing scene and mentioned he attracted sponsors as a result of he “received races and bought merchandise.”
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Colin Strickland is seen exterior his Austin, Texas, dwelling on June 17, 2022. (MEGA)
Strickland revealed his rocky relationship with Armstrong, 37, had been on-and-off since late 2019. He mentioned he broke up with Armstrong the primary time as a result of he didn’t assume that they had quite a bit in widespread, then rotated later and requested her to cease making an attempt to compete at his races. He took problem with low-cost garments she purchased on-line from China.
However months earlier than the Might 11 homicide, he purchased her the gun that police say was used to kill Wilson.
They broke up in February 2020 however bought again collectively a month later in the beginning of the pandemic, he mentioned. Throughout one other break-up, he had a tryst with Wilson. Her homicide occurred simply moments after he dropped her off from a date that concerned swimming at Austin’s Deep Eddy Pool and dinner on the bar throughout the road; nevertheless, he mentioned they didn’t have intercourse that evening.
Wilson lived in California and was visiting Texas for a race. However she and Armstrong didn’t get alongside, Strickland mentioned, and he’d even acquired a sarcastic textual content about Wilson’s look in an Instagram video at an occasion that his girlfriend hadn’t attended, which prosecutors revealed in court docket.
Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson, proper, is pictured together with her household. Wilson was killed on Might 11, 2022, after going out to dinner with fellow skilled bike owner Colin Strickland in Austin, Texas. Kaitlin Armstrong, Strickland’s girlfriend, is on trial dealing with homicide prices. (The Wilson household)
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“Ship my like to mo and pete,” Armstrong wrote.
“Are you able to please cease,” Strickland replied 24 minutes later.
In an older alternate, shortly earlier than Strickland and Wilson turned intimate, Armstrong texted him about bringing her to the Meteor Cafe – an area pizzeria and bike store that had sponsored each riders.
“Why would you kill anyone for this man?”
Colin Strickland is seen exterior his Austin, Texas, dwelling on June 17, 2022. (MEGA)
Sooner or later, he discovered her quantity blocked from his cellphone. He mentioned he did not do it himself. Based on prosecutors, Armstrong had entry to his accounts and gadgets.
Cofer requested whether or not Armstrong could be upset if she’d learn the messages Strickland despatched to Wilson. That is dependent upon the reader’s frame of mind, he replied.
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Whereas Armstrong’s protection has to this point centered on the state’s proof, or lack thereof, Kenney Baden mentioned the group may very well be setting the stage for an unstated different.
Moriah Wilson, second from proper, was an expert gravel bike owner initially from Vermont. She was additionally a star skier in faculty, prosecutors mentioned final week in the beginning of the homicide trial for her suspected killer, Kaitlin Armstrong. (The Wilson household)
“Girls and gents the undercurrent is … look, you see this man? You see that he made her loopy,” she mentioned, floating the likelihood that jurors may convict Armstrong of a lesser crime. “For those who assume that she murdered Mo, perhaps it is only a manslaughter, or perhaps it is an aggravated manslaughter due to the frame of mind he put her in, and you’ve got the identical frame of mind coping with this particular person additionally.”
Strickland most likely didn’t come off heat to the jurors, she mentioned, though his cross-examination may undermine the prosecution’s alleged motive.
“Why would you kill anyone for this man?” she mentioned. “He’s not too vibrant. He’s not too trustworthy. He’s not too loyal.”
She additionally mentioned the state’s DNA proof may very well be much less of a smoking gun than anticipated.
A photograph mixture of a U.S. Marshals handout of Kaitlin Armstrong and her reserving photograph after her extradition to the U.S. from Costa Rica. Prosecutors say she underwent cosmetic surgery whereas eluding seize for 43 days. (US Marshals | Travis County Sheriff’s Workplace)
Based on investigators, Armstrong’s Jeep appeared on surveillance video close to the crime scene across the time of the homicide, they usually recovered shell casings that matched her gun and her DNA on Wilson’s bike. However one other of Armstrong’s protection attorneys, Geoffrey Puryear, has tried to solid doubts on two key items of proof – DNA and ballistics linking his shopper to the crime scene – as “inaccurate, unreliable and unscientific.”
“As for the DNA – it may very well be switch DNA,” Kenney Baden mentioned. “Simply previous to the homicide, Strickland and Wilson had gone to a public pool and out to dinner. They rode collectively on his Harley-Davidson motorbike. If it is simply contact DNA, that will assist the protection, she mentioned.
“They will switch DNA from his jacket or his garments that Kaitlin Armstrong had touched to the bicycle of Mo Wilson,” she mentioned.
Armstrong had entry to Strickland’s iPhone textual content messages by his iPad and Mac laptop computer, in keeping with investigators, and in addition allegedly stalked Wilson’s whereabouts on the evening of the homicide by Strava, a GPS-linked health app for cyclists and runners.
Austin police questioned Armstrong in reference to the capturing the subsequent day – then let her go on an unrelated warrant as a result of a clerical error.
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On Might 13, Armstrong bought her Jeep – the suspect automobile – at an Austin CarMax and took a rideshare to the airport, the place she flew to New York, in keeping with prosecutors. There, she met her sister, obtained her passport and left for New Jersey, the place she caught a flight from Newark to Costa Rica and eluded authorities for weeks.
After a 43-day manhunt, Costa Rican police arrested her on an immigration violation and despatched her again to the U.S. Marshals to face a homicide cost. She’d gotten a nostril job and was educating yoga in a seashore city filled with expatriates beneath a collection of false names. She’d even gone on dates with an area surf teacher.
Final month, with the beginning of her trial looming, she allegedly feigned an harm and tried to run away from Texas jail guards. She picked her cuffs, ditched her striped jail pants and made it a couple of mile earlier than they recaptured her, in keeping with an incident report obtained by Fox Information Digital.
Fox Information’ Mills Hayes contributed to this report.
Michael Ruiz is a reporter for Fox Information Digital. Story ideas may be despatched to michael.ruiz@fox.com and on Twitter: @mikerreports
Professional bike owner grilled at Kaitlin Armstrong trial on how he dumped lady who allegedly killed his lover
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