AUSTIN, Texas – A Texas jury on Friday sentenced a woman to 90 years in prison for the May 2022 shooting death of professional cyclist Anna “Mo” Wilson in a case that sent investigators on a 43-day international hunt for the killer.
Jurors deliberated for more than three hours before delivering a verdict for Kaitlin Armstrong, who investigators say tracked Wilson to the apartment where he lived and shot him three times. It took them just two hours on Thursday to convict him.
Prosecutors said Armstrong, 35, shot and killed 25-year-old Wilson in a fit of jealousy. Wilson had met Armstrong’s boyfriend a few months earlier. Wilson went swimming and eating with him the day he was killed.
Armstrong’s defense attorney has urged jurors to consider anything less than life that could offer a chance for parole.
A Vermont native and former alpine skier at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, Wilson is a rising star in pro gravel and mountain bike racing. He visited Austin before the race in Texas, where he was among the favorites to win.
Kaitlin Armstrong tracked Wilson to the apartment where he was staying through a fitness app and shot him three times, twice in the head and once through the heart, investigators said.
Kaitlin Armstrong was sentenced to 90 years in prison on Friday.AP Armstrong left the courtroom after learning of her sentence.AP
“I would have done anything to stop that bullet,” Wilson’s mother, Karen Wilson, told jurors Thursday at the start of the sentencing phase of the trial. “He didn’t deserve to be executed like that.”
Wilson added that “from the day she was born, she (Anna Wilson) had strength in her.”
“He lived as if every day was his last. And he lived it to the fullest. He never wastes time. … It was as if he knew his life would be short.”
Kaitlin Armstrong did not testify on her own behalf during the trial.
Armstrong did not testify on his own behalf throughout the AP trial
Caitlin Cash, the friend who found Wilson’s body and tried to perform CPR, told jurors that she had texted Wilson’s mother earlier that day with a picture of her riding her bike with a note: “Your girl is in safe hands here in Austin.”
“I feel so guilty for not being able to protect him,” Cash said. “I fought for him with everything I had.”
Armstrong’s younger sister Christine had told jurors that her sister was “not a bad person.”
Professional cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson.Instagram / Moriah Wilson
“She’s a special person,” Christine Armstrong said before looking at Kaitlin Armstrong. “I have always looked up to you. … He always cared about other people.”
Armstrong’s Jeep was seen near the apartment around the time Wilson was shot and a bullet casing found near Wilson’s body matched Armstrong’s gun. Armstrong briefly met with police before selling his vehicle and using his sister’s passport to fly to Costa Rica.
Evidence presented in court about the bullet wound to Wilson’s heart.AP
He spent more than $6,000 on a nose job there and changed his hair color and style to evade authorities before he was arrested at a beachside hostel, investigators said.
Armstrong again tried to escape from authorities during an Oct. 11 medical appointment outside the jail. He faces a separate felony escape charge.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
