HOUSTON – Antonio ‘A.J.’ Armstrong Jr. has been found guilty of murdering his parents, Dawn and Antonio Sr. at the family’s southwest Houston home in 2016.
Armstrong, 23, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years.
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The verdict was reached on Wednesday afternoon at around 3:40 p.m.
After Judge Kelli Johnson read the juror’s verdict, Armstrong was immediately taken into custody.
The 12 jurors deliberated for about 10 hours in total on Tuesday and Wednesday. Seven men and five women were in the jury pool.
Since Armstrong was a minor at the time of the murder, he will be eligible for parole in 40 years.
After the sentencing, Armstrong was heard telling his wife Kate, ‘It’s OK’ as he left the courtroom.
District Attorney Kim Ogg was also present at the reading of the verdict and spoke alongside prosecutors on Wednesday afternoon.
Closing arguments lasted for at least four hours, with both the prosecution team and the defense throwing jabs and disputing one another’s evidence.
Some of the main key points of the trial were mentioned, including the new DNA evidence, the alarm system, text messages between A.J. and his family, specifically his mother, the carpet burn, A.J. shooting into his parents’ room, A.J. getting kicked out of private school, A.J. smoking marijuana and the mental health of Josh, A.J.’s brother.
Almost immediately after closing arguments concluded and the jury went into deliberations, A.J. and a new set of attorneys filed a civil lawsuit against the City of Houston, alleging that officers with the Houston Police Department ‘planted blood’ on A.J.’s clothing at the time of his arrest.
Armstrong’s representatives stated that the city “violated the substantive and procedural Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by planting DNA/Blood evidence on Plaintiff’s clothes thereby, causing the malicious criminal prosecution of Plaintiff.”
The two jury panels that came before deadlocked on Armstrong’s innocence, ending in a mistrial.
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In the third trial, jurors heard from a total of 31 witnesses and saw an abundance of evidence in the case.
During week one, the state took up all five days, speaking to more than 20 witnesses and showcasing hundreds of text messages between A.J., his parents and his girlfriend, which showed him lying, setting a fire at his home, getting in trouble at school, sneaking out of the house, making bad grades and smoking marijuana.
We also saw emotion from A.J. during the first week, and the mood of the courtroom changing when his parent’s autopsy photos were shown to the jury. He visibly started crying. The prosecutors went to great lengths to only let the jury see the photos.
A lot of evidence went on display during this time as well. Prosecutors brought everything out from the note and gun left on the Armstrong kitchen counter to the pillows placed on the parent’s heads.
Defense attorney Rick DeToto took this time to accuse the prosecution team of cross-contamination.
In court with the witnesses, he talked about the dry blood flaking off and what experts do to keep a clean environment while processing evidence in this trial. He also showed several photos to the jury of a former prosecutor on the trial handling the bloody pillow and A.J.’s shirt without gloves during the first trial. DeToto argued that the shirt has been in several hands over the past seven years, making it hard to trust the new evidence that was discovered didn’t come from cross-contamination.
More effective testimony came when prosecutors were talking to an expert from Alarm.com.
Prosecutor Trask pulled up A.J.’s mother’s text stating, “The alarm doesn’t lie, you lie.”
He then showed text messages between A.J. and his girlfriend, now wife Kate.
Trask was able to match that to the times A.J. left the home to pick up his girlfriend, and when he came back. To him, this was proof of A.J.’s lies.
On week two, the state focused on blood spatter expert, Celestina Rossi, who found the new DNA evidence one day before A.J.’s third trial was set to begin. Rossi spent an entire day testifying about how she came to find the evidence and how she examined the case. During her testimony, the state displayed a makeshift staircase, which they say fit the dimensions of the Armstrong staircase, to play out the night of the crime scene to jurors, according to A.J.’s homicide interview where he stated he saw a masked man running out of his parent’s room after the shooting. Rossi and the state also built a makeshift bed and placed mannequins on top, showing jurors exactly how, from the evidence at the scene, Dawn and Antonio Sr. were sleeping before they were shot to death.
We also heard from Josh’s Armstrong ex-girlfriend, Hannah, who described her relationship with Josh and went over the series of events on the night Dawn and Antonio Sr. were murdered. She says Josh was at his apartment with her on the night of the murders, discrediting the defenses’ claim that Josh could have possibly committed the murders.
Josh’s mental health also took center stage this week, with the state calling a psychologist to the stand to testify that Josh did not start having mental health issues until after the murder of his parents. Josh’s medical records, which started months after the death of his parents, were shared with jurors.
After resting its case in week two, the defense started its argument, calling several Armstrong family members to the stand. We heard from A.J.’s sister and grandparents, who shared emotional testimonies about Dawn and Antonio Sr. and also described their constant battle with Josh.
Both states rested their cases on Monday after calling two former witnesses to the stand and showing several text messages between Josh and his mother Dawn. The state showed jurors that despite A.J.’s lawyers’ argument that Josh was troubled and into with his parents before they were killed, the messages show a different story. Messages from June and July of 2016 show Josh and Dawn having a close relationship, communicating daily, and even leaning on one another for emotional support.